First 2008 Presidential Debate Won by Obama

Last Friday night at 9pm couldn't come quick enough for me and millions of other 20- and 30-somethings who gathered around the country in living rooms, sports pubs, lounges, hotels, and private and public gathering places around the country to watch Jim Lehrer moderate the first McCain-Obama 2008 Presidential Debate between Senators Barack Obama (D-IL)and John McCain (R-AZ). It was guaranteed to have some fireworks of course and a little drama considering that John McCain blinked at the last minute after having allegedly "suspended his campaign" to mediate the $700B Wall Street bailout package, which of course was soundly defeated by a vote of 228-205 in the House of Representatives on Monday. Of course, it was a bit curious that McCain would "suspend his campaign" on the same day that polls were released showing that Obama had a 9-point lead over McCain for the first time in the race. Anyhow, a number of post-debate polls glaringly contradicted the debate scorers by showing that Obama won the first 2008 Presidential Debate by a comfortable margin in each of those polls including polls of Republican viewers.

There were several things that I will take from this debate.

Political pundits stated that Obama demonstrated "Presidential" bearing during the debate. Without a doubt, Sen. Obama seemed quite at ease during the debate, and was also classy, statesman-like and & gracious by stating at least 9 times that Sen. McCain was right, then showing how his own solution to that issue was different and better. This by the way, was not a sign of weakness, but is a debate tactic of conceding an obvious point to your opponent in order to score by making a more important point. Certainly he learned that at Harvard, no?


Several leading commentators (e.g., Charlie Gibson, David Brooks, Mark Shields) observed that McCain did not look at Obama during the debate at any time during the debate. He showed a condescending manner by stating at least 6 times that Obama "does not understand," as if McCain is the only person who can possibly understand how the world works. Apparently McCain "understands" how to be a President of the US, and "win wars" even though he has never done either. Several persons including Ambassador Richard Holbrooke noted that during the debate, Obama was calm and methodical while McCain was angry and ungracious.


Following the debate, Democratic VP candidate Sen. Joe Biden discussed the debate on a number of national networks. By contrast, Republican VP candidate, Gov. Sarah Palin was conspicuously absent. Does that sound like an experienced candidate to you? In either case, I can't wait for Thursday night's 2008 VP Debate between Biden and Palin.