McCain on preconditions to talking with Iran: He’s lost this point, which is no surprise; but he makes a noble effort at the end to salvage some sympathy. Obama’s wielding of Kissinger trumps McCain’s feigned incredulity.
Obama on Russia and Georgia: Obama’s got a balanced and somewhat subject-broadening (or, to be less generous, subject-changing) response. McCain’s analysis on pipeline and military issues is spot-on, and to his credit, Obama doesn’t look for a weakness there.
When Obama switches the subject to alternative energy investments again, that’s smart: Russia’s power is based on its ability to broker petro-products. But will it seem an evasion or a smart transition? McCain’s not arguing…
In a debate that began like a Tower of Babel, in which questions were answered with non sequiturs, in which both candidates tried to pound the square pegs of their chosen talking points into the round holes of Jim Lehrer’s questions, McCain just drove that metaphor of the cliff. Into a deep, square, roundish canyon.
The barracks bombing in Beirut? The tired technique of evoking a conversation with “A mother whose son is…”?
Obama’s response is strong, up until the point that he, too, conjured some Jane Anybody. At which point my hostess brings me another beer, and Jim Lehrer turns the conversation to Iran…
McCain just called himself a maverick.
And now he’s making the attack he’s been waiting for: He’s saying the surge in Iraq was a success, and that he lobbed for it early and continues to stand by the tactic.
He’s relying on this argument, both to eclipse the current financial crisis as an issue and to make Obama seem weak on what McCain and those who gravitate toward his way of thinking call “national security.”
Obama, I think, could have done better than to dwell on the cost of the Iraq war. He’s going to be the candidate who was (at least) skeptical about the war. So just go whole hog: Say it was mistake. maybe even argue that the surge’s vaunted success is not a given. And all this stuff about Afghanistan? It’s a fantasy argument: If we focus military resources there, we just move the quagmire.
That said, Obama does sound voter-palatable on the matter. McCain’s attempt to differentiate between a tactic and a strategy was a suicide mission.
But at least the give-and-take has begun between the two.
Some surface observations, since that’s what most debate analysis comes down to: Obama stammers. He sounds a bit rougher than one might expect, and McCain is wearing a terrible tie. And (I’m on ABC now) what’s that weird aquatic motion graphic? Does that represent sea level?
If you’re watching CNN, there are six circles flanking the screen on which pundits are apparently scoring the fight in real time. The scoring system is impenetrable.
Nonetheless, it seems Castellanos is seeing hits recorded everywhere, but he scores it even so far. Brazile gives Obama a narrow lead. I can’t tell what Paul Begala is doing.
Borger (lower left hand) appears to have left for the bar. If this were a drinking game, Borger would be a buzzkill. Is he even listening to this debate?
To begin, McCain sounds a bit frail and tired, which draws down the hardass maverick caricature he’s been composing for himself.
Then he makes that crack: “What are you afraid I can’t hear him?”
It gets a laugh, and he takes some strength from it, finds his feet. Then he’s talking about bears, and then he pulls what looks like a permanent marker out of pocket and says he’s going to veto all spending bills. That’ll make government more efficient.
