Motley Moose – Archive

There seems to be a disconnect between the way the pundits and the politically active class saw the debate and the way the average viewer saw it.

Since I’m in the politically active class, I definitely had a different take on it than the other people who were watching it with me. McCain exceeded my expectations, given his actions of late on the campaign trail. Obama, on the other hand, came across as the man I’ve come to respect and admire over the long course of this election cycle. I fell into a trap, because of those views.

Because Obama came across the way I expected, he gained no points from me for performance, while McCain did better than expected. This boosted McCain in my view. Uncommitted voters saw it differently.

Parsing the CBS post-debate poll (pdf) of uncommitted voters shows some interesting findings.

Motley Moose is just a few weeks old. In fact, our one month birthday is just around the corner. Spaceman, are you going to throw a party?

Here are some of the early reviews of the performances of the two candidates last night:

How about that Republican Convention bounce?  How about all that friggin’ hand-wringing afterwards?  Given the events of the past few weeks, I think it’s safe to say that, barring a major democratic FUBAR moment, Barack Obama will be our next President.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating complacency here.  Just sayin’:  we’re pulling away, and big time.

YOU WERE WRONG!!!!

Most are calling this “the moment” of the debate.

Sleazy post debate McCain ad:

That was fast!

From the comments:

Voters who watched the debate are going to be outraged (2.00 / 1)

at that ad. It is clearly misleading. I bet there’s a big backlash if this ad gets wide coverage.

John – aka MS01 Indie

by: John Allen @ Fri Sep 26, 2008 at 23:36:28 PM EDT

I agree and it seems that’s how it’s being seen by the talking heads right now.

The other thread was getting a bit crowded and clogged. And here we go again.

It’s over. Okay, over 90 minutes of Obama smacking McFail. So… who had fun?

9:36 NOUN + VERB + POW

9:35 Wow… McCain compares Obama’s “inflexibility” (AKA, sticking to his guns on the issues) to the Bush administration. McCain says he’ll take care of the veterans and that they know he’ll take care of them. Really funny, considering his horrible voting record on veteran’s issues.

9:33 Obama says the economy is now a national security issue. Fantastic line.

9:31Question: what is the likelihood of another 9/11 attack? Is America safer?

McCain: Yes. Blah blah blah. And all of it would be lost if we followed Obama’s plan and had dates for withdrawal.

Obama: Brings it back to Afghanistan, the tactical errors made. Picked up on McCain’s comment about torture! Says engaging in torture “undermines” us. Good, nice catch. He’ll come back to this on the trail. Bad flip-flop, McGramps.

Hi folks,

Jim Lehrer is now going on, this is a thread for the debate itself.  If anyone wants to edit this diary as we go, feel free.

Brought to you by your friends Sricki and Ragekage, we’ve got the offical liveblog thread for the evening.

NEW OPEN THREAD POSTED, MOVE OVER THERE!

9:53 PM– McCain talking about how Obama wants to “attack Pakistan”. Talking about attaining the trust of the people in Pakistan; again, mentions General Petreus- he really likes that guy.

9:50 PM– Obama is noting how he wanted to send more troops to Afghanistan; we have four times the number of troops in Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11, no Al Qaeda before we went there. Talking about how even Secretary Gates noted the central front against Al Qaeda is in Afghanistan. McCain is talking about him making a mistake, a la Charlie Wilson’s War, leaving Afghanistan to be after the Soviets left.

More below the fold

Good evening, folks, it’s your great friend Ragekage here, liveblogging tonight’s debate! Tonight, the great state of Mississippi will finally get black and white television! We’ll see what happens when a frail old white man encounters an African-American looking for change! And could I get any more snarky?

Of course, we already know that John McCain won the debate. In fact, he won it this morning- or so the advertisements from his suspended campaign would have you believe. And Rick Davis- can that guy be any bigger of a douchebag?

Grab yer favorite poison, and join us below the fold for developing events! I will be watching the CSPAN feed, meaning there’ll be no talky-head commentary to “interpret” what went on.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is John McCain’s night to shine; he’s spent his entire life pushing his foreign policy credentials. If there was a time to show up Senator Obama, it’s right here, right now. Let’s see how it goes.

What, you don’t believe me. Well, just check this out, ye of little faith, and become a believer.

Heh. Here is the story from  Salon. For those lazy folks out there, here is the full story.

Friday, Sept. 26, 2008 12:50 EDT

McCain wins!

You have to hand it to the people on the McCain team: Their combined predictive powers are truly amazing. In fact, they’re so good at seeing in the future that they knew John McCain had won tonight’s debate even before he officially announced that he’d be attending.

The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza notes that an ad proclaiming “McCain wins debate!” was already running on the Wall Street Journal’s Web site Friday morning. (A screen shot of the page can be seen here.) The reader who tipped Cillizza also saw a second ad that contained a quote from McCain campaign manager Rick Davis: “McCain won the debate — hands down.”

See McCain wasn’t afraid to debate Obama, he is just being a nice guy and trying to let Obama off easy.