DEBATE 2 - NO BLOOD & NOT MUCH BOUNCE
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Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 by Jay B. Gaskill
The debate had all of the excitement of a fire engine arriving at a false alarm. Yes, I watched the whole thing.
My personal assessment was that McCain missed several opportunities to score body blows (as did Obama), but that the Arizona Senator nevertheless managed to win the encounter on points, say, 51-49.
No one drew blood.
John McCain seems always to operate under a curtain of self restraint, and he in these encounters he makes the mistake, over and over again, of assuming that his audience is so well informed that its members can readily discern just from his shorthand when his opponent has gone off the reservation. But the election is not going to be decided by political junkies or policy wonks or other insiders.
The conservative talking heads I heard immediately after the debate were uniformly disappointed. I don’t know what they expected. None of the questions permitted any fireworks and a presidential candidate like Senator McCain isn’t one to flagrantly break the rules.
The debate format was a “bate and switch” operation. This wasn't a free-for-all town meeting at all, just another evening of sedate, well-digested, carefully vetted questions in a pretend town meeting setting from which all spontaneity had been pre-drained.
Pundit Dick Morris now predicts a tightening race. I agree with his reasoning. Here's that link: http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/2008/10/07/expect-the-race-to-tighten/ .
Obama's lead will probably dwindle to about 3% before the month is out. But it is difficult to imagine any dramatic game changing scenario - to use the current phrase - just the drip, drip, drip of additional information about Senator Obama's past. It's very hard for me to imagine McCain regaining the lead at any time before that obscure last 30 hours when the polls go dark.
Stay tuned.
→The Human Conspiracy Blog: http://www.jaygaskill.com/blog3
→The Policy Think Site: http://www.jaygaskill.com
All contents, unless otherwise indicated are
Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 by Jay B. Gaskill
Permission to publish, distribute or print all or part of this article (except for personal use) is needed. [Permission for use in group discussions is almost always routinely given.]
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Please contact Jay B. Gaskill, attorney at law, via e mail at law@jaygaskill.com
NO BLOOD ON THE FLOOR, BUT…
The debate had all of the excitement of a fire engine arriving at a false alarm. Yes, I watched the whole thing.
My personal assessment was that McCain missed several opportunities to score body blows (as did Obama), but that the Arizona Senator nevertheless managed to win the encounter on points, say, 51-49.
No one drew blood.
John McCain seems always to operate under a curtain of self restraint, and he in these encounters he makes the mistake, over and over again, of assuming that his audience is so well informed that its members can readily discern just from his shorthand when his opponent has gone off the reservation. But the election is not going to be decided by political junkies or policy wonks or other insiders.
The conservative talking heads I heard immediately after the debate were uniformly disappointed. I don’t know what they expected. None of the questions permitted any fireworks and a presidential candidate like Senator McCain isn’t one to flagrantly break the rules.
The debate format was a “bate and switch” operation. This wasn't a free-for-all town meeting at all, just another evening of sedate, well-digested, carefully vetted questions in a pretend town meeting setting from which all spontaneity had been pre-drained.
Pundit Dick Morris now predicts a tightening race. I agree with his reasoning. Here's that link: http://www.dickmorris.com/blog/2008/10/07/expect-the-race-to-tighten/ .
Obama's lead will probably dwindle to about 3% before the month is out. But it is difficult to imagine any dramatic game changing scenario - to use the current phrase - just the drip, drip, drip of additional information about Senator Obama's past. It's very hard for me to imagine McCain regaining the lead at any time before that obscure last 30 hours when the polls go dark.
Stay tuned.
JBG
