Who Won the First Presidential Debate?

[seireikhaan]

Obama on a teency margin.

[Marshal Murat]

I think McCain won.

While I've been told his arguments were shallow and Bush-esque, it did seem more effective than Barack Obama. By the end of the argument, he came off as someone who bashes Bush (fairly) and Republicans rather than addressing the situation.

[ICantSpellDawg]

McCain. I waited with bated breath and wasn't stressed by the end.

[Koga No Goshi]

I'm a Democrat but I'll admit John McCain REALLY behaved himself, you could tell he was heavily vetted and he had no big irritable outbursts and moments of sheer stupidity that you can find all over Youtube from his various interviews.

But I do think it went Obama, for two reasons. One, McCain diverged from Bush on nothing of any substance whatsoever. He admitted the "mistakes" of the Bush Administration many times but apparently the solution to that is just keep the same economic AND foreign policies. I'm not sure how that constitutes good answers to how he would do things differently or do things better. Two, he incessantly ascribed false or misplaced quotes to Obama (he did the same thing when he referred to Akmedinijad saying "wipe Israel off the map" in his "most recent interview", which he didn't do) and Obama just stuck to the facts. (Note McCain grumbled a few times when Obama was quoting him, but never said "I didn't say that" or "that's untrue.") You kinda lose points automatically in my book if your "argument" rests on false assertions about the other guy's stances.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Voted tie, in that they both performed equally well.

[Lemur]

Tie. No obvious winner or loser. No major gaffes by either man.

[PanzerJaeger]

McCain. I was pleasantly surprised. I guess Barry needs more than 3 days prep work to catch him... experience counts for something.

[Kadagar_AV]

Oh how I wish jed Bartlet was a real life person...

This made me laugh, and made me sad, cause it was all so true.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This was my favourite from that text...

OBAMA I’m interested in your advice.

BARTLET I can’t give it to you.

OBAMA Why not?

BARTLET I’m supporting McCain.

OBAMA Why?

BARTLET He’s promised to eradicate evil and that was always on my “to do” list.

[Banquo's Ghost]

That was very funny indeed.

Because the idea of American exceptionalism doesn’t extend to Americans being exceptional. If you excelled academically and are able to casually use 690 SAT words then you might as well have the press shoot video of you giving the finger to the Statue of Liberty while the Dixie Chicks sing the University of the Taliban fight song. The people who want English to be the official language of the United States are uncomfortable with their leaders being fluent in it.

Oh, and I thought Senator McCain marginally came out ahead, but only on style. Substance was lacking for both, and that continually worries me. It was a reasonably good debate though.

[KukriKhan]

Obama on a teency margin.

That's how it looked on my TV set, too.

Sadly (for us), neither guy took the risk of trying to paint the rest of america into their 'vision for the future' - in fact, I don't remember much 'vision'-talk at all; just point-counter point, 'let's compare voting records' -type talk. A lot like the discussions we have here, leading to inconclusive results.

[CrossLOPER]

"Everyone is a rogue state supported by Russia." wins again!