Keeping in mind that the vast majority of Americans who will actually get off their ass and vote have already made up their minds, I watched the debate from a different perspective.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll have to give round one to McCain, actually a fairly solid victory.<\/p>\n
McCain came out slow but finished well; not too much surprised me from McCain. McCain lacks a killer instinct and missed several opportunities to crush the neophyte senator with a clue bat.<\/p>\n
What surprised me most was how clearly flustered and frankly amateurish Obama came off. He failed to defend his near-trillion dollars worth of pork, his no-no-no energy policy and his tax policy which would be disastrous.<\/p>\n
That was on the economic part.<\/p>\n
On the national security\/foreign policy part\u2026.<\/p>\n
McCain stomped a mud hole in his puny ass and then walked it dry.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me get this straight, we\u2019re gonna sit down with Ahmadinejad and when he says he wants to wipe Israel off the map; we\u2019re gonna say No you\u2019re not\u201d. Oh please!\u201d<\/p>\n
Then McCain caught Obama lying about Kissinger\u2019s position and called him on it.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the \u201cinside baseball\u201d view of someone who stays on top of politics.<\/p>\n
None of this matters to the target; the undecided\/independents. These voters look at these things much differently.<\/p>\n
From this perspective, I agree with Charles Krauthammer, it was pretty much a non-event.<\/p>\n
McCain did a poor job of talking to the camera (the folks) while Obama did a fairly good job of that.<\/p>\n
McCain came across energetic and did not lose his composure or sense of humor while Obama appeared to get visibly angry at least once.<\/p>\n
The end state was no great sound bites or huge gaffes, thus non-event.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think this debate will boost the polls either way.<\/p>\n
The careful, measured tone of both of the candidates last night was likely viewed by most undecideds as boring. The viewership of the next McCain\/Obama debate will struggle to achieve 50% of last night.<\/p>\n
The October 2nd VP debate is now the game changer.<\/p>\n
If Palin doesn\u2019t vastly improve over her interview with Katie Couric, McCain is in big trouble.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, Obama has to be terrified that his entire campaign could be in the hands (or mouth in this case) of Joe Biden.<\/p>\n
It is likely that the most nervous people in America in October 2nd will be McCain and Obama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"