Wow, ok this was a win for McCain. Not a giant one, but a clear win.
At the begining McCain was in the groove and making his points clearly and persuasively. And Obama was off - he was a bit unsure and was not responding well. And the biggie was that McCain was on offense with Obama on defense.
Then we have Joe the plumber. It worked, and worked to McCain's favor. And while it got old having him keep coming up, Joe was clearly painted as someone who will support McCain with Obama plaintatively trying to get Joe's support. Joe was not good for Obama.
Then we hit McCain's "I am not president Bush." What does that do? Well the 20% of the country that thinks Bush is doing a good job is going to be honked off bigtime. They won't vote for Obama, but now they may not bother voting for McCain either. It will be interesting to see how this affects the base - to dis your own party's president.
For the independents, I think this was the single most powerful thing he could say. It responds to the biggest attack of Obama's campaign. But I'm not sure it helps much, especially this late. Because the Obama campaign has consistently hit McCain not for being Bush, but for supporting him. This will get McCain some votes, but I don't think it will be a significant shift.
McCain also handled the is Palin qualified question very well. He made a strong argument for her using arguments that are reasonable. He clearly was prepared for that question and made it a non-issue for this debate.
Then we hit the angry old man part. McCain was clearly mad about what was being said about him in the campaign while Obama handled it as part of the job. This was easily McCain's one bad part in the debate. But I don't think this will count for much either. Dems will think he got too upset, Repubs will agree with McCain, and independents I don't think will see anything that bad in someone who gets a bit upset.
The second half of the debate was pretty even. Obama hit his stride and gave as good as he got. Both had times when they did a good job talking up themself and hitting the other. Both took hits that landed. But McCain was also doing well and so I would say the second half was a wash.
What does this mean? That Obama has won. Obama continued to come across as competent and presidential. He has a 7 - 10 point lead in the polls. And nothing in this debate made for a noticable change.
Finally, I am disappointed in Obama. He should have distinguished between himself and McCain on handling the economic mess we are in today. He didn't.
