Presidential Debate 2 [10/07/08]

[KaidaTan]

So, to all you who watched it, what'd you think? Personally it helped clarify a lot of their stances on some issues and I was able to reaffirm how what I believe are good plans line up with each of the candidates. I was disappointed that none of the questions allowed me to see into the true character of the candidates nor did they cover as broad a set of issues as was claimed.

What did you all think about any part of the debate?

[DrRusty]

I was asleep when it was on :f4:

[kIkO]

I'm mexican =o
watching mexican debates is funnier! x3

[Lylac]

I thought it was mostly McCain bashing Obama instead of trying to answer questions himself.

[Berzerk]

I'd have to agree with Lylac, McCain didn't really do a good job. I thought Obama came out the overall winner.

[Bejewel]

It just felt like a mashup of everything covered in the first debate, but I was just thankful that overall they managed to keep the attacking to policy, not the normal character bombardment that's come to define the past few months of campaigning. The format was absolutely horrible, though. They spent too much time asking for permission to talk about xyz or discussing stupid nuances in the set rules. Regardless, Obama was the clear winner for me; I thought his response on health care (a right vs. McCain's responsibility response) was impressive.

Plus, was anyone watching it on CNN? I nearly wanted to tear my hair out after an hour and a half of that stupid graph that kept track of an independent voters focus group's reaction in real time.

[SuGaRnSp1C3]

I think Obama won, seeing that he didn't take any slams at McCain like he did to him. Plus McCain kept on bringing up the fact that he was in the military :f6:..and the whole Israel & Iran thing, I DO believe we need to just sit down and have a chat instead of just using brute force, and letting them know that military option isn't off the table.

[Katie]

I agree with other posters on how McCain was bashing Obama. I believe that Obama came out on top, again.

[Derimed]

I don't decide any issues based on how a candidate looks or acts like in front of millions of viewers on TV. I don't even watch the debates. It's more of a personality contest than a genuine representation of their views. For example, one of my friends noted that McCain seemed "nervous" on TV and she liked Obama better. However, she could not explain to me how that's relevant to actual decisions McCain will make. I severely distrust charisma as a deciding factor in any election; Gore would have been a better president than Bush, but Bush was picked because he was more like the common Joe on TV. Well, look where THAT landed us. Gore is now a Nobel Laureate, and Bush... well, he sucks. Hell, I voted for Bush, but now I regret that. I am much more interested in what the campaign releases after careful deliberation. Careful deliberation is more crucial to policymaking than bullpumpernickelting to the voters on TV. That's why I'd advise people on both sides of the fence to disregard that and look at issues other than personality.

[wobbufet]

I don't decide any issues based on how a candidate looks or acts like in front of millions of viewers on TV. I don't even watch the debates. It's more of a personality contest than a genuine representation of their views. For example, one of my friends noted that McCain seemed "nervous" on TV and she liked Obama better. However, she could not explain to me how that's relevant to actual decisions McCain will make. I severely distrust charisma as a deciding factor in any election; Gore would have been a better president than Bush, but Bush was picked because he was more like the common Joe on TV. Well, look where THAT landed us. Gore is now a Nobel Laureate, and Bush... well, he sucks. Hell, I voted for Bush, but now I regret that. I am much more interested in what the campaign releases after careful deliberation. Careful deliberation is more crucial to policymaking than bullpumpernickelting to the voters on TV. That's why I'd advise people on both sides of the fence to disregard that and look at issues other than personality.
Yeah they obviously don't state their opinions about any issues on these debates.

[Smooth Criminal]

Something really turned me off about this debate (which I only watched 42 minutes into and left out of boredom). For the most part what I was watching, I couldn't help but feel it was as Obama described, "politicians pointing fingers at each other". I'm not a big fan of this approach; and neither am I quite good at understanding economics, which was one of the huge topics this debate.

Still, I could notice some of the typical:

McCain's general approach has been to flex his personal record of achievements, making a "I DID THIS, HE DIDN'T DO THAT; I HAVE MORE EXPERIENCE, THEREFORE VOTE FOR ME BECAUSE MY EXPERIENCE SAYS I AM BETTER" approach; talking about time he spent in Iraq or talking about his experience in the military.

I've never been impressed with McCain's approach like that. For the most part, physical experience doesn't necesarily mean "more qualified" to lead; what truly makes one a leader is that they have the proper judgement to lead and the reasoning and command of knowledge to help them lead, and having the better judgement and reasoning does not necesarily mean having the more physical experience as opposed to the other.

Obama's typical approach in the prior debate was mostly defending, countering, and showing the audience he has the stronger command of facts and try to display that he has enough wisdom to lead. This was much of the same from him; except I couldn't help but feel he made a few too many jabs at McCain; "pointing fingers" a little too often than he should have.

When it came from presentation in the prior debate, McCain would like to address the audience, almost trying seemingly too hard to ingrain his ideas into the audience, and if Obama addressed him, he didn't seem to fixated on Obama at all; and almost seemed to be ignoring him at times. Obama in the prior debate would have eye contact on McCain when arguing against him, even if McCain didn't seem to focused on him; and he seemed to state his ideas back to the person asking the questions; which made me feel more at ease as the viewer because I felt I could set in an opinion for him.

THIS debate, BOTH would waltz into the audience and it felt like they tried to hard to make impressions on the audience; McCain once again trying to ingrain his thoughts to the audience, and Obama would address the audience a little more than he should have and put almost an overemphasis on the middle class.

Overall, I thought this debate was almost a super mashup of the prior debate; and it was arguably clearer to see opinions, thoughts, and plans behind them overall; but it didn't really change my stance for them.

[Sivrat]

Has anyone else noted that the whole argument by the republican party that Obama "Hasnt gone against the leaders of his party on any issue" and painting it like that means he wont work with republicans on things seems just stupid?

Maybe the reason he hasn't gone against them is because he hasn't disagreed? you were criticizing him for not being in the senate that long, weren't they? IDK maybe thats just me.