Oct 15th, 2008 at 11:35 pm
Snap Polls
CNN who won the debate? — Obama 58, McCain 31:
CBS who won the debate? — Obama 53, McCain 22:
McCain had some okay jabs at Obama that I think impressed some of the CNN panelists and, especially, got the conservative ones jazzed up. But he used a lot of right-wing echo-chamber jargon, never explaining what he meant about trial lawyers and scare-quote “health” and so forth. He doesn’t really speak to problems in people’s lives. Nobody’s laying in bed, nervous about their situation in life, pondering the threat of pork-barrel spending. It’s an issue purely for political insiders.
33 Responses to “Snap Polls”
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October 15th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
At least McCain managed to bring back Topic A from the last debate, namely the high cost of planetarium projectors.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
I don’t think conservatives ever get jazzed up. Jizzed up, maybe. But not jazzed.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Did Lowry get little starbursts when McCain blinked at him?
October 15th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
I believe you meant to say that nobody is lying in bed. If they’re laying in bed they’re surely not thinking about earmarks.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
I love how he calls the planetarium projector an “overhead projector”. I sat through countless geometry classes in high school while the softball coach scrawled on an overhead projector with a grease pencil. The projector in a planetarium is something else altogether.
The Joe the Plumber stuff was really dumb too. If Joe the Plumber is taking home more than $250,000 a year in salary in his first year of business, then I’m pretty sure that’s a plumber that I don’t want to have working on my house! I think the reality is that Joe does not understand that he gets to write off things like the salaries of his employees, the cost of supplies, the cost of buying his business from the former owners, and that he gets to depreciate his trucks.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Exactly, no one sits up at night worried about pork barrel spending. No one. They worry about their jobs and their 401k’s. Their kids’ health and education.
Those things.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
McCain isn’t naturally inclined to actually care about “bread-and-butter” issues, and he has surrounded himself with people whose only expertise is in appealing to the Republican “base”. Hence, their inability to understand the voters are increasingly seeing them as out of touch.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:36 am
What I learned from the debates:
1. McCain is not very smart.
2. He is very old.
3. Obama is smart but tends to be too prolix.
I heard an AA speaker once say: “I held myself spellbound for 40 minutes.” Obama is sometimes close to that.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:42 am
People won’t name their kids Joe for a while.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:48 am
“3. Obama is smart but tends to be too prolix.”
Too prolix? Yikes!
Obama’s “problem” is that he’s too thoughtful and intelligent. We’re so used to C- in the White House that it will take a while to get reacquainted with the idea of someone who actually has a brain and knows how to use it.
It would have been sweet to see McCain blow a fuse but it was almost as good seeing him fight against the urge.
October 16th, 2008 at 1:05 am
Obama is smart, but he also comes across as sincere in caring about ordinary people. Turns out that isn’t such a bad mix.
October 16th, 2008 at 1:09 am
I got $20 that says next cycle there will be no more instant polls. They break the pundits’ monopoly on telling the electorate what their opinion is.
October 16th, 2008 at 1:11 am
McCain has a very average intelligence. He’s simply incapable of weaving together a large argument that makes sense. He also seems incapable of granting any of an opponent’s points — he simply lacks the largeness of mind.
Who’s the last verbally intelligent Republican candidate for president, anyway? It’s bizarre how that party seems time and again to favor candidates who speak in sound-bitey little blurbs. I suppose an argument could be made for Reagan, in his early years. Other than that, it’s Nixon.
I’m beginning to think Romney would have been their strongest candidate.
October 16th, 2008 at 1:31 am
“Who’s the last verbally intelligent Republican?”
Cicero
October 16th, 2008 at 1:40 am
sherifffruitfly,
I might take that bet. The networks might try to drop them, but I suspect in four years someone else will be willing to commission them.
October 16th, 2008 at 1:44 am
Romney would have gotten flattened for completely different reasons.
Basically, I think they had a pretty weak set of choices. Maybe Huckabee would have done a bit better, but what they really needed is someone like people thought McCain was back in 2000 (and of a similar age). But of course there was no way the Republican “base” would have accepted such a person anyway.
October 16th, 2008 at 2:04 am
My Rich Lowry moment tonight? Watching Bill Bennett and Alex Castellanos squirm when the CNN insta-poll came out.
HUGE starbursts for me! In fact, I need a cigarette.
October 16th, 2008 at 2:26 am
Marc @ #14: Ad idem.
October 16th, 2008 at 6:50 am
# Marc Antony Says:
October 16th, 2008 at 1:31 am
“Who’s the last verbally intelligent Republican?”
Cicero
Cicero was gay and out—not a usual republican trait and the “Log Cabinets” hadn’t been founded, jus sayin
October 16th, 2008 at 7:34 am
I sometimes envision an especially low information voter who watches the debate intently, so as to figure out just which of the candidates has gotten bigger earmarks while in the Senate. The split screen view used by many channels is very helpful for addressing this low information concern. Of course, Obama clearly has bigger ears, but that’s not the same as earmarks, and you have to look closely and with an eye for detail.
October 16th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Cicero was gay and out
No, he wasn’t.
He woudl fit right in with these present day Republicans in one resepct, at least–he executed the Cataline conspirators without a trial . . .
October 16th, 2008 at 8:31 am
I learned that this election is about John McCain’s desire “to serve”.
Other than that, he has nothing to say.
It’s all about him, all the time.
October 16th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Maybe someone should tell John McCain that there are 300,000,000 Americans who are not Joe the plumber.
And since when do we call people by their occupation? Is this the 12th century? Where is Roger the Shrubber? Maybe he can sort this out before McCain starts calling Biden “Joe the Senator”.
October 16th, 2008 at 10:02 am
McCain’s a pundit. He’s been a pundit for 20 years. He’s running a campaign on pundit terms, in pundit language. That’s what he knows and where he’s comfortable. Pundits are his base. Unfortunately for him, the role of President requires a bit more knowledge, depth and, you know, interest in government.
October 16th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Who’s the last verbally intelligent Republican candidate for president, anyway?
Bob Dole.
October 16th, 2008 at 11:23 am
It’s unfortunate that Joe The Plumber (Irma La Douce?) looks and sounds like an out and out skinhead! My plumber is all about Obama and has been for the last year or more. I was thinking just the other day that I might steer my son to vocational school — and a future in the highly lucrative field of plumbing. He would then be Bob The Plumber and I his proud Mama.
October 16th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Obama’s “problem” is that he’s too thoughtful and intelligent. We’re so used to C- in the White House that it will take a while to get reacquainted with the idea of someone who actually has a brain and knows how to use it.
Well, yes on the latter, but Obama is an adequate debater at best. It’s not that I really want more politics by soundbite, but I’m a wonky college-educated guy and there were times when the minutiae practically put me to sleep (then again I knew most of the answers — for both candidates — in advance).
There are a number of ways Obama could “punch it up”, for instance, imagine if he’d brought up his daughters being upset that their dad was being called a terrorist and threatened, or just tied more of his points into personal stories of voters who have been affected by Bush policies.
What worked best was his cool demeanor discussing the Ayers issue, and in general this really helped highlight McCain’s crankiness. He was especially good with the easy, unworried smile when McCain said preposterous things.
But yes, he was prolix. Not a character flaw; it really works well for him in prepared speeches. In a debate, maybe not the best thing to be.
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