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Grading the First Presidential
Debate
By Mark Halperin,
Time
Barack
Obama
Substance: Quite
manifestly immersed in the
past, present, and future
details of policy, and eager
to express his views, which
have been expanded, honed,
and solidified during the
last 18 months of hard
campaigning. Still, he did
avoid the nitty-gritty
details of policy positions
in favor of broad principles
and references to working
Americans, thereby not
presenting the kind of
specifics that some voters
are waiting to hear from
him.
Grade: B+
Style: Polished,
confident, focused. Fully
prepared, and able to convey
a real depth of knowledge on
nearly every issue. He was
unhurried, and rarely lost
his train of thought even
when the debate wended and
winded — and uttered far
fewer of his trademark,
distracting, "ums." At
times, however, Obama
revealed the level of his
preparation by faltering
over a rehearsed answer. He
seemed to deliberately focus
on the moderator and the
home audience, with McCain
as an afterthought — except
when on the attack. Chose to
avoid humor, for the most
part, in favor of a stern
demeanor, and in the
process, came off as cool as
a cucumber.
Grade: A
Offense: Linking
McCain to Bush in his very
first answer, he kept it up
as his primary line of
attack. Forcefully hit
McCain for his early support
of the Iraq War. Though he
never drew blood, he did
keep McCain a bit off
balance, often with clever
references to McCain's
recent statements.
Grade: B
Defense: Had a
reasonable answer for every
charge that came his way —
with little anger, bluster,
or anxiety. Often
interrupting McCain attacks
with swift explanations and
comebacks, he managed to
spin accusations of being
liberal as evidence of his
relentless opposition to
George Bush (in replies that
were clearly planned).
Offered a rather clumsy
alternative to McCain's
well-known, moving story of
wearing the bracelet of a
soldier lost in Iraq (a gift
from the soldier's mother),
with a story about a
bracelet of his own.
Fearless, without
condescension, he attempted
the gracious move of
agreeing with or
complimenting a McCain
position, occasionally to
his own detriment.
Grade: A-
Overall: Went for a
solid, consistent
performance to introduce
himself to the country. He
did not seem nervous,
tentative, or intimidated by
the event, and avoided
mistakes from his weak
debate performances during
nomination season (a
professorial tone and long
winded answers). Standing
comfortably on the stage
with his rival, he showed he
belonged — evocative of
Reagan, circa 1980. He was
so confident by the end that
he reminded his biggest
audience yet that his father
was from Kenya. Two more
performances like that and
he will be very tough to
beat on Election Day.
Overall grade: A-
John
McCain
Substance: His arguments
were hard to follow at the
beginning, but he found his
voice as the debate progressed,
although he never seemed fully
in control of his message. He
had plenty to say about the
economy, Iraq, Afghanistan, and
Russia, but often bogged down
his own answers when trying to
unfurl quips and soundbites.
Stuck with bumper sticker
slogans on the economy, and
while he got a bit more detailed
on foreign policy, he stayed at
his usual level of abstraction.
If he truly knows more about the
world than Obama, he didn't show
it in this debate.
Grade: B-
Style: Cluttered, jumpy,
and often muddled. Frequent
coughing early on helped neither
his arguments nor his image.
Jokes about being deaf and
anecdotes about Normandy and
George Shultz seemed ill-advised
— even his pen was old. His
presentation was further
hindered by his wandering
discussion of the differing
heights of North and South
Koreans and his angry assertion
about how well he knows Henry
Kissinger. Fell into the classic
politician's trap of inserting
familiar stump speech applause
lines into debate responses —
which only works if done with
enthusiasm and clarity (and if
received by applause — a big
No-No in Lehrer's auditorium,
which the audience obeyed
seriously and silently). Keenly
aware of the grand, grave
occasion, McCain wavered between
respectful and domineering, and
ended up awkward and edgy.
Grade: C-
Offense: Emphasized his
bread and butter issues of taxes
and spending, and hit Obama on
his failure to visit Iraq and
his expressed willingness to
meet with dictators. But while
mocking his opponent on a few
occasions, which reflected his
acute disrespect for Obama, he
did so in an insufficiently
sharp and detailed manner — and
unevenly worked elements of his
rival's record into his attacks.
Still he was utterly confident
about his own experience,
knowledge, and policies, even
when tripped by his own tongue
and distracted by the strains of
debate practice. The main
problem: Obama's obvious
preparation and sharp answers
contradicted McCain's frequent
claims that the Democrat was
uninformed and "didn't
understand" key issues.
Grade: C+
Defense: He managed to
ignore most of Obama's jibes,
but was eventually baited into
giving an extended answer about
his policy differences with
President Bush, after his
opponent repeatedly mentioned
McCain's regular support of
Bush's budgets. Was visibly
riled when clashing with Obama
over a variety of issues,
including Iraq, sanctions, and
spending. He also chose to boast
about Sarah Palin (although not
by name) as his maverick
partner, who, after her shaky
week, may no longer be his ace
in the hole.
Grade: B-
Overall: McCain was
McCain — evocative, intense, and
at times emotional, but also
vague, elliptical, and atonal.
Failed to deliver his "country
first versus Obama first"
message cleanly, even when
offered several opportunities.
Surprisingly, did not talk much
about "change," virtually ceding
the dominant issue of the race.
Overall grade: B- |
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OXFORD, MISS (By Adam Nagourney and
Jeff Zeleny, NYTimes) September 27,
2008 —
From
the economy to foreign affairs to
the way they carried themselves on
stage, Senators John McCain and
Barack Obama offered a dramatic
contrast to the nation in their
first presidential debate on Friday
night, mixing disdain and often
caustic remarks as they set out
sharply different views of how they
would manage the country and
confront America’s adversaries
abroad.
The two men met for 90 minutes
against the backdrop of the nation’s
worst financial crisis since the
Great Depression and intensive
negotiations in Congress over a $700
billion bailout plan for Wall
Street.
Despite repeated prodding, Mr.
McCain and Mr. Obama refused to
point to any major adjustments they
would need to make to their
governing agendas — like scaling
back promised tax reductions or
spending programs — to accommodate
what both men said could be very
tough economic times for the next
president.
For the first 40 minutes, Mr. Obama
repeatedly sought to link Mr. McCain
to President Bush, and suggested
that it was policies of excessive
deregulation that led to the
financial crisis and mounting
economic problems the nation faces
now.
“We also have to recognize that this
is a final verdict on eight years of
failed economic policies promoted by
George Bush, supported by Senator
McCain — the theory that basically
says that we can shred regulations
and consumer protections and give
more and more to the most and
somehow prosperity will trickle
down,” Mr. Obama said. “It hasn’t
worked, and I think that the
fundamentals of the economy have to
be measured by whether or not the
middle class is getting a fair
shake.”
Mr. McCain became more animated
during the second part of the
debate, when it shifted to the
advertised topic: foreign policy and
national security. The two men
offered strong and fundamentally
different arguments about the wisdom
of going to war against Iraq — which
Mr. McCain supported and Mr. Obama
opposed — as well as how to deal
with Iran.
More than anything, Mr. McCain
seemed intent on presenting Mr.
Obama as green and inexperienced, a
risky choice during a difficult
time. Again and again, sounding
almost like a professor talking down
to a new student, he talked about
having to explain foreign policy to
Mr. Obama and repeatedly invoked his
30 years of history on national
security (even though Mr. McCain, in
the kind of misstep that no doubt
would have been used by Republicans
against Mr. Obama, mangled the name
of the Iranian president, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, and he stumbled over
the name of Pakistan’s newly
inaugurated president, calling him “Qadari.”
His name is actually Asif Ali
Zardari.).
“I don’t think I need any on-the-job
training,” Mr. McCain said in the
closing moments of the debate. “I’m
ready to go at it right now.”
But Mr. Obama seemed calm and in
control and seemed to hold his own
on foreign policy, the subject on
which Mr. McCain was assumed to hold
a natural advantage. Mr. Obama
talked in detail about foreign
countries and their leaders, as if
trying to assure the audience that
he could hold his own on the world
stage. He raised his own questions
about Mr. McCain’s judgment in
supporting the Iraq war.
“You like to pretend like the war
started in 2007 — you talk about the
surge. The war started in 2003,” Mr.
Obama said. “At the time, when the
war started, you said it was going
to be quick and easy. You said we
knew where the weapons of mass
destruction were. You were wrong.
You said that we were going to be
greeted as liberators. You were
wrong.”
There were no obvious game-changing
moments — big mistakes, or the kind
of sound bites that dominate the
news for days — in the course of the
90-minute debate, held at the
University of Mississippi in Oxford.
Still, the debate served as a
reminder of just how different these
two men would be as president as
they appeared for their first
extended session together before a
huge audience, including many
Americans who are just beginning to
focus on this long-lasting race.
The differences were in no small
part stylistic and visible with a
glance to the stage: a 47-year-old
black man who has been in the Senate
for nearly four years standing at
one lectern, facing a 72-year-old
white-haired fixture of the Senate
standing across from him. In many
ways, Mr. Obama was a very different
candidate than he was during the
primary battles. He answered
questions directly and
affirmatively, typically looking
right into the camera as he spoke.
Throughout the debate, Mr. Obama
called Mr. McCain by his first name;
Mr. McCain did not. The direct
engagement was encouraged by the
moderator, Jim Lehrer of PBS, who
declared, “I’m just determined to
get you all to talk to each other,”
though it was an invitation that the
two men repeatedly ignored.
Mr. McCain was feisty and aggressive
but, particularly during the start
of the debate, his language and
demeanor offered a reminder of just
how much he was a creature of the
Senate, as he used phrases that were
no doubt understandable in
Washington but might have been lost
to the audience at home. He spent
much of the first 20 minutes of the
debate criticizing Mr. Obama for
supporting earmarks, special
projects sought by members for their
district.
“The United States Senate will take
up a continuing resolution tomorrow
or the next day — sometime next week
— with 2,000 — 2,000 — look at them,
my friends,” he said. “Look at ’em.
You’ll be appalled. And Senator
Obama is a recent convert, after
requesting $932 million worth of
pork-barrel spending projects.”
On Iraq, both candidates used the
stories of fallen soldiers to
support their own positions on the
war. Mr. McCain told the audience
about a New Hampshire woman who
presented him with a bracelet of her
22-year-old son who was killed in
combat. She asked him to keep alive
the mission so his death was not in
vain.
“I will wear his bracelet with
honor,” Mr. McCain recalled, raising
his right hand to show the bracelet
that still remains on his arm.
The moment he finished, Mr. Obama
said, “I’ve got a bracelet, too.” He
told the story of a Wisconsin woman
who presented him with a token from
her son who was killed in the war.
She asked Mr. Obama to end the war
so other mothers do not share her
anguish.
If Mr. Obama came into the debate
seeking to link the economic crisis
to Mr. McCain and to Mr. Bush, Mr.
McCain sought to portray his rival
as a naïve interloper; he barely
looked at him all night, and seven
times used a variation of the phrase
that Mr. Obama “doesn’t understand.”
“I’m afraid Senator Obama doesn’t
understand” and “What Senator Obama
doesn’t seem to understand” and
“Senator Obama still doesn’t
understand” were Mr. McCain’s
constant refrains, delivered with a
frozen smile and a hint of
condescension.
“A little bit of naïvete there,” Mr.
McCain said after Mr. Obama’s
remarks on a question about the
American-Russian relationship.
The two men were somewhat wary of
the debate’s unusual format — each
had two minutes to answer a
question, and then five minutes for
free-flowing and perhaps
unpredictable debate. During the
first question, they generally kept
outlining their policy views rather
than engaging directly.
“Ten days ago, John said the
fundamentals of the economy are
strong —” Mr. Obama started.
“Say it directly to him,” said Mr.
Lehrer, the moderator.
“John, you said 10 days ago the
fundamentals of the economy are
strong —” Mr. Obama said to
laughter.
“Are you afraid I couldn’t hear
him?” Mr. McCain said to Mr. Lehrer,
to more laughter.
The differences between the two men
included taxes, Iraq and Iran. When
Mr. McCain was asked how he would
deal with the economic crisis, he
talked about curbing government
spending, especially what he said
was $18 billion in spending on pet
projects.
“The first thing we have to do is
get spending under control in
Washington. It’s completely out of
control,” he said, and assailed Mr.
Obama for requesting $932 million in
earmark spending as a senator.
“That kind of thing is not the way
to rein in runaway spending in
Washington, D.C.,” he said “That’s
one of the fundamental differences
that Senator Obama and I have.”
Mr. Obama responded by assailing Mr.
McCain’s call for tax cuts for the
wealthy. “Let’s be clear: earmarks
account for $18 billion in last
year’s budget. Senator McCain is
proposing — and this is a
fundamental difference between us —
$300 billion in tax cuts to some of
the wealthiest corporations and
individuals in the country, $300
billion. Now, $18 billion is
important; $300 billion is really
important.”
Turning to Mr. McCain, he said:
“John, it’s been your president who
you said you agreed with 90 percent
of the time who presided over this
increase in spending, this orgy of
spending and enormous deficits and
you voted for almost all of his
budgets.”
Mr. McCain accused Mr. Obama of
having “the most liberal voting
record in the United States Senate.”
He chuckled aloud, adding: “It’s
hard to reach across the aisle from
that far to the left.”
A few moments later, Mr. Obama
responded: “John mentioned me being
wildly liberal. Mostly, that’s just
me opposing George Bush’s
wrongheaded policies since I’ve been
in Congress.”
