The early results are in, and they largely confirm what I was thinking. Barack Obama won this debate tonight. Of course, the pundit class is all atwitter, and you can find a bloviater or two to back up pretty much anything you say. But the polling results (you can find them here and here) all say the same thing: Senator Obama ended up ahead.
Granted, I'm more than a little biased, and I agree with the rest of the lefty blogosphere that it seems ludicrous that one could watch this debate and not see John McCain for the defensive, grouchy, angry, presidential man that he is. It's reassuring to know that others seem to see it the same way.
Then, too, there is the small matter of John McCain's constant lying. The New York Times gave a pretty good run down of what the candidates did and did not distort. John McCain won that one in a cake walk. I know, I know, The Times is "in the tank" for Obama or something. But read the list yourself. It's hard not to agree with them.
Pretty much everything I would say about the debate has already been said elsewhere. Ezra Klein:
But say this for the combatants: McCain was certainly more impassioned. And not because he became emotional over stories of soldiers or concerned as he detailed the country's dire economic condition. His emotion, his passion, came from a nearly uncontrollable contempt for his opponent. Every other sentence began with the words "what Senator Obama doesn't understand." He called Obama dangerous and he called him naive. His rejoinders were caustic and contemptuous, and in this, they were very authentic. McCain's hot anger that this young man even gets to share a stage with him -- much less lead him in the polls -- was continually evident.
But if Obama was the focus of McCain's anger, he was not its cause. The question in a debate may have relatively little to do with who is "right," but the questions in an election have a lot to do with what is happening. Right now, the economy is collapsing atop the economic theory John McCain has upheld for years. McCain has no answer for that, so he tried to duck out of the unscripted forum in which he'd be called to address the calamity. It was a momentary panic that served as the quiet backdrop to even his loudest attacks tonight.
Give McCain this: He did an extremely good stylistic job in an extremely hard situation. I doubt he could have offered a better performance. But the polls suggest that undecideds broke hard for Obama anyway. Which suggests that McCain's problem is what he's saying, not how he's saying it. McCain has every right to be angry: He would have been an excellent, maybe unbeatable, candidate in 2000 or 2004. Instead, he's facing down the excesses of his own ideology in 2008. And that's what McCain doesn't understand. He's not behind because he doesn't deserve this, or because he's not served his country honorably. He's behind because events have disproven his agenda. Because the success of the surge does not outweigh the blunder of Iraq. Because the appeal of tax cuts does not outweigh the costs of deregulation and wage stagnation. And even the best debate performance can't obscure that.
On foreign policy, I agree with thers at Whiskey Fire:
To be Serious on Foreign Policy, you must not:
1. Mention that the Surge worked because ethnic cleansing worked;
2. Mention that the Anbar Awakening preceded the Surge;
3. Mention that the Iraqis want us out of the country and that we currently HAVE a fucking timeline for withdrawal.
To be Serious on Foreign Policy, you must:
1. Want to fuck General Petraeus.
Lastly, I agree with Bubblegum Aesthetics, this is the "ironic McCain line of the night":
Critiquing Obama:
"We need more flexibility in a President's judgment than that."
...There are no words. Truly.
But for all of McCain's curmudgeonly attacks and for all of the idiot "reporting" done before and after, this debate was a good one. They didn't mention flag pins once. We actually got to see something of both of the nominee's characters and positions. It was nice to--even for only an hour-and-a-half--see a political event without feeling like my brain was considering bashing itself against my skull just to stop hearing the idiotic pundits recite pre-fab--and almost always inadequate--narratives.
Props to Jim Leher, yo. Also, McCain wouldn't look at Obama? Jay-sus. Senator McCain, elementary school called, and it wants its insult back.
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