Debate Reaction...

McCain lost and he lost big. i did not need to see the snap polls to bolster my claim but they do back me up. McCain did not do terribly but he it made for a couple of strange moments when he called obama "that one". It was just kinda weird. I did not see it as the end all and be all of the debate but the media needs a narrative and that fits best with the result of the first debate where mccain failed to look at obama. "Now he wont even address him etc..." McCain loses any policy discussion because he is ont he wrong side of the public on his policy. He cant win on the merits. So he lost the debate itself but he also lost the larger fight over regaining some positive aspects of his campaign. He needed a big headline out of this and he did not come close.

The format sucked. The entire idea behind a town hall is that the people actually ask and the candidates answer questions off the cuff. There should be follow ups and it is supposed to be unscripted. Last night was anything but. i mean brokaw had a script he could not read when he candidate stepped in front of it at the end of the night. How lame.

I thought this provided a big opportunity for mccain when both candidates were visibly chaffing at the restrictions to just blow up the format and ask obama to shift to a real town hall style. Talk about a crazy made for tv moment that could introduce major uncertainty into the campaign. McCain cannot win as long as the campaign stays sedate and boring. He is behind and behind by a lot. If he is willing to take the ayers track of throwing away his honor he should have been willing to throw away the debate format. The media and the people would have loved it. Maybe he would not have done as well on the answering but really it would have provided the chance to dominate the debate in a way the actual format never gave him.

Note that McCain failed to bring ayers into the debate. He was not man enough to do it to obama's face. He was not able to stand on stage and call obama a terrorist. maybe the campaign would not have been negative if they had done the town halls because mccain could never attack obama like that to his face. even palin was willing to go after biden with the white flag of surrender. baring a nuclear moment i dont see mccain turning this around. Obam by 4.5 points in popular vote and he wins 376 electoral votes.