Fri
Sep 26 2008
08:57 pm
Debate Donation Game
By: Rachel

So, I figure every time McCain mentions "Petraeus" I'll donate $10 to the Obama campaign.

You?

Topics:
Russ's picture

Rachel, I'll match whatever

Submitted by Russ on Fri, 2008/09/26 - 9:16pm.

Rachel, I'll match whatever you donate.

~Russ

Factchecker's picture

cha ching!

Submitted by Factchecker on Fri, 2008/09/26 - 9:41pm.

cha ching!

Brian A.'s picture

Break out your

Submitted by Brian A. on Fri, 2008/09/26 - 9:51pm.

Break out your checkbook.

Lucky for your bank account that they spent part of the time debating economic issues.

Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.

WhitesCreek's picture

I'm in. What do we owe so

Submitted by WhitesCreek on Fri, 2008/09/26 - 10:23pm.

I'm in. What do we owe so far?

Rachel's picture

By my count McCain said

Submitted by Rachel on Fri, 2008/09/26 - 11:03pm.

By my count McCain said Pretraeus 8 times, plus once he referred to him as "the general". I'll give that half credit.

That makes 85 bucks; I'm rounding up to $100 and logging on to the Obama website now.

Thanks to you all for playing.

P.S. League of Democracies??? WTF??

Russ's picture

Rounding

Submitted by Russ on Fri, 2008/09/26 - 11:05pm.

Rachel, I just rounded up your donation to $300.

~Russ

Rachel's picture

Wow. Cool. Wish I could

Submitted by Rachel on Fri, 2008/09/26 - 11:07pm.

Wow. Cool. Wish I could but we've donated $500 already and another $100 is all I can handle tonight.

Should we send an email to McCain to thank him for raising so much $$ for Obama?

Factchecker's picture

Me too. Somebody rack 'em

Submitted by Factchecker on Fri, 2008/09/26 - 11:03pm.

Me too. Somebody rack 'em up. BTW, I think McCain actually won this one, if I had to say. PBS was kind enough to call it basically a tie that goes to the runner (Obama), but McCain was solid without misspeaking much, and he attacked away like Ronnie used to, while invoking all the conservative feel good terms like troops/vets blah blah, Reagan blah blah, and other B.S. platitudes. Obama did well, but I don't know if he won over any undecideds.

Rachel's picture

I think Obama smoked him on

Submitted by Rachel on Fri, 2008/09/26 - 11:06pm.

I think Obama smoked him on the economy-related questions. On foreign policy, most of the time McCain was on the offensive and Obama on the defensive. But that defense was VERY well played, and I think a lot of folks who may have had doubts about whether Obama is ready had those misgivings calmed.

I agree with David Gergen - it was basically a tie, and that's not good enough for McCain. The election is now being played on the economic turf (which is Obama's) and the last debate is on domestic issues.

Then there's the Palin/Biden thing to look forward to next week.

Yup, I'm feeling pretty good right now.

reform4's picture

Undecideds

Submitted by reform4 on Fri, 2008/09/26 - 11:35pm.

MSNBC just reported a quick poll (not online, a real poll) that indicates that independents improved their impressions of Obama among independents. The question is how effective a debate 'win' is on actual votes in November.

I was glad to see Obama hit back, and he never left an attack go unresponded.

RayCapps's picture

Yeah, basically a tie...

Submitted by RayCapps on Sat, 2008/09/27 - 3:16am.

Only 2 moments where I felt like shouting "NO" at the television. Once, during the economy side, he veered off message and took a swipe at markets in general before quickly recovering to focus on lack of oversight and deregulation. A Democrat, especially one with "progressive" credentials rather than DLC credentials, has to be very careful not to leave himself open to the "Socialist" charge, and Obama came precariously close to doing that. The other was in the closing of the debate where he decided to talk about the opinion of the USA held by other countries and how that has been harmed over the past eight years. That might have been pretty good in a stump speech on the nomination trail, but I don't think the voters these guys are trying to get could give a flying four letter word what other nations think of us. Kerry 2004 ought to be proof enough of that. He should have swung back around and talked about people's jobs and ability to put food on the table.

BTW, the McCain strategy of going to Petreas every time Iraq or Afghanistan was mentioned was pretty good. He refused to refight the argument over whether or not Iraq was a good idea and kept dragging Obama back to "right now." Overall, he just did a very good job of not letting Obama link him to Bush. A "seasoned" debate veteran should be expected to do that.

Rachel's picture

I repeat: League of

Submitted by Rachel on Sat, 2008/09/27 - 12:43am.

I repeat: League of Democracies? WTF?

Am I the only one who heard that? Or the only one who didn't understand it?

I kept waiting for McCain to tear off his clothes and expose a Superman suit with a bit "D" on it.

Justin's picture

I repeat: League of

Submitted by Justin on Sat, 2008/09/27 - 9:14am.

I repeat: League of Democracies? WTF?

Am I the only one who heard that? Or the only one who didn't understand it?

I kept waiting for McCain to tear off his clothes and expose a Superman suit with a bit "D" on it.

cubes

R. Neal's picture

Rachel, thanks, great idea.

Submitted by R. Neal on Sat, 2008/09/27 - 9:04am.

Rachel, thanks, great idea. I'm in for $100.

WhitesCreek's picture

I thought Obama did

Submitted by WhitesCreek on Sat, 2008/09/27 - 9:19am.

I thought Obama did everything he had to do, but not as much as I wanted him to. Several times Obama had the opportunity to skewer McCain. Why didn't we hear that the Veteran's Organization ranks McCain at 20% and Obama at 80% in support for our troops?

Why didn't we hear how McCain's bracelet soldier died and show that it was McCain's vote against body armour, helmet liners, and other specific votes may have cost that man his life?

But Obama came across as likable, knowledgeable, and calm under fire.

McCain refused to look Obama in the eye.

And, McCain cost me some money but not as much as I was willing to send Obama...Sending it anyway.

bizgrrl's picture

Thanks, Rachel. Besides

Submitted by bizgrrl on Sat, 2008/09/27 - 9:25am.

Thanks, Rachel.

Besides being bummed out by Lehrer, initially I was watching CNN and could not keep my eyes off the live graph at the bottom showing how people were responding to the debate. Distracted and changed to CSPAN.

Factchecker's picture

League of Democracies.

Submitted by Factchecker on Sat, 2008/09/27 - 9:29am.

League of Democracies. Guess that got past me. Mrs. FC liked "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory." Heh.

I thought Mac was about to lose it a few times, such as when he started to crash on pronouncing Ahmadinejad , but he didn't and had a pretty consistent drumbeat on offense all through. Obama handled it fine, but so did Gore and Kerry when in the same role. It seems the attacker usually does well unless they crash and burn, which McSame didn't do. I'm happy to be wrong when I see the polls on swing voters, though!!

Sent in my $100, and I'll do it again once more in October.

Factchecker's picture

Yeah, thanks Rachel. Good

Submitted by Factchecker on Sat, 2008/09/27 - 9:33am.

Yeah, thanks Rachel. Good points, Steve. It looks like from the polls Obama measured it right, though. Slam dunks can provide blowback.

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