2008 Presidential Debates

Watching debates can give you an understanding of the ideas and personality of each candidate, as well as how they answer questions under pressure.

I think that in order to win a debate, you need to answer all the questions truthfully and thoughtfully, maintain your composure, and prove your points to be stronger. Someone who wins a debate needs the ability to get their point across and bring more positive attention to their campaign.

I honestly wish that I could vote in this election. I’m learning a lot about it and I know that if I were a part of the voting, I would be more involved. One thing that I held important while watching the debates is whether or not the candidate explained affects my family or me. I would want to know this on most topics and if the candidate failed to say that, I probably didn't think they had a strong answer.

After the first debate, I heard many different reviews, some of which said that Obama was letting McCain walk all over him and that shows that he wasn’t being as assertive or forceful as he needed to be. However, I don’t see that as McCain making himself look better. As Obama was speaking, there were many times that McCain would laugh or smile, which to me, gave the impression of a lack of seriousness or sincerity in the matter. Of course, this was occasional, and when he did speak, McCain showed that he was serious. But, it just seemed to me that whenever Obama spoke, McCain was disregarding it and came off as condescending, which I don’t see as points toward winning a debate.

One thing I thought was that Barack Obama knows how to talk to people effectively. It seems to me like he knows how to handle all kinds of people and questions they ask. I don’t think that McCain’s tactic of putting down Obama is working well anymore. Sometimes I think it makes him look bad and not very likable.

After the whole country watched Sarah Palin stir up controversy with less than perfect interviews the weeks before the debate, expectations for her were set pretty low. With all the talk about her, quite honestly, I forgot all about Joe Biden. It seems like he faded into the background amidst all of the talk about Palin and McCain. However, after the debate, I remembered Biden's name and I feel like he brought more positive attention upon himself and for this reason, I think he won the vice-presidential debate.

During class, we spent a lot of time talking about the negative aspects of the campaigns of both candidates and I also wrote a blog about the affect on the candidates. During the last debate, one of the topics proposed by the moderator was about how their campaigns have turned a different direction—“Are each of you tonight willing to sit at this table and say to each other's face what your campaigns and the people in your campaigns have said about each other?”

McCain followed by explaining that he didn’t like some of the negative aspects of the campaigns—“... And I regret some of the negative aspects of both campaigns. But the fact is that it has taken many turns which I think are unacceptable.” He also talked about the amount of money Obama spends on negative ads and said that he repudiates remarks, while Obama does not.

Obama then spoke and basically said that there are more important things to be talking about—“And, now, I think the American people are less interested in our hurt feelings during the course of the campaign than addressing the issues that matter to them so deeply."

This reminds me of discussions we have had in class about how their negative ads come across to us and to voters and whether criticizing their opponent is more helpful than making themselves look good on their own.



^ A video from CNN about McCain and Obama's answer to the 'clean campaign' question.

When I was reading reviews about the final debate, I saw a particular story from BBC News about who they think won the debate. It basically said that during the first half, McCain made a lot of strong and effective remarks against Obama. It also said that Obama was much stronger during the second half and ended with a great final statement.