Comments on: Live Blogging the McCain-Obama debate

By: Jason Mittell

Jason Mittell — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 02:11:07 +0000

I saw it as a draw, which equals an Obama win, as he was assumed to be so much weaker on foreign policy than McCain. McCain was trying to paint Obama as naive & ignorant, which Obama never seemed (even if he has fewer stamps in his passport) as he’s simply too smart and articulate.

Speaking of naive and ignorant, I’m looking forward to the VP debate…

By: Haseeb Humayoon

Haseeb Humayoon — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 21:33:25 +0000

On Iran, Obama missed an easy chance to prove his credintials are more relavant to today’s foreign policy questions:

McCain called the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the Iranian ‘Republican Guard.’ From what I know, the Republican Guard was Saddam Hussein’s. To be sure, I looked up the Kyle-Lieberman ammendment to the ‘H.R. 1585: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008′ and there it is rightly specified as the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

By correcting McCain, Obama could have highlighted McCain’s previous failures in distinguishing Iran and Iraq related themes. Instead, he also called them the ‘Iranian Republican Guard.’

By: tvdunlop

tvdunlop — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 02:45:25 +0000

Each had their strong points. For.policy is more than iraq and it seems like obama highlighted it. Mccain got the points on specifics though

By: Jesse Gubb

Jesse Gubb — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 02:41:47 +0000

Immediately, the post debate coverage (on CNN) focuses on how much time was spent on the economy. This seems to favor Obama. They are arguing that Obama held his own on foreign policy issues, possibly winning the expectations game, if not on the issues themselves.

By: Jesse Gubb

Jesse Gubb — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 02:36:03 +0000

Tying Obama’s stubbornness to the Bush administration’s. That’s new.