Impressions of the First Presidential Debate

I was expected a complete and utter lingual domination of John McCain at the hands of Barack Obama.  Surprisingly, thats not what I came away with after watching the debate.  My impressions are based soley on “appearance” i.e. who did and didn’t look like a mumbling, stumbling, bumbling fool.

From an informative perspective, it offered very little.  I often found myself wondering what the original question was as the McCain and Obama would often dive into a rambling oratory on one topic then exit with a completely unrelated one.  I particularly remember towards the end of the debate when the question concerned US foreign policy towards Russia that Obama somehow ended with the need for alternative fuels without ever tying the loose end back to Russia.

It was, as expected, alot of campaign speech without definitive specifics from either candidate.  There was a tremendous amount of finger pointing on past voting records, monetary numbers, and what the other one said.  I’m eager to see the oncoming fact checking wave that’s going to flood across the blogosphere tomorrow.

Another thing I came away was the inordinate amount of time a foreign policy debate ended up being a domestic economy debate.  Given that the consensus is that McCain holds the advantage in that area, I thought Obama held his own and came off quite decisive on foreign policy matters.  Still though, McCain and his camp has to be fuming that a debate topic playing to his strengths ended up not being the main point of discussion.  Can McCain ask Jim Lehrer for a refund?

Now, we get to look forward to the Vice Presidential debate.  And maybe Sarah Pailin will surprise me just like McCain did.

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