Washington – John McCain faced a tough challenge Friday in his first debate with Barack Obama: Could the Republican candidate bounce back from a wayward week embroiled in the nation’s financial crisis and regain solid footing for his presidential campaign?
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Obama, his Democratic opponent, faced a challenge, too: Could a first-term senator go up against a 26-year veteran of Congress, an acknowledged expert on national security issues, and hold his own as a potential commander in chief?
In a 98-minute bout that seemed to grow more heated by the minute, Arizona Sen. McCain pummeled his Illinois counterpart with one repeated charge: The Democrat, he said, was “naive,” even “dangerous,” unqualified to lead the nation in time of war.
“Sen. Obama doesn’t seem to understand,” McCain said in several variations, with a sad half-smile that seemed to mix condescension and distaste.
“I honestly don’t believe that Sen. Obama has the knowledge or experience” to make a good president, McCain said.
But Obama parried most of McCain’s punches, ignored others, and took every opportunity to repeat the main foreign policy themes of his campaign: The war in Iraq was a mistake, he argued, a failure of “judgment” — a word he used five times — on the part of both McCain and President Bush, an error that meant the nation took “our eye off the ball” in the war against terrorism.
“John,” Obama said, “when the war started, you said it was going to be quick and easy. You said we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were. You were wrong. You said that we were going to be greeted as liberators. You were wrong.
“If the question is who is best equipped as the next president to make good decisions about how we use our military . . . then we can take a look at our judgment,” Obama said.
It was no surprise that McCain emphasized his experience and knowledge on national security; that has been a central rationale for his campaign from the start. Nor was it a surprise that Obama countered by repeating the word “judgment” and by seeking to link McCain to Bush, whose popularity remains at a low point.
If McCain needed to land a knockout blow in this debate, it was not clear that he did. Obama’s campaign deliberately sought to make foreign policy the focus of the first debate, in hopes that their candidate would benefit merely by surviving a challenge on the ground where the Republican was favored.
There were no major gaffes, no moments when either candidate confused one country for another. McCain stumbled over the last name of Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, and Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, but he also reeled off a list of war zones he has visited, from Afghanistan to Waziristan.
replay of the entire debate click below video
The next presidential debate will be October 7th which will take place after the vice presidential debate that will take place on October 2nd between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin.
Obama, too, managed to make his points — and could take satisfaction in battling to what was arguably a tie.
For voters who have followed the 19 months of the presidential campaign, the arguments would have been wholly familiar. Neither candidate was breaking new ground. A complete copy of the transcript is available here.
But the exchanges were meant to draw sharp contrasts in their first meeting of general election. Their arguments focused not so much on positions or policies as on the intangibles before voters in November — their respective fitness for office, their experience, judgment, wisdom and temperament.
Friday’s debate was originally planned to focus solely on foreign policy. But moderator Jim Lehrer of PBS chose to devote the first 40 minutes to the financial crisis, the overriding concern of most voters.
The result was, in effect, two debates. For the initial 40 minutes, the two candidates talked about the economy, largely recited their campaigns’ familiar talking points, and landed a few modest punches.
Obama, on familiar ground, went on the offensive first, charging that McCain’s proposal for a tax cut would favor the wealthy and neglect the middle class. McCain responded by charging, in a line that sounded well-prepared: “Sen. Obama has the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate; it’s hard to reach across the aisle from that far to the left.”
But when Lehrer turned the questions toward national security, McCain’s home ground, the Republican went on the offensive. He argued vigorously that he had always been right about Iraq and Obama had always been wrong.
“We are winning in Iraq, and we will come home with victory and with honor,” McCain said, noting that he fought for the “surge” in U.S. troops that helped improve security in the country. “Sen. Obama said the surge could not work, said it would increase sectarian violence, said it was doomed to failure.”
Obama replied: “This is an area where Sen. McCain and I have a fundamental difference, because I think the first question is whether we should have gone into the war in the first place.”
Obama noted that he opposed the war in 2002, before it began. “Now, Sen. McCain and President Bush had a very different judgment,” he said. “And I wish I had been wrong, for the sake of the country, and they had been right. But that’s not the case.”
Later, more pointedly, he added: “John, you like to pretend like the war started in 2007.”
It was an old issue — but, in a sense, the right focus, for the war was the defining feature of both Obama’s campaign and McCain’s when the presidential contest began in early 2007. Obama rode a wave of antiwar sentiment to the Democratic nomination; McCain, who had long argued for more troops in Iraq, not fewer, clung doggedly to his unpopular view — and has finally seen it turn popular again in recent months as security in Baghdad has improved.
In a Times/Bloomberg Poll conducted last weekend, voters expressed confidence in McCain’s leadership on Iraq over Obama’s by a significant margin, 50% to 34%. Asked whether they agreed with McCain that U.S. troops should stay in Iraq until the nation is secure or with Obama that troops should be withdrawn over 16 months, voters split evenly down the middle.
CBS says that Obama won the debate.
Obama/Biden ’08
MACAIN WON THE DEBATE
WHO WANTS TO VOTE FOR A MAN WHO IS BEARCK HUSSIEN OBAMA WHO WANTS TO HELP IRAN
VOTE MACAIN IT ITS A OBLIGATION OF EVERY JEW
Fox News is a known partisan media organization, it is biased and has become a GOP mouthpiece.
Let’s face it, if Fox News calls it a tie then we all know who won.
anon 9:29 pm,
and cnn isn’t biased at all?? they are a liberal propaganda machine!
if fox is the ‘mouthpiece’ of the republican party then EVERYONE ELSE is the mouthpiece of the liberal democrats.
Now let’s be realistic we all know that CBS, ABC, & CNN are left winged, so you can’t actually rely on what they say.
You be the judge, watch the video.
Don’t rely on what those ‘self interest’ media say.
I just want too say that on Drudgereport.com over 400,000 people have voted since last night, and the results:
MCCAIN
68% 284,940
OBAMA
30% 126,368
NEITHER
3% 10,806
This is the real results the media does not want you to know about!!
GO MCCAIN!!!
Great job by mcain,if you look for news at cnn abc cbs abc your looking in the wrong place,you can go to the drudge report fox news,we cannot vote for a muslim,go mcain palin.
WHAT ARE ALL YOU DOOM SAYERS GONNA DO WHEN OBAMA WINS?
So many of you confuse your own biases with fact and data . . . and if news reports conflict with your subjective reality you attack the news sources. I wonder if any of you are learners . . . for how could you come away from Gemorra with such poor analytical skills?!
Das torah are you out of your mind Pat Buchanan is anti jewish and anti Israel.
Why do we all rely on these so called news organization and so called analyst who as we know all have their own agenda one way or another, when we can watch the debate for ourselves and decide. All I can tell you after watching the debate all I heard was time and again Obama telling McCain repeatedly that McCain is right and if Obama agrees that McCain is right then why should I vote for Obama.
cnn.com says that only those who watched the debates were polled (makes sense), but that most of those who watched the debates were democrats (ie, predisposed to favor Obama).
So the way the polling was conducted was weighted to favor Obama.
Mccain won! #16 you are right…
Same old political bantering. Two schoolchildren saying I’m better than you. You’re wrong on this or that. We need change. Blah, Blah, Blah… HOW WILL THEY IMPLEMENT CHANGE? Neither can come up with a concrete plan on any of their issues.
McCain should have borrowed the great line that President Reagan used in his 1984 debate against Walter Mondale in which Mondale was much younger.
“I want you to know also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” – President Reagan
Re #18 – Now why do you suppose Republicans weren’t watchinh the debates? Maybe intellectual discourse is would intefere with emotional predispositions built on vicious falsehoods, such as the claim that Obama is a Muslim.
NBC called it a tie, “Analysis: no knockouts in debate, Mccain, Obama each score points, but neither emerges as obvious winner.”
Obama still wants to be nice nice to Ahmaddinejad, Vote Mccain-Palin, if you know what’s good for us.
McCain definitely won. No question about it! Obama had no answer for anything.
Let’s face the fact Obama is wining and we need change
nothing to wory obama will win and be president for 4 years. u remember jimmy carter ? what a joke
hashem help us with a new year full of goodies
USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows 46% of people who watched Friday night’s presidential debate say Democrat Barack Obama did a better job than Republican John McCain; 34% said McCain did better.
WASHINGTON (AP) – A pair of one-night polls gave Barack Obama a clear edge over John McCain in their first presidential debate.
Fifty-one percent said Obama, the Democrat, did a better job in Friday night’s faceoff while 38 percent preferred the Republican McCain, according to a CNN-Opinion Research Corp. survey of adults.
Obama was widely considered more intelligent, likable and in touch with peoples’ problems, and by modest margins was seen as the stronger leader and more sincere. Most said it was McCain who spent more time attacking his opponent.
About six in 10 said each did a better job than expected. Seven in 10 said each seemed capable of being president.
In a CBS News poll of people not committed to a candidate, 39 percent said Obama won the debate, 24 percent said McCain and 37 percent called it a tie. Twice as many said Obama understands their needs than said so about McCain.
Obama is charming…makes great speeches…looks nice…and there it ends. He is just full of himself. John McCain will serve America, Obama will serve his own self …another Hillary!! WAKE UP ALL YIDDEN!!
i’m thrilled you posted this – when i’m done with all my cooking and baking today i can’t wait to sit down and watch it!!!
I’m one of those undecided voters because I don’t like either candidate. However, after watching the debate I have to say that Obama won decisively.
Obama no matter how you twist it, is still an empty suite with zero experience extremely naive and definitely not ready to become the leader of the free world, especially in a fragile time like now.
Obama won??? I have a bridge to Iran to sell you.
McCain totally connected to the crowd (the oilem laughed when he made fun of Obama, not the other way around.) Obama got lost so many times and McCain kept his cool so well. and this Barak is such a mechutzef! he doesn’t let anyone finish a sentence! Let a person talk! what a chutzpah! he has no respect for another person, how can you be president of the United States and talk to leaders of nations with no Middos what so ever??? people wake up, before its too late!