What are attributes that one would expect from the President of the United States?
-An altruistic leader, who reigns with confidence that reassures the American people.
-A forceful, orator, who speaks with purpose and hope for the future, lending solutions to current problems plaguing the United States.
With that said, we believe that Barack Obama was the more persuasive presidential candidate, if you can even say John McCain showed any indications of persuasiveness throughout the debate.
One might ask why Barack Obama has gained momentum in the polls. Here are reasons as to why:
Although John McCain attempted to separate himself from the current Bush administration and his Republican Party by stating incessantly that he was no “Mr. Congeniality,” Barrack Obama would attach McCain to the current ruling party and blame them for everything wrong with the United States right now. And in this time of crisis, the American people are looking for someone to point the finger at. Seeing the two candidates fight it out on public television really offers great insight as to how the two men will be as future leaders. McCain kept his head down most of the debate. At times, his anger got the best of him and he would speak out of turn, cutting off both Obama and moderator Jim Leher. This could be seen as rude and unprofessional. Would Americans want this type of person representing their country? No! Obama, on the other hand, not only looked at McCain while debating, but he would look straight into the camera. By doing this, he is looking straight into the eyes of the American people. As viewers, this is very reassuring for a potential leader. McCain spoke mostly of past stories, whereas Obama offered solutions for the future. His plan regarding the current economic crisis: oversight prices, tax payers have the opportunity to get their money back, no money will be given to bad businesses, and he wants to help homeowners. It’s one thing to talk about our problems, it’s another to lend solutions.
-THE TEAM
CM
5 comments:
Personally I enjoyed the debate on Friday, especially closer to the end of the debate and the topics being discussed became slightly more hostile. I especially enjoyed how both candidates (more so McCain in my opinion) were acting childlike with things like cutting one another off and even interupting the moderator. Let me get back to the topic at hand.
Don't get me wrong, this was not a knock-out drag-down battle but each side definitely got their hits in. There are three more debates to be had and ladies and gentlemen, the battle has just gotten started.
Both the republicans and the democrats believe that their side came across with the win. I think it is a safer bet to look at the debate in seperate portions where clear "winners" are earier to point out. At the last minute the topic of the current economic crisis was added to the gameplan for the evening. Obama came across with a stronger, more publically accepted and trusted arguement. However when the debate moved towards scheduled topics like foriegn policy, the McCain camp looked more comfortable.
When all else fails both sides came back to old faithful, their key arguements that seem to be reused over and again to try and sway extra voters. McCain says that Obama is inexperienced and will not be able to step into office and immediatly take control. Obama's comeback is that electing McCain will be nothing more then a continuation of the current Bush era. Naturally both sides adamently refute these claims.
Eyes on the World '08
The Presidential Debate that took place on Friday evening was a farce. Like the 1968 debate we watched in class, the candidates did not stick to the topic. Friday's debate was supposed to focus on foreign issues, but the first half of the debate was spent discussing domestic issues like the economy.
These two politicians had a lot of ideas. Obama wants to reduce our dependance on foreign oil, and McCain wants to cut spending. They both want to change Washington. It is great that they have ideas, but they are yet to articulate a plan for bringing these ideas to fruition.
McCain is running this race on his experience. Experience comes with age which is something McCain certainly has.
Obama says that he is for the average American as he speaks at his $25,000 a plate fundraising dinners.
The debate answered no questions. We know nothing more about these two men than we did on Thursday. This wasn't a debate, it was the latest episode of a classic prime time drama that won't end until November 4.
Eyes on the World '08
The Garden Print
There is no doubt that Barack Obama has the ability to eloquently deliver some nice
words that at face value seem to be filled with great details on how he will make the US a great booming country. On the other hand, Senator John Mccain has a little bit more trouble trying to portray a similar image.
What is most important here is that in reality it does not matter who looks great during the debate, but what exactly is being said.
After watching the deliberation several times and trying to actually figure out what they were saying, some of us found it was either very general responses that offer no true insight or detail of any plans.
For exmaple,When Jim Leher asked the candidates where they stand on the financial recovery plan we could not find any difference between the vague answers both candidates provided.
Barack Obama said he agrees with the recovery plan but it must have oversight, the possibility of tax payers receiving some kind of compensation, making sure none of the money goes to support golden parachutes, and help out home owners.
Senator John McCain went on to say that “We have a lot to do,” and also agreed that recovery plan must have oversight. But following in the steps of Senator Obama, he said a whole lot of nothing.
Furthermore, some of us felt that the outcome of the debates was that Obama was more persuasive. He looked directly into the camera, making his responses very personal.
According to CBS News political analyst Joe Trippi “When you have a foreign policy debate where John McCain is thought in the voter's mind to have more experience than Obama, and he gets through the whole debate without making a misstatement, holding his own, and people at the end either believe that he's won the debate or it's a tie - that's a push for Barack Obama. And he clearly, clearly achieved that.”
Lastly, it seems that McCain is focusing too much on Obama not having enough experience. Strange point to make when Obama has more experience than his runningmate, Palin.
The Decisie Group
Maybe it is true that history repeats itself because I saw a lot of striking resemblences to the John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon Presidential debate.
In my opinion, Barack Obama did a terrific job holding himself against McCain's attacks. His composure, looking straight at the audience, as well as making eye contact with John McCain were signs of power and dominance. These are definite qualities a president should have. My complaint about Mr. Obama is his vagueness in regards to the plan to the bail out. He didn't specify what would be done, just that it would be somehting.
I guess he's doing a president's job, telling us something without saying pretty much anything.
Obama accomplished finesse and style which can make up for his lack of experience.
With that in my mind, his lack of expereince, I pose this question. If we want change, shouldn't we vote for someone who hasn't been doing the same thing for a very long time (McCain)?
As for substance, my vote goes to McCain. Although he wasn't as physically likeable as Obama, he showed spunk and his experience far outways Obama's. He did a fairly decent job answering questions. But what really hit me was his schpeal on personal responsility which is something I wish more politicians would embrace and talk about. Frankly, its not all the big investment company's fault if we're taking out loans based on false income information, right?
In the end, both of the cnadidates reverted back to their old tactics of attacking each other. We don't need a president who needs to down someone else to look better.
-M.M.
The Decisive Group
Decipher group
To correct the The Team, John McCain repeated, “I was not voted miss congeniality.” Our group felt that we were watching a reenactment of the 60’ Kennedy (Obama) v Nixon (McCain) debate. The debate was to be on foreign affairs, but they spent a good portion of the debate on domestic issues, correlating to the ken v Nix debate where it was to be on domestic issues and a good portion of the time was devoted to foreign. On the part about domestic issues, we felt that even though they both did not have solid reason and clear cut ways to stop the financial crisis, Obama made a clearer argument. When it came to foreign affairs we feel that the money issue would heal smoother if we stop bleeding money into the war. One question that we had was what McCain meant when he said,” we are winning.” What is winning anyway? Other things that we noticed was the fact that McCain refused to look into Obama’s eyes and was more focused on his notes to care who he was talking to, but Obama spoke directly to McCain as well as speaking directly to the audience, even though he had a hard time directing his looks toward McCain in the beginning. One other factor we noticed was that McCain had a tendency to name drop referring to political officials as close friends etc. We felt that the debate was needed as way to see not only how they plan to fix the country but also how they interact, whether by some snarky comments on both ends, or just in appearance. We feel that the debate was, however much a routine, pretty much successful for the candidates to battle to see who gets the top spot come November. But as a group we felt Obama had a clear victory, but it calls into question the affect viewing the debate on TV had, just like the Ken v Nix debate.
DECIPHER
Post a Comment