Presidential Debate, 10/07

The gloves came off last night as Presidential hopefuls John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama (D-IL) met in a "town hall" meeting in Nashville. The debate went as most would expect - a fair amount of dodging questions and caustic remarks by both candidates. One would be naive to think that neither candidate prepared possible answers before the debate, but the town hall format did allow for more off-the-cuff answers. John McCain was more comfortable from the start. Although his answers were not always clear and concise, Senator McCain seemed to connect with the people. His answers were frank and open. Senator Obama appeared to stumble over words while trying to answer a few questions in the beginning. Once he settled in, it was deja vu all over again with Obama avoiding questions about taxes and vaguely responding to concerns over the economy.

This was McCain's chance to land a solid blow to the Obama-maina that has flooded the airwaves of the country. It was not a knockout by a longshot, but McCain landed several punches and severely questioned the repute of Obama's senior economic advisers. The substance of answers to economic questions, however, involved more finger pointing than anything else. Obama ridiculed McCain for stating that the "fundamentals of our economy are strong," but the United States' economy does in fact stand on solid ground. The country saw a fair amount of growth over the summer and during the second quarter. Although the number was a little under 3%, the United States continues to perform well in the GDP projections for this year. Any economic problems are only exacerbated by the media's sensationalism which causes bank runs and stock market sell-offs.

The national polls are very close but McCain needed a strong performance to help in the battleground states. Obama held leads going into the debate in Colorado and Ohio--two pivotal states in the general election. The debate last night should help McCain to increase, if not challenge Obama's position. Still, however, these are simply polls and polls have a tendency to be incorrect (look at the Dewey-FDR poll back seventy years ago.) ...And the victor is: Senator John McCain.

----An interesting side note, Cleveland Browns QB Brady Quinn announced his support of John McCain in the election and introduced McCain at a Cleveland area rally this afternoon.----