On that note...
My take....
Style wise.....
Obama came off as very defensive and quiet frankly rude. He was always holding up a finger, and trying to get Jim to let him interrupt McCain. I thought as the debate went on, McCain had he kind of rocked back on his heels. Obama stammered a lot when he wasn’t parroting the same talking points over and over again. He can talk longer than anyone I have seen in a while, and not say anything of substance.
McCain came off as confident, poised, and articulate. Toward the end, he came off as so hearfelt when talking about the war, and the veterans.
Substance.....
McCain did pretty well in the first part of the debate on the economy. I would call it a draw. McCain did OK, but missed a chance to knock it out of the park. I think McCain was being careful on the current financial crisis because they still don’t have a bipartisan resolution yet. Once they get whatever bill passed, McCain is going to rip into the Dems and Obama on what they did to get us in this mess.
McCain got stronger as the debate went on and turned to foreign policy. Obama had his talking points and stayed with them. McCain actually knew what he was talking about here, because he has been there, and experienced it first hand. Obama showed he knew how to memorize stuff and repeat it back pretty effectively.
McCain hit it out of the park at the end. His comments about his actual experience, and that Obama is just not experienced to lead this country. The on the job training might be McCain’s soundbite takeaway.
As Fox said, there were 8 questions. McCain won 5 of those IMO. And 2-3 were probably ties.
Overall, McCain did well.