I missed the debates, replaying them right now.

[moriah]

Haven't read anything else about it so far. I'm at the point in it where Jim is "rephrasing" his question about what they're going to have to give up in light of the crisis.

1) I love Jim Lehrer. Absolutely love him. I want to send him brownies. Swampg8tr? Do you want to get together with me and let's send some brownies his way? Seriously. "I want to get the two of you talking to each other"!!!

2) McCain is trying for humor a lot and failing, trying to look like the wise old man who is amused at the young feller's antics. Failing.

3) Obama is doing GREAT at not seeming smug or condescending, and is talking about many more concrete things than McCain. He's laying out plans, policies, and that's even when he gets the first questions.

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At this point, however, I think most Independents are going to look at them and say "Well, dang, I wish we had a way to put both of their brains together" because they aren't saying much about fundamental disagreements that don't turn into an argument. If we ARE going to continue to spend money on an occupation that is lost, we DEFINITELY need to fix the contract situation. We do have to look at the long-term, and wielding a battleaxe is not going to fix it.

McCain is looking like a dictator, Obama is looking like a commander in chief.

Back to watching, will update this thread with my impressions.... not looking at anything else yet because I don't want to sully my impressions.

[moriah]

1. Okay, second half.... and if I'd been in a drinking game, I'd be dead.

Again, I love Jim. Brownies with nuts and chocolate chips.

McCain, oh McCain... WHY did you bring up the goddamn bracelet????

If I'd been in a drinking game, that would have made me chug a fifth of vodka. DAMN. Don't kill the people who see the debates as entertainment, please...

I was actually rather impressed with his Afghanistan and Pakistan discussions until that. He did acknowledge the historical underpinnings of this crisis -- and effectively used his long experience and age in a way to show that he might be aware of a few more things than that young whipper-snapper talking about 20st century policies in a 21st century world.

Matthew Stanley, I feel for you. I don't know what you might be thinking, but if I were in your shoes I would come back from the grave and bitchslap this man using YOUR DEATH to say he is patriotic and excuse the "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" bullshit.

Fuck that.

FUCK THAT.

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Anyway... back to watching, now that I've vented, and I'll finish my analysis here -- there were a few things I think Obama could do better.

[moriah]

2. Second third, now that I've had my cursing fit.

1) Obama needs to make the point that we cannot go back into the past and change things. We MUST learn from what we've done, yes, but we also have to deal the situation we have in front of us now. Maybe this comes from my Alateen experience, but ... the majority of the people in this country did not cause the root issues, we cannot change what has happened, and we cannot control other people -- if you can't CCC, you must D -- DEAL. After you've dealt, then you can go back and look at what caused it, and then fire the people that caused it (which is an issue that McCain doesn't get, you need to look at WHAT caused it, not just axe those who were at the helm).

2) McCain did show that he is aware of issues like intermarriage and terrain, and so he uses his vaunted travels to emphasize that. But there are many things you can see from the air, or from here -- like the fact that we HAVE coddled a dictator, that coddling Saddam and other dictators and bad governments and "freedom fighters" was what got us into this mess, that playing countries off of each other like the master puppeteer the Muslim world thinks we are is just not the way to actually make peace, or even keep it.

3) Would McCain rather it be a surprise to a government to have an airstrike against it when it won't act? Or is it better to tell them -- "Look, if you do not fix things in your country, and they are going to hurt my people, I will give you opportunity to clean up your mess but if you refuse I will do what I have to do?" I would much rather say that aloud and be willing to pull that trigger, than hem-haw and lie and then do it, or not do it and let my people keep getting attacked and DYING when they can't control the attacks.

Obama handily won the first third. He started to lose ground, but McCain shot himself in the foot when he fell back on the same tired rhetoric and invoked the name of a soldier who died for our country to excuse his distasteful irreverence about the consequences of bombing another country.

Obama did PERFECT in bringing up his bracelet only in response to that, although it would have been cool if he hadn't stumbled over the poor guy's name.

Then again, he doesn't use that bracelet as a prop, he wears it in true honor of sacrifice, and he pointed out that "defeat" and "victory" are not what we are truly fighting for, or what should truly matter. The "success" of a war is measured in the lives lost as a result of it -- on both sides. It is much better to "lose" a war than lose the lives of our people.

Still going... and maybe I should have decided to do a drinking game after all.

[moriah]

3. Last half... did McCain deliberately mispronounced Ah-what'shisname?

That right there may have been a psychological blow to Obama and reinforce those people who think Obama's heritage is a bad thing.

Obama says the names of each leader and country and organization with a very specific pronunciation. The correct, for that country's language, pronunciation. It makes him look a lot better to other countries -- people didn't really like us using the term "Shiite", when "Shia" is the more appropriate usage. It shows he has respect for the people of those countries -- he bothered to learn how to say it right. Even a small effort from Anglo-centric cultures makes citizens of other countries feel better.

When I deal with Japan field engineers, I always ask for their name, and give them the honorific -san, which is not truly polite as they are technically members of my own company and could be seen as sucking up or being sarcastic. If I were speaking directly to them, it would not be necessary, but if I was speaking to them as representatives of my client instead of as my own company, it is appropriate. I am also speaking through an interpreter. So I do it, even if the usage is questionable, because it shows that I have respect for the engineer, and that I am at least somewhat aware of how respect is shown in their culture. And it is truly AMAZING the difference it makes in my interactions with generally very touchy engineers. They know what they are doing, and my client requires us to babysit them carefully through the procedures and document each step. "I apologize for having to repeat what Masuro-san knows better than me, but I must record all of the data for our records" goes a long way.

Learning the correct pronunciation of countries, leaders, and organizations shows that you have respect for the people -- if not for the governments. And if we are going to improve our relations with Muslim countries, we must show that we respect them even if we disagree with their governments.

But that doesn't sit well with most Americans. "Who is that foreigner, and why does he say Pakistan so funny? I can't even pronounce that stuff."

Ahk-ma-din-e-shad? Is that it?

Wow. That may have endeared McCain to most stupid Americans right there. It's sad, because he should be able to pronounce it, I've never heard him mispronounce it before or stumble over it, so I think it was deliberate.

[moriah]

4. Last third and impressions.

I think Obama could have done better by emphasizing what creates terrorism, and mentioning that the amount of propaganda against our country in Muslim countries has dramatically increased since 9/11.

I kind of wish that he had pushed this when talking about Iran -- right now, we're approaching an Eastasia/Eurasia scenario, except that it appears that Russia and China have started to work together, and the Middle East is the battleground. We're starting to decide that Eurasia is our enemy, and forgetting that we have always been at war with Eastasia. By adding a fourth enemy we are attacking -- the Middle East -- it has allowed the two of them to come in on the side of the Middle East and direct their efforts there, and not be attacked by us or themselves directly.

I really wish they'd been able to ask a question about China and North Korea, as I don't like China being the big elephant in the room.

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Considering the fact that this is the strongest issue McCain has and he had to fall back on the bracelet when he couldn't just say "Yeah, that was stupid of me", I think Obama did very well, and I think he was the overall winner.

McCain came across too much when discussing the global financial crisis as a dictator, not a commander -- it's got to be his way or the highway.

McCain used patriotism and service as a crutch, and he fell back on it all too often.

McCain gave no concrete answers to what he wants to do in an organized fashion -- he had no plan. Obama had plans.

Obama won.