by Kula2316
Thu Oct 16, 2008 at 02:11:52 AM PDT
Thank GOD the debates are over! They make me so nervous. All indications are that John McCain failed in his number one self-appointed task: to kick "that one's" you-know-what. We've got lots of debate reaction today, including from a group of voters in Pennsylvania.
Also, some surprising news about Joe the Plumber (considering that McCain spent the vast majority of the night trying to win his vote) and more newspaper endorsements for Obama.
And, some good fundraising news for No on Prop. 8 in California.
McCain's attacks backfired among a group of 18 voters in Pennsylvania, according to the Allentown Morning Call (PA):
The audience of 10 Democrats, seven Republicans and one independent, many undecided, split in rating many of the candidates' answers during the campaign's final debate.
But it gave Obama an unequivocal vote of support when he rebuffed McCain's effort to raise his ties to the former member of the Weather Underground and to ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which is under investigations in some states for faking voter registrations.
All but one of the 18 viewers gave Obama their highest rating as he called for a new kind of politics and spoke of including a variety of respected economic experts in his Cabinet.
and:
After the debate, 10 of the 11 viewers who thought there was a winner said Obama took the debate.
<…>
The New York Times editorial board says
McCain stuck to the script and Obama demonstrated better ideas on the economy:
Wednesday night’s debate was another chance for Mr. McCain to prove that he is ready to lead this country out of its deep economic crisis. But he had one answer to almost every economic question: cut taxes and government spending. Unfortunately, what Mr. McCain means is to cut taxes for the richest Americans and, inevitably, to reduce the kinds of government services that working Americans need more than ever.
<…>
Harold Meyerson, in a column for the Washington Post, calls out one of the funniest moments of the debate: when, after spending a good chunk of time not talking about the issues,
McCain closes his statement by saying his campaign is all about the issues:
McCain started seething, and after Obama answered his attack on the Ayres connection, McCain couldn’t stop. He kept on attacking, then remembered that people didn’t actually like this, pirouetted to say that his campaign was about issues, and fell flat on his face, not to rise again for the duration of the debate.
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