Debate Pebbles
Posted Sat, 09/27/08
Everyone has their own opinion, and most of them are flying about America today. I watched the entire first presidential debate last night and feel Barack Obama nailed the entire evening. Other people I'm acquainted with think McCain had a better grasp on foreign policy, but I felt he was repetitive and grouchy: an old curmudgeon who knows he's flailing but still won't give up the ghost.
Last night around midnight I looked at the MSNBC polls and found the following percentages when people were asked who they felt won the first debate:
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McCain: 34%
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Obama: 52%
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Tie: 6.2%
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Not Sure: 8.1%
The above percentages were based on 444,393 online responses.
And the Newsvine poll had even higher percentages in favor of Obama during the debate as of midnight last night:
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McCain: 17%
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Obama: 78.6%
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Tie: 3.2%
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Not Sure: 1.2%
The above percentages were based on 65,438 online responses.
To be fair I wandered over to Slate Magazine to take a look at their debate polls, and they claim the "tie" went to Obama while at the same time stating neither candidate won a clear victory in the debate.
Time Magazine reported that Obama won the debate on tactics and strategies.
One USA Today poll also claims Obama won the debate, although by a close margin: McCain (46%) and Obama (54%). How can all these polls be so different? Most of the data is based on the number of people who vote in the polls, although it appears the majority of them place Obama as the winner.
Frankly, I don't care about polls or what other people might think when it comes down to brass tacks. However, seeing the general lean of the population is interesting and encouraging.
In my own life, I listen and learn and read about the candidates and their positions from a variety of different resources, and in the end I form my own opinion.
I am more likely to support someone who champions the middle class – who incidentally have been royally screwed by Bush II and his cohorts – than a man who is feeling his own mortality and thinks he deserves the highest office in the land just because of his length of service to the country and uses that fact to try and elicit sympathy votes from the pubic.
Plenty of men and women have served their country, some of them losing their lives in the process. I have yet to witness survivors of military service shuffling and kicking pebbles in the playground when things don't go their way unlike their counterpart running for the office of President.
Tags: Politics