The first presidential debate looked like a draw to me, but then I fell asleep a couple of times. The factcheckers are on the job, but I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that both John McCain and Barack Obama mangled the truth to some extent. This was not a debate to change minds. It would have been so much more interesting if they'd actually debated each other. Yawn.
Summing up the smallness of it all, Eve Fairbanks calls it:
They Both Lost -- The whole debate was weirdly imitative. You brag about your soldier's bracelet, I'll brag about my soldier's bracelet! . . He's parsing words, he isn't parsing words, let's call the whole thing off. The two guys fought all night in the weeds, tussling Talmudically over Henry Kissinger, the difference between a "strategy" and a "tactic," Obama's exact earmark request, and our official designation for the Republican Guard. . The discussion was often backward-looking, defensive, and record-oriented.
But never fear, Chris Matthews found something important to rant and rave about. Chris was almost red in the face with outrage because John McCain never once looked at Barack Obama. Horrors! Or so Chris said. According to Matthews, McCain is contemptuous of Obama. I'm almost glad Hillary Rodham Clinton doesn't have to put up with this crap anymore.
And over at CNN, the pundits tried to add some drama by telling us that Obama insulted McCain by calling him John instead of Senator McCain. Gawd. Will somebody please tell me why we need the press?
From the Obama camp:
From the McCain camp - McCain is Right:
Huff Post has more video highlights.
Update: Hierarchy-obsessed Josh Marshall compares Senator John McCain to "a low-ranking monkey." Gawd. If anyone else posted such drivel, Marshall would be the first to call 'racism'. Presidential election or two-bit carnival? You tell me.
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