Debate winner

Last night's debate was for the most part all it lived up to be. To begin Jim Lehrer was a terrible moderator. He was far too concerned with how he looked and sounded and couldn't formulate questions that either candidate could understand or answer. Here is my scorecard as I watched it:
Economic Crisis - Obama
Favor the Bailout - McCain
Lead out of crisis - Obama
Taxes - Obama
Priorities Delayed - McCain
Healthcare - Obama
Alternative Energy - Both
Iraq - McCain
Overall Appearance - Obama

Final Score: Obama - 6 McCain - 4

McCain received low marks because he repeatedly went back to the fact that he wants to cut spending, but never really offered up any substance other than things that the government has to spend money on (Defense and entitlements). Obama was much better when responding to McCain's statements and was quick to say that something was just plain wrong and did it in a very respectful way. I though a key moment in the debate is when McCain summed up all of the alternative energy ideas in 2 seconds and glossed over them to get to something he saw as more important. He gets the point for the excellend job he did of giving an overview of how nuclear energy would improve the country's energy resources.

Although I think the overall winner was Obama there was one point of interest that stood out to me. McCain did an excellend job of telling the American people to forget the mistake that he and others made by getting us into the Iraq mess, but instead to look ahead to see and think about how we should manage Iraq in the future. If Obama and his campaign staff don't turn around and start talking about the future insteas of the past McCain could capitalize on this issue.

Lastly, here is what really matters...its called the Kennedy/Nixon rating. What this means is simply how each candidate came off to the American people and how we see the candidates in our minds. Obama looked like someone who was truly offended when things were offered up as fact when they were not true. He didn't come off as a scolding mother (Clinton) or a as a academic looking down on the American people (Gore), instead he made sure he kept mentioning "middle class families" and sounded presidential.

McCain on the other hand, came off as you old uncle Mort. I say this because he kept making snide references and bad jokes after which he would give us this weird, awkward chuckle that all old relatives make when they think something is funny and no one else does. The more important mistake that he made might have flown under the radar. He said at one point that Obama's tax cuts would exclude people "that made as low as $42000 a year." I hate to tell you John, but to many voters in this country that is a normal middle class salary. If any liberal media, other news outlet, and hopefully the Obama campaign pick up on this faux-pas it could really hurt McCain's numbers in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia.