Final Debate, Roundup

Here's everything you wanted to know about the final debate and more.

Here's the video in case you missed it.



Here's the transcript.

Poll results are here and here.

Media reactions to the debate are aggregated here, here and here.

Fact Check Results are here and here.

The campaigns' spin on the debate is here.

CQ Politic's Bests and Mosts.

Some funny/thought provoking reactions --

First Read :McCain opens with Nancy Reagan (but doesn't mention Dick Cheney who is also sick). He opened with concerns about Teddy K in the last debate. (Sahil Says: transparent attempt to seem sympathetic?)

FDL Commenter: I support Joe the Plumber's right to have an abortion.

And by the end of the third and last presidential debate, the undecided voters who had gathered in Denver for Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg’s focus group were “audibly snickering” at John McCain’s grimaces, eye-bulging, and repeated references to “Joe the Plumber.”

Word Counts from the debate -

First Read: The final count of "Joe" references (the plumber, not the Biden) is 25. McCain: 21, Obama: 4.

Think Progress: McCain didn’t say “middle class” at all. Said Bill Ayers six times. ACORN three times.

Obama's post-debate ad:



McCain's post-debate ad:

Debate Tips for John McCain

Funny!

Debate Two, Media Roundup

Everything you wanted to know about the debates, and more.

First, the video of the entire debate.



You can find a transcript of the debate here.

Polling and focus group results are here, here, here, here, here, and here.

You can find summaries of reactions from different media sources here and here.

CQ Politics names the "bests and the mosts" for the debate.

Fact-checking results can be found here, here, and here.

For spin from the campaigns, check here.

For my two cents, go here.

The Second Debate, Quick Thoughts

For the first debate I wasn't sure that either man won, but for this one I do think that Obama was much better than McCain. Obama was much better both on the offense and on defense.

Does anyone find it ironic that McCain is the one pushing the talking softly while carrying a big stick theme?

Did you think it was rude (and a little shocking) when McCain called Obama "that one"?

More to come, stay tuned.

News Briefs, 10/4/08

A leaked cable suggests that US strategy in Afghanistan will fail.

Reports link Afghan President Karzai's brother to heroin trade.

Opposition leader accuses Georgian President of human rights abuses and stifling democracy.

The Biden-Palin debate draws 70 million viewers, or 40% more than the first Presidential debate.

Local hits: The Boston market had the third highest viewership for the VP debates.

Troopergate: Alaska Supreme Court agrees to hear an emergency appeal from lawyers seeing to shut down the investigation.

Palin on Darfur

A Washington Post investigation into Palin's Darfur claims comes to this conclusion.

Sarah Palin is exaggerating her role in leading the Sudan divestiture in Alaska. The legislative record shows that her administration was late in embracing the campaign to sell stock in companies that do business with Sudan, and that it initially opposed the divestiture. The Alaska Permanent Fund still invests in companies blacklisted by the Save Darfur Coalition. (emphasis added)

NYT Editorial

Here's the concluding paragraph from the NYT editorial on last night's debate. Read the entire piece here.

In the end, the debate did not change the essential truth of Ms. Palin’s candidacy: Mr. McCain made a wildly irresponsible choice that shattered the image he created for himself as the honest, seasoned, experienced man of principle and judgment. It was either an act of incredible cynicism or appallingly bad judgment.

Thanks for the tip, Denice.

Palin Biden Debate, Media Roundup

Your one-stop shop for debate related coverage.

First, the video of the entire debate.


If you don't want to watch the whole thing, here's a transcript of the debate.

The focus group results are here, here, and here,.

See a fact check of the debate here and here.

Just for kicks, a couple of word counts:

(Via Think Progress) ABC News’s Charlie Gibson: Biden referenced McCain 62 times. Palin mentioned Obama 18 times.

CQ Politics reports, "Not surprisingly, Palin praised her running mate eight times by calling him a “maverick.” But Biden, in describing when he felt McCain was not a “maverick,” used the word nine times."

A post-debate ad from the Obama campaign:



My two cents on the debate can be found here. And I'll update the post with more information as it comes along.

Emotion

Biden's momentary display of emotion is perhaps the most memorable moment from the VP debate.

Palin-Biden Debate, Initial Thoughts

The expectations for Palin (especially after the Couric interviews) were so low that people were expecting her to get massacred. That obviously did not happen. In that sense, it was a victory for Palin.

Aside from the expectations game, I thought the one thing that stuck with me was Palin's choice to ignore the question at hand, repeatedly. I've seen it happen in debates, but I've never seen it done so blatantly.

The shorter format, especially since there wasn't any specific follow-up from the moderater, worked for Palin. She was able to stick to her talking points. Even with this advantage, Palin at times came across as someone enrolled in a public speaking course.

Biden came across as dignified and capable. Palin came across as ordinary and likable. (I use the word ordinary in the the average person context, not in a pejorative sense.)

Maybe this is just me, but it seemed like Palin was smirking and was in general a lot less respectful than Biden was of Palin.

A Preview of the Palin-Biden Debate?

Andrew Halcro is a former Republican legislator from Alaska. Halcro gained firsthand knowledge of what it like to debate Palin, when he ran for governor as an Independent in 2006. Here's an extract from his column.

On April 18, 2006, Palin and I sat together in a hotel coffee shop comparing campaign trail notes. As we talked about the debates, Palin made a comment that highlights the phenomenon that Biden is up against.

"Andrew, I watch you at these debates with no notes, no papers and yet when asked questions you spout off facts, figures and policies and I'm amazed. But then I look out into the audience and I ask myself, 'Does any of this really matter?' " Palin said.

While public policy wonks might cringe, the fact was that Sarah Palin was simply vocalizing her biggest campaign strength without realizing it. During the campaign, from January to November, Palin's message on important public policy issues never evolved -- because it didn't have to. Her ability to fill the debate halls with her presence and her gift of the glittering generality made it possible for her to rely on populism instead of policy.

In one debate, a moderator asked the candidates to name a bill the Legislature had recently passed that we didn't like. I named one. Democratic candidate Tony Knowles named one. But Palin used her allotted time to criticize the unpopular incumbent governor, Frank Murkowski. Asked to name a bill we did like, the same pattern emerged: Palin didn't name a bill.

And when she does answer the actual question asked, she has the canny ability to connect with the audience on a personal level. For example, asked to name a major issue that had been ignored during the campaign, I mentioned the health of Alaska communities, Mr. Knowles talked about affordable health care, and Palin talked about the need to protect hunting and fishing rights.

Thanks for the tip, Kristen.

The Expectations Game

The lone debate between Biden and Palin is perhaps more eagerly awaited than any of the McCain-Obama debates. Expectations are that Palin will receive a thorough drubbing at the hands of Biden, especially after the disastrous interview with Katie Couric. The dramatically lowered expectations pose a real threat for Obama and Biden. Given such low expectations, simply showing up might make Palin look like a winner. Okay, I'm exaggerating but you get the point. What do you think? Any predictions?

The Giant Debate Roundup

Here's everything you've ever wanted to know about the debate last night, and more.

First, the transcript for the debate is available here.

What did the media think of last night's debate? Real Clear Politics collects extracts from newspaper editorials around the country. CQ Politics also has a roundup of different reactions from the media.

What about the voters? Focus groups conducted by Democracy Corps, CBS News, CNN, and Fox News(!) found that undecided voters broke for Obama after the debate. See details here, here, and here.

What did the campaigns think of the debate? Chris Cilliza has an interesting way of wading through all the blather. He uses the ads put out by each campaign as a 30-second statement on what they thought the salient point of the debate was. Here are the two ads.

FactCheck.org points out all the factual errors in the debates. Also, David from Blue Mass Group points out some of the foreign policy gaffes and misstatements by McCain.

The Washington Post has a nifty little tool, Debate Decoder, that will please all of you tech-savvy folks.

What did I think of the debate? Neither one of them hit it out of the park. There were some interesting exchanges but mostly it was blah.