Who won the Presidential Debate….

McCain and Obama face off

That’s today’s hot topic.  Well, for many it may be a debate over who won.  It seems many are disappointed in both parties.

Dismay at McCain’s demeaning remarks to Obama has been evidenced across the net.

Katie Couric calls it a “civil debate” and a “substantive debate” since many topics outside the one scheduled to be discussed were covered.  Guiliani says “He [McCain] won a big victory tonight.  I think he demonstrated why the American people trust him more as commander in chief.”  Ummm, sorry that’s not a mutual feeling.  If we get another Republican in office this term, I’ll need to check into moving to another country!

Guiliani also says “He [McCain] demonstrated the lack of knowledge and lack of experience Senator Obama has.  It almost sounded like a tutorial on foreign policy.”  Wow.  He points out that on a number of occasions Senator Obama started his response by saying “You’re right Senator McCain.”  Well, at least we know we can count on Obama to be HONEST – I respect that.

Further, just because Obama hasn’t yet had to make “many critical decisions regarding foreign policy” makes no difference here nor there.  As Obama states IT’S TIME FOR CHANGE!  Maybe that’s what we need, someone fresh.  Just because someone is more experienced at something doesn’t make them the better candidate – they can be more experienced and still make bad decisions.  Dan Pfeiffer backs me up there and says the same thing (I said it before I heard him say it so it was certainly my own, non-influenced opinion).

Pfeiffer says “for John McCain, it’s experience to what end?  Is it experience to lead him to have good judgement?  I think we’ve seen he’s not had good judgment, certainly on Iraq where he supported the war.  He thought we would be greeted as liberators and he thought oil revenues would pay for themselves.”  AMEN!  The cost at the gas pump tells the story there and I have to listen to it every time I need gas.

Pfeiffer goes on to further to say “Is it experience that will lead him to have a differing and independent view than George Bush?  We didn’t hear anything about that tonight.”  And that’s the million dollar question folks!!!  He also talks about McCain’s wavering stance on the economy and it’s health – or illness.  He points out that Obama was “calm and steady and did not display any of the erratic behavoir that John McCain had over the last ten days.”  That’s what happens when you’re honest – you’re able to be calm and steady.

They had uncommited voters listening and reacting to the debate and it’s said that McCain’s numbers went down every time he went after Obama.  Nice.

You can check out Katie’s coverage here (link to transcript of the debate is below) that includes viewer questions/answers and more.  It also includes the reaction of the uncommited voters and the Iraq war Veterans thoughts and feelings.  One of the Vets says “McCain may love Vets but that’s not what I need, I get plenty of that from home!  What I need is a politician that will vote for me, vote for my friends, and I don’t think that McCain’s record says that.” You go boy!  There’s a great statement in there from another uncommited voter about the bailout and his wanting to know how they are going to protect the lower level people, not only the business etc.  OKAY, WE WANT TO KNOW TOO!

Another uncommited voter, from a swing state, points out that Obama makes a great point about how we’ve lost our International clout and in order to regain that we need Obama as President.  I couldn’t have said it better!

Obviously supporters of each party are going to support their man and their opinions will be formulated in the best interest of their party for the most part so there’s big support of each side of the debate.

Personally, I don’t care who you think won it – what I care about is that you get out and vote on Nov. 6!  Every vote counts and if you sit around and do nothing, you might end up with a President you don’t want.  Right now, it counts more than ever to put your vote in.  That will determine the state our Nation will be in.

This year’s election could add a historical moment to the books – if Obama wins.  But if you don’t vote, things could go south.  If you do vote, you could be a part of that history.  Please vote.

You can read the transcript of the debate here and you can watch the debate here.

Debate polls indicate that Obama won round 1.

[image by CNN]