Round 1 of Obama vs. McCain

And so it begins. The series of presidential debates that can undoubtedly make or break a candidate. I sat, quite literally, on the edge of my seat the entire time, feeling so nervous that you would think I was the one up there debating in front of millions of people. Overall, I don't think it was "make or break" for either candidate in this first debate, but I did think each candidate held his own very well.

Both Obama and McCain made strong arguments without stumbling, and I think that to all the people watching who were unsure if Obama was capable or "strong" enough to be president, he proved that he can undoubtedly fight against the "maverick." Speaking of which, I got increasingly angry over the course of the debate with how unbelievably rude and inconsiderate John McCain was. In my Argumentation class, we watched a PBS special that analyzed past debates, and we learned that little things like facial expressions are more important than we might think. And I think that McCain's mannerisms on Friday night could have cost him a few supporters. Almost every time that Obama would speak, particularly when he would criticize McCain's war knowledge or talk about something that he strongly disagrees with, I kept seeing McCain smirking and laughing. It was like he wasn't taking Obama's points seriously. Just look at this clip:





Additionally, McCain told Obama four times that he "doesn't understand." It was "Senator Obama doesn't understand this" and "Senator Obama doesn't seem to understand that." At one point, he told Obama that he didn't know the difference between a strategy and a tactic. He also called Obama naive. It was 90 minutes of McCain talking down to him.

As far as who "won" the debate, the general consensus is that there is no clear winner on this one. Some polls show people think Obama won, and others show people think McCain won, but each is by a small margin. Many are undecided, or think it was a tie. But it seems that people favor Obama when it comes to the economy, but McCain when it comes to foreign policy. So far, it's difficult to tell what kind of impact this debate will have on support for either candidate. The last poll on CNN shows 48% for Obama, and 43% for McCain. Tomorrow's results might reveal more.