The Next President?

Immediate Radio 5 feedback is a draw, with advantage to Palin for not imploading (according to their experts). Listeners feedback is nearer to my interpretation. I thought she was poor and basically had no better grasp of foreign policy than I (but then I'm not standing for office). Biden sounded like the altogether more knowledgable, the only thing she really worked well was the appeal to middle America and ability to invoke the normal person I am.

Listen to it yourself folks and make your own minds up. Must go to sleep soon.
 
trackside528 said:
can't agree he is kicking the shite out of her, warbler. she started nervously but it's been fairly even to be honest.
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He was in the first 20 minutes which was when I posted that, I also prophecised it would be a draw too. These things are so stage managed, and so much time is spent briefing them, that anyone with a memory recall will stand a chance given that you aren't allowed cross examination or intervention.

My feelign was that Biden was quite a bit better, if not conclusively, she had the more common touch, but as a VP or Pres..... NO

The American feedback however, appears to be pro Palin?

This will run
 
General concensus seemed to be that she passed the test (albeit with the bar set so low it would have been hard not to!). She has a very warm personality and her informality (especially her language) is something a lot of people can relate to.

A lot of haggling about who voted for what as well made it drag on a bit and, as expected, very little of the personal bickering. Hardly riveting stuff..

He also seemed to smile an awful lot during Palin's answer. The camera seemed to cut to him and he was flashing a big grin to somebody off camera (presumably Gwen Ifill). Came across as awkward.

His answer about being a single dad was the answer of the night IMO. Thought he was close to breaking down for a moment.. wasn't sure about him opening his closing statement with the "this is the most important election you'll ever vote in" line though. A touch condescending perhaps?
 
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Biden supports (I've made a cup of tea and want a fag) daren't hear Palin's answer.

"not if it goes closer and closer to redefining" she says. In Fairness she qualifies it, let me reflect it, she has a liberal take on it (by her standards) Biden sounds surprised but can't bring himself to support it . Both agree they don't support gay marriage.
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I think it's fair to say that Biden supports everything about gay marriage except the term itself, considering 'marriage' to be a religious definitiion, not a civil one. Palin actually ended up accidentally agreeing with this, which was funny.
 
I don´t understand how people can think this was a draw. For me Biden was in a different league. He was actually very impressive I thought. Palin was seriously lacking in detail and any substance. I can understand how her handlers are relieved because she didn´t blow up, but if this debate had taken place a day after her speech at the GOP conference (when her stock was at its highest point), I think people would be reaching a different conclusion about the outcome.
 
Gallup: Obama 50 McCain 42
Rasmussen: Obama 51 McCain 45

From electoral-vote.com:

McCain Will Take the Gloves Off

The McCain campaign (read: Steve Schmidt) has decided that being a war hero is not good enough, being a POW is not good enough, being a maverick is not good enough, and being a reformer is not good enough, so the mud is about to start flying. The campaign has pulled all its positive ads touting McCain's experience and long service to the country. From now on, the entire focus will be on Barack Obama's associations with convicted Chicago developer Tony Rezko, 1960s radical William Ayers, and Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It is a high-risk gamble, but McCain loves to roll the dice. But this fierce new strategy has two potential downsides. First, while partisan Republicans will love it (as they loved Sarah Palin's convention speech), negative ads don't always work so well with independents, whose votes are now crucial to both sides. Second, there is a very real danger that either Obama, or more likely, Democratic 527s will start throwing mud right back at McCain. A few choice subjects for negative ads are (1) his taking bribes from convicted felon Charles Keating in the 1980s, (2) the fact that he is an old man who has had a very dangerous form of cancer four times, and (3) the way he divorced his crippled first wife to marry a beer heiress worth $100 million. Clearly Schmidt knows all this but apparently he feels he has to shake things up before it is too late. It is going to get real messy.

The 527s on both sides are already in the act, of course. Here is an example of an anti-Obama ad and an example of an anti-McCain ad.
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Slightly 'off-topic' but did anyone see the Kevin Spacey film about the Florida 'dimpled chad' election?

I didn't realise it was on until it was almost finished, was it any good?
 
The sort of people who will vote Republican because of Palin probably think of her as an intellectual.

And why does she call herself a "hockey-mom"? I wasn't aware that they played hockey in the US. Does she mean an "ice-hockey mom"?
 
A truly heavyweight exchange on radio 5 last night between Dotun Adebayo and someone nebulously described as the 'BBC's Washington correspondent' (sounded like some prim and prissy 1st year Oxford graduate).

"I've got an email from a listener here asking if Obama's associations with Tony Rezko will be dragged up too, and will this be damaging?"

"I don't know who he is. I'll need to look into that, I've never heard of him".

"No neither have I, but thought you might know"

Now where as I wouldn't expect average UK punter to know the name, I don't think its unreasonable to expect someone whose based over there, and presumebly follows the election as part of their job, and then gives allegedly informed comment on the subject, to be at least aware of the three skeletons that Obama's supposed to have in his closet. All three names were circulating at least 6 months ago in the mainstream media afterall, on top of anything else that might be doing the less formal whispering circuit.
 
Warbler. I would hope that wasnt Justin webb, whos pretty decent IMO

Radio five smug is hardly going to be anything other than in awe of Obama is it? Even the recent Radio 4 Today's (who should know better) of Obama's conference speech was embarrasingly reverential

I think one of the reasons that the right despise the BBC is because many elements there cloak themselves with this myth of impartiality.

Fair to say you know where you are with Fox news
 
Warbler said:
A truly heavyweight exchange on radio 5 last night between Dotun Adebayo and someone nebulously described as the 'BBC's Washington correspondent' (sounded like some prim and prissy 1st year Oxford graduate).

"I've got an email from a listener here asking if Obama's associations with Tony Rezko will be dragged up too, and will this be damaging?"

"I don't know who he is. I'll need to look into that, I've never heard of him".

"No neither have I, but thought you might know"

Now where as I wouldn't expect average UK punter to know the name, I don't think its unreasonable to expect someone whose based over there, and presumebly follows the election as part of their job, and then gives allegedly informed comment on the subject, to be at least aware of the three skeletons that Obama's supposed to have in his closet. All three names were circulating at least 6 months ago in the mainstream media afterall, on top of anything else that might be doing the less formal whispering circuit.
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On the Rezko topic, I believe his sentencing is scheduled for October 28, one week before the election. Surprise anyone?
 
Gallup: Obama 51 McCain 42
Rasmussen: Obama 52 McCain 44

Second debate 2am in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
 
Galileo said:
Will set the alarm and turn on the radio to listen to it...
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It's on the likes of Sky News, CNN etc. if you have those.

Would agree with Gareth, though, that the townhall format doesn't really lend itself to a particularly exciting debate. The events of the last couple of days could, though!
 
I reckon they should play a game of Top Trumps, see who runs out of guilt-by-association allegations first.

BTW, if anyone thinks that:

a) America simply will not elect a black President, or
b) The polls that are putting Obama in the lead are inflated by the Bradley effect, or
c) McCain has a devastating October surprise ready to go, or
d) The race will naturally tighten up again as we get closer to the election day

then I'll just point out that McCain is 7/2 to win on Betfair.
 
Kept falling in and out of sleep, but from the bits I picked up Obama seemed to have the upper hand with McCain sounding doddery
 
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