Not a knockout blow for Obama or even a decisive win but two things became clear after this debate: Obama understands and is conversant in foreign policy and seems like a President. McCain? Kind of an asshole.
A lot is being made of the number of times that Obama said “You’re right, John” or some variation as if it is some kind of weakness - McCain even threw out an insta-ad on that theme. To me, though, it looked like Obama was walking the walk of the post-partisan he claims to be. There is no need to be embarrassed about agreeing with your opponent about something non-controversial - it actually demonstrates leadership to do so. All we got from McCain were smirks and laughter and increasingly implausible claims that Obama was naive and unprepared. Nice talking points in the abstract but they just don’t link up with what was on screen.
I think the reason the flash polls favored Obama is because people didn’t know if he was for real. Now they know. They knew that McCain was a maverick about campaign finance reform; now they know that he is a maverick about basic courtesy. Is it too much to look at Obama once? I guess so.
In any event, my favorite post-debate line comes from Jeff Johnson:
McCain = if Obama’s (lack of) foreign policy experience is snicker-worthy...and just, you know, galling, and DANGEROUS, perhaps you’d better look at your GODDAMN VP CHOICE Sarah Palin, whose sole diplomatic effort begins and ends with a letter she wrote wondering what Mayor McCheese’s first name was. Christ on a bun. GIve her a world atlas. If she knows where Ireland is, I promise I will vote for her.