The First Debate: A Win For John McCain

I caught the repeat of the first debate on CNN and here's my wholehearted assessment:

- after virtual tit-for-tat tie during the first half (who cares about earmarks?), John McCain clearly took it to Obama in the latter half, leading the conversation and touting his experience. Obama really looked flustered at times esp. when McCain spoke about Iran president Ahmadinejad, security matters and Barack's desire to sit down with a madman, Jimmy Carter-style.

- McCain needs to acknowledge Senator Obama and look at him more. Not doing so makes him appear arrogant and dismissive, which won't read well with independent voters. With that said, you could tell at times that Obama was downright upset at times when McCain said something he didn't like. Barack would smirk and clearly lost his cool several times during the debate, like most liberals do when they hear stuff they don't like.

- I loved what was the best line of the night from Senator McCain: "I'm not going to set the White House visitors schedule before I'm president of the United States. I don't even have a seal yet."

- McCain able to point out key differences between him and Obama on both the economy and foreign policy displaying both familiarity and confidence. But then McCain's had more time to establish relationships and is level-headed on the issue of our military.

- Obama did well in what is essentially his top strategy: McCain is 4 more years of Bush. However, Barack didn't push it enough and he genuflected to McCain too after he spoke on issues like fighting the war in Afghanistan and Russia, which in turn made Obama look clueless.

- McCain clearly wants no part of the Bush administration which is fine and he was obviously touting his love for Reagan to appeal to his base. But I think McCain would also do well in touting the heap of mistakes of the last two Democrat president: Carter and Clinton

- I have a very liberal friend who texted me after the debates was done saying that it "was painful to watch" and "I don't think Obama got his points across well and unfortunately I think it made McCain look more knowledgeable".

- I gotta admit, Barack did pretty well without a teleprompter, but he still lost.