re: Blinking (0.00 / 0)

I thought McCain's running mate staked out a clear anti-blinking position already.  

Snark aside, lots of blinking is a body language sign of dishonesty, no?

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by: Daniel De Groot @ Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 17:49:57 PM UTC

I don't agree with that criticism (4.00 / 2)

McCain doesn't do well under bright lights, and it was clear towards the end when he put his hand over his eyebrows, he didn't like the lights.   Some politicians are more sensitive to lights than others.  John Edwards also blinked a lot because of them.  Doesn't mean he was insincere about his plans (but let's not go into his personal life--different story).

The "blinking" is a metaphor in this diary, and where I think McCain blinked was continuing to criticize Obama when McCain tried to be his grandfather in saying "Senator Obama doesn't understand..". Big mistake.  Obama was more articulate than McCain, and it was clear that McCain couldn't handle the tough questions without fumbling the ball.  Moreover, McCain sounded so "old school" whereas Obama sounded more like the future (and it was the first time I noticed it myself).

I appreciated Jim Lehrer giving a stern talk to the audience not to interrupt, and I hope the next two moderators follow that practice.

McCain needs to focus on strategy and not tactics, which is ironic considering he tried to school Obama on the differences at the debate.  

It's clear Obama is focused on strategy, which worked for him last night and many of the undecideds saw that side of him (as I did, and I intended to vote for him anyway).  He's nobody's fool.  

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by: Benny @ Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 18:05:42 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Some Obama blinking (0.00 / 0)

I didn't really pay attention during the entirety of the debate, but on a clip that re-aired during the morning shows (it may have been during the opening minutes, not sure I remember) Obama was blinking at a pretty good rate.

Still, nothing compares to the famous Cheney vs. Pelosi blink-off from the State of the Union (fast forward to the 2:20 mark):

"I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that."
-Lawrence Summers

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by: kbuck @ Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 18:30:38 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Boring (0.00 / 0)

This was the most boring debate I can remember. There was almost no useful issue discussion and there were no memorable soundbites. Obama came off as informed and smart and McCain came off as McCain. So Obama won because he probably won over some fence-sitters, while McCain held onto his base.

But the whole thing left me feeling depressed more than anything else.

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by: DaveW @ Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 17:55:10 PM UTC

True (0.00 / 0)

Seriously. I don't know if it's fair to say that debate sucked, but in terms of the "expectations game" it fell so far short.  Despite a format that permitted ample back and forth, the opponents agreed with each other 50% of the time and nobody ever challenged Conventional Wisdom.  Thus we had the spectacle of McCain never directly addressing the invasion of Iraq and Obama never addressing his opposition to the surge.  These are two most critical issues that could be addressed in this foreign policy debate, but neither candidate wanted to risk derision by actually defending their decisions and attacking today's Conventional Wisdom.  

I know our Presidential Debates are known to be vacuous, but I really thought this long-format one would might be different.  

On top of that McCain kept lying and aggressively edging in the last word.  God I hate that guy.  

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by: Greg Comlish @ Sun Sep 28, 2008 at 02:32:47 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Blinking (0.00 / 0)

People blink at an unusually high rate when they're feeling under pressure.

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by: ergotist @ Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 18:20:14 PM UTC

That was actually the most interesting moment to me (4.00 / 1)

But McCain didn't.  He said he'd vote for it.  

I thought that was a really amazing moment and I think it's too bad that it'll probably not get remembered what with everything that happened afterward-- where Lehrer asks, okay, but will you vote for it? and John McCain just testily barks back, sure, with a sort of irritated sigh, as if he felt incredibly annoyed to even having to be deal with the question, and then moves on to something else. I thought that was just really revealing-- showing exactly how boring and irrelevant McCain finds all this economy stuff, and exactly how superficial his apparent apocalyptic concern for it over the last few days was. After all that drama-- it must be passed now, it can't be passed now, i want you to pass this other thing instead-- he agrees to vote for the compromise, not even really seeming to think about it, just to get Jim Lehrer to go away.

Actually the entire first half was a disaster for McCain, just full of moments like this-- moments where he didn't seem to know or care what was going on. He kept derailing into Palin-style incoherence, or toss off bizarre statements that sounded like they were off the top of his head, like the weirdass spending freeze idea that I don't think he's ever talked about in public before. And his comment about creating two different tax plans and letting people choose-- I knew what McCain was referring to there, and knew that there was a real, specific plan behind that, but if I hadn't been specifically familiar with McCain's policy positions it would have just sounded like he was speaking gibberish. He mumbled his whole explanation there-- he did that a lot during the debate, kind of looked at his shoes and blurted something out very quickly-- and did not describe his two-tax-plans idea in such a way that someone unfamiliar with the idea would have been able to discern what his plan is, or even realize that this was a real plan that he wasn't just making something up off the top of his head. He sounded constantly lost like this throughout the economy section. It's only because of his strong showing in the second half of the debate that anyone can say this debate came as close as a "draw"; if the first half had gone second and this was the impression of McCain that people were left with, McCain would be screwed right now.

If the domestic issues debate goes the whole time the way that this debate went in its domestic half, that will be a knockout blow.

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by: mcc @ Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 19:11:39 PM UTC

Obama Debate Win (0.00 / 0)

Some interesting comments over at TMP:

"As a psychotherapist and someone who treats people with anger management problems, we typically try to educate people that anger is often an emotion that masks other emotions. I think it's significant that McCain didn't make much, if any, eye contact because it suggests one of two things to me; he doesn't want to make eye contact because he is prone to losing control of his emotions if he deals directly with the other person, or, his anger masks fear and the eye contact may increase or substantiate the fear.
I noticed him doing the same thing in the Republican primary debates. The perception observers are likely to have is that he is unwilling to acknowledge the opponent's legitimacy and/or is contemptuous of the opponent."

"I think people really are missing the point about McCain's failure to look at Obama. McCain was afraid of Obama. It was really clear--look at how much McCain blinked in the first half hour. I study monkey behavior--low ranking monkeys don't look at high ranking monkeys. In a physical, instinctive sense, Obama owned McCain tonight and I think the instant polling reflects that."

Someone needs to make a McChimpy ad.

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by: steelhead @ Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 20:24:23 PM UTC

I counted 135 (0.00 / 0)

Which was close to the total given at the end of the video. I think I missed 3 because I blinked.

That is more than 2 blinks per second. That is one hell of a lot of blinking. That in addition to the total lack of eye contact (and erratic behavior - not just recently but over the years) causes me to suspect there IS something psychologically not right with Mr. McCain.

Slacking toward the apocalypse

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by: roberto @ Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 21:21:40 PM UTC

And the irony of it all (0.00 / 0)

comes by way of Palin's assertion that, as a candidate ready to lead, "you can't blink".

Slacking toward the apocalypse

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by: roberto @ Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 21:28:48 PM UTC

something's wrong with his eyes (0.00 / 0)

McCain was blinking extremely fast during the press conference where he announced he was "suspending" his campaign.  Maybe it's just when he lies, but I think there's something physically wrong with his eyes.

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by: midnight rambler @ Sat Sep 27, 2008 at 21:44:33 PM UTC

Senile Dementia, Anyone? (0.00 / 0)

I've said this before, but it's worth repeating.  I have two elderly friends who've both been through long, heartbraking deaths of a partner involving Alzhimer's, and both swear that McCain not only has it but is about where Ronnie RayGun was when he left office in the progression of the disease.

Somebody - and I'd think Republicans would be as anxious to know this as Democrats - has got to insist that McCain release his medical records, particularly those pertaining to his mental competence.  To me, this is much more important than whether or not his melanoma may recur.

"Ignorance is the most dangerous element in any society." - Emma Goldman

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by: stubearto @ Sun Sep 28, 2008 at 01:28:34 AM UTC