Debate Wrapup

We had a huge turn-out last night. Mike's count came to over 100! At one point midway through I turned around to look, and the crowd stretched all the way back to the door. Now I see why Tulsans for Obama needed their own watch party. There simply would not have been room.

It was great to get a chance to meet some of you in person. I particularly liked that Mike has us go around and do some introductions before the actual debate started. We had people from at least five different states (four of them "battleground" states). We had quite a few first-time voters, and several people who have been voting for more than 30 years. I brought one of my legion of mini-mules. He won't be old enough to vote until the 2016 general election, but wanted to come see this. On the other extreme, we had a World War II vet who had cast his first vote for Truman in 1948. He is now, of course, an Obama supporter.


The Stump of Jesse
Listening to him reminisce, it occurred to me that my own first vote ever in a presidential campaign was 20 years ago, for Jesse Jackson. For those of you who weren't around then, Jesse won 11 primaries that year, and for a while was the front-runner for the nomination.

Since it was my first election, I researched the candidates positions as thoroughly as I could, and picked the one who best supported my views on the issues. That happened to be Jesse. So you can imagine my frustration when, even while he was the front-runner, all the media wanted to ask him was What do you really want? Like it couldn't possibly be, you know, to be president or anything.

No matter what your opinions are about Jesse, he laid the groundwork two decades ago for what you saw last night. There was a brief moment when the candidates were shaking hands at the beginning where I was thinking, Holy ****, that's an African-American up there being taken seriously. Even better, the moment was brief, and after that he was just one of the two people up there interviewing for the job. Clearly the better one, at that.

Results
Sadly, you can never tell what the story is going to be after the debate simply by watching the debate. Most people don't watch, so the general opinion of who won comes out of the mouths of the talking heads on TV after they've had about five days to masticate on it. The reps of course had their "McCain wins the debate" mini-campaign up and running even before the debate started. Things look good so far though. The snap polls afterward seem to indicate an Obama win by around %10 points or so. If that can hold, the percentages are liable to increase in the coming days.

As for the wider election, I have to wonder. This debate was on supposedly McCain's best subject, National Security. Not pulling out a win here is a bad sign for him. However, this was such a bad week for McCain that *any* change of subject, even to a bit of a loss in a debate, is a good thing for him.

On to Nashville
The next debate on October 7 is McCain's favorite format (Town Hall), so he has a chance to look better. The final one on the 15th will be normal format, and on the economy. If he doesn't watch it, Obama will plaster him to the wall in that one.

I'm not talking about the VP debate on the 2nd (next Thursday), because I don't think it really matters that much in the long run. If it did Dan Quayle and George Bush Sr. would never have been elected. However, it will be worth watching because one of those two will be in the White House for the next 4-8 years, and possibly president after that. I'll be at the Circle Cinema that night, and I hope to see you there too.