McCain was on THIS WEEK today, but...is it me, or is there something off about him today? Tell me if I'm being silly or not...

He's really starting to remind me more and more of the Yankee Bean guy that Elaine was dating on SEINFELD.

McCain retracts Palin's Pakistan comments that Agreed with Obama

WASHINGTON (CNN)— Sen. John McCain retracted Sarah Palin's stance on Pakistan Sunday morning, after the Alaska governor appeared to back Sen. Barack Obama's support for unilateral strikes inside Pakistan against terrorists

"She would not…she understands and has stated repeatedly that we're not going to do anything except in America's national security interest," McCain told ABC's George Stephanopoulos of Palin. "In all due respect, people going around and… sticking a microphone while conversations are being held, and then all of a sudden that's—that's a person's position… This is a free country, but I don't think most Americans think that that's a definitve policy statement made by Governor Palin."

Saturday night, while on a stop for cheesesteaks in South Philadelphia, Palin was questioned by a Temple graduate student about whether the U.S. should cross the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan.

"If that's what we have to do stop the terrorists from coming any further in, absolutely, we should," Palin said.

During Friday night's presidential debate in Mississippi, Obama took a similar stance and condemned the Bush administration for failing to act on the possibility terrorists are in Pakistan.

"Nobody talked about attacking Pakistan," Obama said after McCain accused the Illinois senator of wanting to announce an invasion. "If the United States has al Qaeda, bin Laden, top-level lieutenants in our sights, and Pakistan is unable or unwilling to act, then we should take them out."

McCain emphasized Sunday, Palin "shares" his view on the matter.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/09/28/mccain-retracts-palins-pakistan-comments/

Obama was 5 points ahead of McCain just prior to the debate. An axiom of Presidential debates is that they favor the underdog: he has less to lose than the leader; and when both share the podium, both have equal stature.

McCain showed two advantages:

First, he constantly put Obama on the defensive by making him respond to his criticisms. Time after time, McCain made an accusation that Obama chose to respond to, instead of moving the debate somewhere that Obama wanted it to go. As one observer said, "Obama needs to improve his counterpunching."

Second, McCain's answers were shorter, crisper, showed more "emotional" content. Obama's answers, while far more thoughtful, were longer, more convoluted, and he hesitated and stuttered.

Obama scored early on the bailout plan, but McCain rescued himself by accusing Obama of $932 million in earmarks for Illinois (which Obama didn't refute), and made him defend $18 billion in earmarks as being less than $300 million--when Obama should have said that the GOP invented earmarks.

Obama's position on talking to enemies was far more thoughtful than McCain's. But McCain, sensing that Obama is vulnerable with Jewish voters, hammered on Iran and "no preconditions." One of the reasons we've lost so much prestige and influence in the world is because we talk only to friendly nations, but I suspect the voters will like McCain's position better than Obama's because Obama's is harder to defend.

McCain undoubtedly thought out the use of "Senator Obama just doesn't understand..." Obama should have forcefully slapped him down with the first use of that phrase. He never took it on head-on.

I believe that, on content, Obama won. And McCain at times looked tired and old. But televised debates are about image and impressions. Even if it was a draw, it benefited McCain more than Obama.

I agree it was a Draw, but because its a draw, it helps Obama more by default because McCain needed a clear victory to gain traction back in the polls, and so far, that hasn't been shown to be the case. Maybe that won't be so tomorrow or next few days, who knows.

I can't get the video to play. It plays for 2 seconds and stops.

You might have to let it load up before playing it.

It's loading 100%, but it stops at 2 secs. I don't know. It's not my connection. I have 20MB FiOS.

Alright, let me try to find another link...

EDIT - Alright, try the official video at THIS WEEK's website: http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek

Works fine for me...

Maybe I have too many Java windows open. I'm doing other things too right now.

I got to hear it, but after it loaded, I had it going from the BB screen which RR loaded it, and the YouTube screen came up and played as well. I was getting an echo. So I stopped one ad heard the other.

Yea, I don't know if it's a matter of being "off", or if we are just getting to see more of McCain, thus knowing him better. With all that's going on, he could be a little "off."

TB, I can concede the debate, for the most part was a draw. Yet I see the edge still to favor Obama. For one thing, I don't think the attack mode McCain used, faired well, and/or he didn't use it properly; and the fact that he didn't look at Obama thru the entire debate didn't sit well with me either.
But...that's just my opinion ad you what they say about opinions.


TIS

"The option of doing nothing is not an acceptable option"

??

...And then the rest of the stumbling through his words?

I got it to play. I had too many Flash windows open.

This is the Obama ad I mentioned earlier. It's not playing here in CA that I know of. Anyway, sort of a "wake up" call for Obama supporters. Note the banner at the bottom of ad, showing low voter turnout, not to mention the very close race.

TIS

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/sep/27/obama-ad-threatens-mccain-win/

And here is another.....


OBAMA: "I think the first question is whether
we should have gone into the war in the first place."

No. The question now is how they plan on reducing troop presence in Iraq. Tell the voters EXACTLY how you plan to provide relief. Not IF we should have gone in there. We did and it's overwith. We are there. Move on and outline a plan! Stop with the generalizations and provide some real solid ideas. And that goes for BOTH candidates here.

"The next president of the United States is going to have to decide how we
leave, when we leave, and what we leave behind. That's the decision
of the next president of the United States."


And if it's a matter of Obama trying to discredit McCain's credibility, well then McCain supporters can also pick out quotes from that debate which could discredit Obama's credibility. They can go back and forth all day. But what does that solve?

That is NOT what this should be about. We've seen enough of the finger pointing and the he did this and he did that bullshit over the last 8 years between the parties and look at where it's gotten our country!

I want these two candidates to stick to the facts, and debate the issues and not to start in with the "we shouldn't have done this" and "your party shouldn't have done that" bullshit. What's done is done and now the people, the voters, need to hear from BOTH candidates exactly WHAT they respectively plan to do to remedy the problems that we are CURRENTLY facing in this country.

Cardi 4 Prez.

The liberal media and MSNBC are out of control. I don't know if anyone here has talked about it or have seen it but MSNBC has been playing a tv ad that talks about John McCains skin cancer. They are trying to make people think that he is going to die in office. These kind of attacks are disgusting. MSNBC is the only station that was airing these ads. As of a few days ago they stopped because of all of the complaints they have received. The ads were horrible. MSNBC is the official news station of Obama. They are horrible.

ds

But tell me, was FOX NEWS part of the "stabilized" news media when earlier they were pondering if Obama's campaign "fist bumps" were a terrorist signal or if Obama was a muslim operative or whatever nonsense?

And you worry so much about MSNBC...last I checked, they were 3rd in the cable ratings, behind Fox News and CNN.

With your opinions so far DS, I recommend that you only watch FNC for now on, and you won't ever be insulted ever again.

Of course, I watch none of them so I don't have to worry about any of this.

Should be, but that's not American Politics. Two things move the world: Money and Bullshit, and both candidates want to win, and they'll say anything to get elected.

Besides, as for "facts," remember when Mondale at the 1984 DNC said that he admitted that he would raise taxes if elected? Well Reagan promptly beat him in the biggest landslide in American history.

Thank God for Fox News. If they were not on tv the airways would be over run with nothing but left wing crap. And your right they do beat up on CNN and MSNBC in the rateings. I guess most Americans want to know the truth.
ds

To me, using right wing or left wing as an insult is like calling someone a pinko commie bastard, just not as funny. It says a lot about the person doing the talking.

But at least you're passionate...

DC, neither of the candidates is President yet. Thus, neither has the necessary exposure to military commanders and the Joint Chiefs or the level of information on which to base an Iraq exit strategy. Obama has stated that he anticipates withdrawal within 16 months. That's all he can realistically state.

Also, I reiterate, it is important for him to refer to the way we got into Iraq because McCain exercised bad judgement in backing the invasion. Thus, it is important for Obama to emphasize that distinction between he and McCain and McCain's judgement. Besides, not all Americans support our withdrawal from Iraq.

What are rateings?

http://www.merriam-webster.com/

Now that may be true about Senator Obama, I don't know for sure, but it certainly is NOT true about Senator McCain!

McCain served as the Navy's liaison to the U.S. Senate which eventually led to his becoming a member of the Armed Services Committee. He also was a member of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs. It's documented that Senator John McCain has had enormous exposure to Military Commanders and members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Exposure and talks with high ranking military officials such as Joint Chiefs Of Staff Chairman Richard Meyers and military Generals such as David Petraeus.



Ok, fine. But why doesn't he tell the people on what basis he "realistically" anticipates a withdrawal within 16 months? What does he base that anticipation on?


Again, I am not singling out Senator Obama or Senator McCain. I am simply stating that BOTH candidates need to make themselves clear on how they plan on resolving many of the issues that our country has faced both domestically and internationally.

I would rather watch a town hall meeting where the public can ask the canidates any question they want to. I wish Tim Russert was still alive he was a great moderator for the debates.

One of the CNN commentators this morning said that a lot of the debate-watchers who said Obama won are young Democrats. You could interpret that as Obama "preaching to the choir." But something else jumps to mind:

One of the things the GOP did right in 2004 was to make a big push to register new voters, most of whom voted for Bush. Bush's popular margin was 3% over Kerry, which doesn't sound huge--but it represented a 3 million-vote plurality, which is pretty good. Obama's people have registered a large number of new, young Democratic voters, and the debate polls may be an indicator of things to come.

A Fox News Poll showed that 51% thought McCain won the debate, and 49% said Obama won. If Obama can pull out a draw on Fox News, that's not good for McCain.

Yeah, that surprises me, as much as that Fox News Focus Group that gave the victory to Obama.