McCain lost final debate with Obama, polls say
Earl Evleth
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Geoff Elliott, Washington correspondent | October 16, 2008
SNAP polls indicate Republican John McCain suffered his third strike in the
final of three presidential debates with Democrat rival Barack Obama today,
the Arizona senator viewed as having lost a debate he was hoping might help
resurrect his flagging presidential campaign.
Well behind in the polls, Senator McCain, 72, came out swinging against
Senator Obama in the testiest debate so far, raising his association with
1960s radical Bill Ayers and painting him as a big spending liberal who
would raise taxes.
But the attacks appear to have fallen flat. Senator McCain said yesterday he
was going to whip Senator Obama's "you know what" in the debate but voters
polled didn't see it that way, giving Senator Obama a clean sweep of the
three debates, which have gone a long way to convincing Americans the
47-year-old Illinois senator is ready to occupy the White House.
A CBS poll found that 53 per cent of uncommitted voters saw Senator Obama as
a winner against 22 per cent who thought Senator McCain won. Twenty-four per
cent saw the debate as a draw.
According to the CBS poll, before the debate 54 per cent thought Senator
Obama shared their values but that percentage rose to 63 per cent after the
debate. For Senator McCain, 53 per cent thought he shared their values
before the debate, and 56 per cent thought so afterwards.
CNN also released snap polls following the debate and it indicated 58 per
cent of voters saw the Democrat the winner over 31 per cent for Senator
McCain.
It also found that Senator Obama's favourability ratings increased to 66 per
cent from 63 while Senator McCain's dropped to 33 from 35. Some 66 per cent
said Senator Obama presented ideas more clearly over just 25 for Senator
McCain. On likeability, Senator Obama won easily at 70 to 22.
Also, independent voters, critical to the election result, broke 57 to 31 to
Senator Obama in the CNN poll.
The numbers reflect the hard task Senator McCain has ahead of him to peg
back Senator Obama, who is running on average eight per cent ahead of
Senator McCain in national polls and well ahead in polls across most
traditionally Democrat states plus a number of traditional Republican
states, like Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and Colorado.
The debate focused on domestic policy and the economy. senators Obama and
McCain were seated at a table with moderator Bob Schieffer of CBS News
instead of standing at podiums, as in the first debate.
Senator McCain, in keeping with his need to knock Senator Obama off his
game, spent most of the debate attacking his rival's positions but Senator
Obama held his own and, as he has displayed throughout the campaign, was
unflappable to the point of being boring.
Both presidential rivals complained about the negativity of each other's
campaigns but Senator McCain did most of the attacking.
He called on Senator Obama to explain his relationship with Mr Ayers, who
served with Senator Obama on a community board in Chicago. Senator Obama
said he was simply an acquaintance.
"Mr Ayers is not involved in my campaign. He has never been involved in this
campaign. And he will not advise me in the White House," Senator Obama said.
Senator McCain's performance was more aggressive than in the first two
showdowns. He rebuked Senator Obama for frequently claiming that he is too
close to the policies of President George W. Bush.
"Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against
President Bush you should have run four years ago," Senator McCain said in
their final debate, at Hofstra University in New York.
Senator Obama said he sometimes had trouble spotting a difference between
the two.
"If I occasionally have mistaken your policies for George Bush's policies,
it's because on the core economic issues that matter to the American people,
on tax policy, on energy policy, on spending priorities you have been a
vigorous supporter of President Bush," he said.
Both candidates admitted the campaign's tone was "tough" and accused the
other of fomenting the negativity. Senator McCain said his rival had spent
more money on negative ads than any candidate in history, while Senator
Obama noted a recent study said 100 per cent of Senator McCain's ads had
been negative.
"It's gotten pretty tough, and I regret some of the negative aspects of both
campaigns. But the fact is that it has taken many turns which I think are
unacceptable," Senator McCain said.
He demanded that Senator Obama renounce the comments of Georgia congressman
John Lewis, a leader in the US civil rights movement, who recently linked
Senator McCain to 1960s segregationist leader George Wallace.
"That, to me, was so hurtful," Senator McCain said.
Senator Obama said Mr Lewis's link was inappropriate "and we immediately put
out a statement saying that we don't think that comparison is appropriate".
Several recent opinion polls have shown Senator McCain's attacks on Senator
Obama's character have largely backfired, increasing unfavorable opinions
about the Republican among voters looking for solutions on the economy.
But the two candidates spent long stretches of the debate battling over the
grievances about their campaigns and not discussing the economy. Senator
Obama complained about the focus.
"The American people have become so cynical about our politics, because all
they see is a tit-for-tat and back-and-forth," he said.
The candidates fought over their tax plans and promised to help working
Americans like "Joe the plumber", an Ohio man Senator Obama met over the
weekend.
Senator McCain criticised his rival's proposal to raise taxes on those who
make more than $250,000 a year, saying it would hurt small business owners
like Joe the plumber.
"Why would you want to raise anybody's taxes right now?" Senator McCain
asked Senator Obama. "We need to encourage businesses."
Senator Obama said his plan would cut taxes for 95 per cent of Americans and
raise them on only a small slice of the most high-income Americans, while
Senator McCain would give tax breaks to oil and gas companies.
"We both want to cut taxes," said Obama, an Illinois senator. "The
difference is who we want to cut taxes for."
John Rennie
"Earl Evleth" <evl...@wanadoo.fr> wrote in message
news:C51CA784.1442D0%evl...@wanadoo.fr...
> McCain lost final debate with Obama, polls say
You and your bloody polls, Earl. Did you see the debate? Who do YOU
think won it?
Mr Q. Z. Diablo
I missed it. I was busily constructing an LDAP framework for central
authenticaton by Unix support staff working for one of the world's
(right wing) media giants.
And I want to know about what the _worm_ did. That's the funnest part
of these things.
Please forgive my use of "funnest".
Earl Evleth
"John Rennie" <john-...@talktalk.net> wrote:
> You and your bloody polls, Earl.
Jiggy brought up the issue. My point is that
deciding who won is a collective process, individual
opinions are not important in judging that.
John Rennie
The one poll that counts is the one on the 4th November.
Donna Evleth
> From: "John Rennie" <john-...@talktalk.net>
> Newsgroups: alt.activism.death-penalty
> Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:08:32 +0100
> Subject: Re: McCain lost final debate with Obama, polls say
We did not see the debate because it came at 4 AM our time. Thus all we can
rely on are the polls. I agree that we are at a definite disadvantage here.
Donna Evleth
>
>
Earl Evleth
"John Rennie" <john-...@talktalk.net> wrote:
> The one poll that counts is the one on the 4th November.
they count since each candidate's campaign will be directed
or redirected on the basis of the polls. So the pre-election
polls are guides.
John Rennie
"Donna Evleth" <dev...@wanadoo.fr> wrote in message
news:C51CE055.7170F%dev...@wanadoo.fr...
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/the_campaign_trailers/2008/10/last-nights-deb.html
I suppose there's quite a few more chances to see the debate elsewhere on
the net.