Lets Talk “Rate the Debate 2008”
October 8, 2008
On Tuesday October seventh was the second of three debates between the two presidential nominees, Senator John McCain of Arizona and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois. For this debate a large group of approximately three hundred students at the University of Oregon gathered in Columbia Hall room 150 for “Rate the Debate 2008”, a program set up by the professors of journalism at the university. This program was set up in order to get the UO students involved in this historical political campaign. After watching the debate the students were asked a series of questions about their opinions of each candidates performance. The three hundred students in attendance failed to prove previous polls wrong. Polls have shown that Senator Obama is leading heavily in the youth vote and that’s exactly how the youth at the U. of O. voted in their poll questions following the debate. The students overwhelmingly believed, with 65% of the vote, that Senator Obama won the debate. This is compared to the 12% that believed that McCain won the debate. 59% of those polled also believed that what Senator Obama said had more substance than the arguments made by Senator McCain and 54% believed that 
McCain ran more negative ads than Obama. These poll questions only proved one thing, that the youth of this country does indeed support Senator Obama, but, are they correct when they say that he won the debate? Lets take a look.
It was clear from the beginning that the gloves were coming off for both candidates when they continued to take shots at each other’s voting record in the senate and their previous stances on the economy. While both candidates presented compelling arguments I believe that it was Senator Obama that barely squeaked out ahead in winning the debate about the economic plans for the future of this country. While McCain spoke with a sense of confidence in the future of the economy and certainly hit his marks regarding Obama’s voting record in the senate, he had one thing going against him, the fact that he is a part of the party which many Americans believe screwed up the economy in the first place. Every time that McCain made a point about his plan for the economy Obama was able to compare it to the failed economic policies of the Bush administration. And for that reason only I feel that Obama squeaked out a victory in the debate over the economy.
Next they turned to the environmental problems facing the country in yet another close debate over what the best policy to handle the environmental change should be. In this debate I feel that McCain had the best argument, that’s not to say that I agreed with him, but I do believe that he presented his argument the best. While I disagree with his plans for off shore drilling and believe that we should focus on finding a renewable source of energy, I feel that Obama could have attacked his plans to drill of shore more than he did. I also found a problem with both arguments and mentioning the need for safe nuclear power. To me that phrase, safe nuclear power, is an oxymoron. Did we forget about the accident at Three Mile Island under the Carter administration? I don’t want to speak for all Americans, but I’m pretty sure that most of them would like to avoid a repeat. So, while nuclear energy sounds good in theory, the amount of money, time, and resources that it would take to develop it to the point that there are few risks, makes it not a viable short-term solution. I believe that McCain won the debate on environmental policy, however, both of them had weak arguments.
Next they turned to the issue of health care. On this argument I believe that they tied, because both of their health care plans suck! McCain’s plan, I don’t believe, will change anything with the current health care problems in this country. And Obama’s plan to require small businesses to give health care to their employees will force hundreds of small business owners, who can’t afford to do so, to go out of business. And McCain is right it would force businesses to lay off employees and quit hiring new employees because they can’t afford to give the health care that Obama’s plan requires. On the topic of health care they both fail miserably, not because they made bad arguments but because neither of them have very good plans.
The last topic that they debated was, what has been called Obama’s weakest area, foreign policy! Like in the debate over the economy they both hit some good points, but like the debate over health care, both pf their plans are very flawed. Obama complains that the Bush administration has wasted trillions of dollars in Iraq, which is true. He also says that he wants to pull our troops out of Iraq, which is also true. But he is not going to bring them home and he is not going to save this country the trillions of dollars that the Bush administration is wasting in Iraq, instead he is going to send our troops into Afghanistan and Pakistan. The only thing that this means is that instead of spending trillions of dollars in Iraq we will be spending it in Afghanistan and Pakistan. McCain on the other hand wants to leave our troops in Iraq and send more troops into Iran. So, as well as spending trillions in Iraq we will be spending trillions in Iran as well. I would also like it if McCain quit calling the war in Iraq a victory. If over 4000 dead Americans is a victory, I would hate to see what he calls a defeat. I do agree with McCain when he says that American blood is the most precious commodity that we have. And God bless those brave men and women that are over seas fighting for, and defending our great country, but I believe that we have wasted too much of that precious commodity in Iraq, when, as Obama said our energy should be spent looking for the man who planned the attack that killed approximately 3000 Americans.
In my opinion the only thing Barack Obama needed to do in this debate was avoid any serious gaffs, and he did just that. This is his election to lose. On the other hand however, if you were relying on this debate to help persuade you one way or another the odds are that it didn’t because there was no clear cut winner. I believe this debate was a tie!
I f you missed any part of the debate, or just want to watch it again, you can at:
Part one:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/10/07/debate2.obama.mccain.part1.cnn
Lets Talk! 