Wrapping Up the First Debate from a the Standpoint of a Radio Listener

I was on the road last night and caught most of the debate on the radio. Reading some of the wrap-ups this morning, it sounds like Sen. McCain had a problem acknowledging or even looking at Sen. Obama last night. What’s up with that?

Other than that, being stuck in my pre Nixon/Kennedy debate world was actually quite interesting. You catch a lot more of what they’re actually saying, and how they’re saying it, on the radio. One thing I caught last night was McCain using entire sentences of his stump speech as responses to questions.

That’s fine if you’re at a town hall meeting, but we’re at a debate here, aren’t we?

As for Sen. Obama I think his tone and his pacing were good. He sounded sure of himself and had a good command of the issues in a verbal sense.

One thing I really didn’t care about with this debate was the way the moderator was almost goading the two to talk to each other. “The Senator seems to be saying you’re lying, do you have anything to say to that???”

While catching the debate on the radio was an interesting experience, I think I’ll catch the next two on the preferred medium of my generation, the television.