Good evening from Fargo…..

I look forward to a lively discussion. I urge readers to give me their own assessments of the debate — who did the best, and why? Which points were the most effective? Who stumbled, and when? I’ll post as many of your comments as I can, sometimes adding observations of my own, sometimes not.

My first impression: Neither man committed a terrible goof. I learned in the last couple of weeks while working on an article about debate preparation (link below) that this was their single biggest concern. Defense is the name of the game.

To my eye, McCain was not at his best tonight. Comparing this debate to the two candidates’ appearance in August with Rick Warren at his Saddleback Church is interesting. I thought McCain on that occasion was warm, funny, confident, loose. By comparison, he seemed a little tight to me tonight.

Obama I think was closer to the top of his game. He dispelled the idea that he couldn’t keep up with McCain on foreign policy issues. Earlier this year some Republicans said they thought McCain would clobber the Democrat in this debate; it didn’t happen.

Obama said he is not going to raise, even lower, the taxes for 95% of the working families. If you make less than $250,000/year, you will not see anymore taxes, everyone over that will see a raise. If you make $250,000/year, you can afford more than a family of 6 who might not have their home anymore because the parents got laid off due to the economy. The single parent who works two/three jobs so that their children can have a decent chance at accomplishing something wonderful in their life. John McCain is against this, because he is part of that since he is worth around $25 million himself. Obama wants to close all of the loopholes in the business tax and give that money to people who need it. This country is being run by the rich and portrayed as the rich, however, working families are struggling to pay the mortgage and the medical bills. It isn’t right for some families to choose between paying for the house, eating properly or send their children to get an education. I am not talking about the people who screwed up their lives because of drugs, gambling or alcohol. I am talking about the families who work to try and get by and then get laid off because the company can’t afford them anymore due to the economic crisis.

An instant poll taken right after the debate giving Obama an edge on the current results. Since this debate was mainly about the economy, the poll showed that 68% of random undecided votes said that Obama would handle the economy better than McCain at 41%. Also for their opinion about Barack Obama after the debate, 46% said better, 46% said no change and 7% said worse. That’s a 39% increase than what he had before, and John McCain wanted to cancel the debate. I knew Obama would win if the debate happened.