Obama in Mississippi: The First Presidential Debate

To be honest, I have not seen or heard much of the preliminary debates and therefore am not familiar with Obama's great speaking skills or with McCain's 'note cards.' However, I believe that this debate tonight was enough for me to figure out who's performance I favor more. This first impression, without a doubt, is important because once you become President, that one chance of presentation might be all that you get before foreign countries choose to become your allies or your enemies.
In terms of Senator Obama's performance tonight at the debate, I would give him a rating of a 6 compared to McCain's 4. Barack Obama, in his first two minutes looked straight at the camera as if addressing whoever was watching while McCain generally looked to Jim throughout the debate. Obama, for the rest of the 88 minutes was constantly changing his direction of view from Jim to McCain and to the camera as if to let everyone know that this debate was for the audience, not for the candidates to work out issues. Barack had a stern expression and confident voice showing much seriousness while at the same time throwing in a couple of smiles and chuckles. McCain on the other hand was constantly blinking with a weak voice and only looked down at his notes or at Jim. That shows vulnerability.
A negative aspect of Obama's performance tonight was that he laid out general steps of what he was going to do once he became President. There were no specifics involved. Also, with McCain, I was annoyed by the number of times he used the words fundamental and "Ms. Congeniality" and the number of stories he told. All his stories, though they were different situations, had the same concept and basic point to them and most of the time, he was talking about himself. In one with the mother of the soldier who gave him the bracelet, I felt as if he was trying to throw emotion and get Reagan Democrats to have empathy towards this and swing over to his party. Overall however, based on what I had heard before, I had higher expectations of Obama's speaking skills which he did not meet and I had lower expectations of McCain's speaking skills which he surpassed.
I believe that Obama's lowest point was in the subject of Economics while his highest point in this debate was in the subject of Foreign Policy and Homeland Security. During the topic of economics, it felt as if that was McCain's base and strong point although I don't agree with his viewpoints. I feel as if he was in control because whenever it was time for McCain to speak, he was too busy disproving Obama's domain of statements that he did not have time to state issues of his own. This was also the case in Homeland Security. I agree with Obama's view that we need to refocus our attention on Afghanistan and Iran, where the center of most terrorist groups are. I also agree with his idea that preconditions are not necessarily needed but that preparation is important.
The one point I don't agree on with Senator Obama is that he wants to be more strict with trade from countries such as China and South Korea. I understand that he is trying to make the United States more independent. However, I feel as if the way imports and exports are currently, is fine. Obama believes that the countries such as China and South Korea have advanced so much technologically that he feels that the United States is considered inferior, comparatively. Therefore he wants to change that and he thinks that a good way to accomplish it is to cut down on the list of things exported from Asia into the U.S. Doing this could better the economy and teach our country to be more independent but this could also hurt our foreign relationships. McCain believes that trade with these Asian countries should stay the way they are and I agree with him. Just because China is Communist does not mean that we should hate them and have minimal interactions with them. The U.S. has the potential to outdo China and South Korea in manufacturing 'futuristic' things but minimizing trade is not the path to go down on. Keeping things the same can actually help us go further as we receive these new mechanics and learn about them, speeding up our process of going through much trial and error.
Overall, I felt as if this debate was not boring and was actually interesting. It may have been a bit somber and they might have somewhat avoided talking about the bailout issue and a lot about regulations in the economy but it was very informing; mostly for a 'first-timer.'