Political Sparring in the First Debate

Despite Senator McCain's continued attempts to paint Senator Obama as inexperienced (he said more than once, " Senator Obama doesn't seem to understand. . . ") when discussing several of the key issues, I believe Obama came off as well-informed and confident. It is my opinion that Barack Obama KO'd his opponent, although I would probably score him on a point scale at 9 out of ten. One thing that impressed me about his performance was his body language and forceful manner of speaking, that made what he said believable to the viewer. He did not let Sen McCain's verbal assaults rattle him, rather he met the clashes with gusto and with specific answers to the issues at hand. Sen. Obama's strategy in dealing with the Iraq War is a topic which I felt he has a solid game plan and an approach that I completely agree with. Specifically, he plans on moving troops from Iraq to Afghanistan to concentrate the efforts on finding Bin Laden and Al Quaida and destroying them, which was the essence of the original plan. The whole war in Iraq has gotten us off track or in Obama's own words, moving troops to Iraq was "taking our eyes off the ball." I believe our greatest concern should be the safety of our country and Sen Obama's initiatives are more likely to succeed in that. The story Sen. Obama told in response to Sen McCain's story, regarding the bracelet he wears in honor of a soldier from Green Bay who was killed in Iraq, was effective to me in further defining Obama's feelings about the war. Given to him by the soldier's mother, he agreed with her that no mother should have to go through what she had experienced ever again; contrasting McCain's take that the fighting should continue until there is peace in Iraq so that no soldiers die in vain. I agree with Obama that no soldiers dying for their country die in vain, but if we can prevent their deaths and save their families from suffering, that is the ultimate goal.
As far as his low points go and where I disagree with Obama's approach, is in the area of energy and the environment. Although I actually don't completely disagree with him, in this instance he handled the discussion poorly and gave the impression he either has not put in the time required to make progress or perhaps that it is not one of his top priorities, which I think it should be, in developing an energy strategy. I believe Sen Obama should have had more specific examples of his energy plan, particularly his alternate energy strategy. He was too vague in just saying that alternate energy needs to be funded. I feel it would have been much more effective in contrasting Sen McCain's weak but specific approach of just promoting offshore drilling as an interim answer (which he'll follow later with alternate energy research) if Obama had detailed specific options. I watched this segment closely as this subject happened to be one of my deciding factors in picking my candidate as I am very concerned about the state of our environment and the over-use of our natural resources. I was truly hoping that I would sense more action in this area and was disappointed. He needs to address this topic with more depth and possible answers. Why not start research and development of alternate energy right now?