Raising Expectations: A Scrappy Fighter, McCain Honed His Debating Style in and Out of Politics

[tekisui]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/us/politics/23mccain.html?ref=politics

Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, heads into the first debate on Friday with a track record as a scrappy combatant and the instincts of a fighter pilot, prepared to take out his opponent and willing to take risks to do so.

He has used fairly consistent techniques during his roughly 30 debates on the national stage: he is an aggressive competitor who scolds his opponents, grins when he scores and is handy with the rhetorical shiv. Just ask Mitt Romney, whom Mr. McCain filleted on several occasions in debates during the primaries, perhaps most infuriatingly for Mr. Romney when Mr. McCain misleadingly asserted that Mr. Romney favored a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq.

A review of several of Mr. McCain’s debates shows that he is most comfortable and authentic when the subject is foreign policy. And in a stroke of good fortune, foreign policy is the topic for Friday, the first of three 90-minute debates with Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee.

Voters give higher marks to Mr. McCain as a potential commander in chief, and Mr. Obama should expect Mr. McCain to question his credentials for the job at every turn — and to distort his views, as Mr. Romney insisted he did.

Mr. McCain is likely to steer the conversation, as he has in past debates, to his captivity in Vietnam. It was the bedrock experience of his life and is the organizing principle of his political identity.

more...

[ErinBerin84]

1. lol

"Mr. McCain is likely to steer the conversation, as he has in past debates, to his captivity in Vietnam"


can't fucking wait.

[tekisui]

2. mcPOW didn't have a one-on-one debate during his Primary.

NYT is raising mcPOW's expectations and lowering Obama's.

[minnesota_liberal]

3. McCain has talking points but can't think on his feet

I'm confident that Obama will make minced meat out of McCain but uncertain as to whether the MSM will point that out or whether any dullard leaning toward McCain would see through McCain's smokescreen.

[tularetom]

4. The next time I need someone to teach me how to live in a box

or when I need instruction on how to shout and scream and flail my arms like a demented garden gnome I will hire McPOW. When I need someone to guide the nation's policies and act calmly and maturely in times of crisis, I will vote for someone like Barack Obama.

Scrappy debater my ass. He's an over emotional irrational angry midget.

[Obamarulz11]

5. Hillary brought out the best of Barack during one-on-one debates

during the primary.

[Maestro]

6. He's better at foreign policy?

It's all perception. He is a twit who believes bravado is foreign policy.

[central scrutinizer]

7. But can he find Spain on a map without a note card?