McCain has begun playing down debate expectations: of Obama he says "he's very very good."

[WI_DEM]

BEREA, Ohio -- Republican presidential nominee John McCain began playing down expectations for Friday night's first general-election debate, saying that Democratic rival Barack Obama is "very, very good."

As he met with voters and campaign volunteers at Baldwin Wallace College, McCain played up the importance of Ohio and noted Obama's "eloquence."

"All of you know the history lesson that the last person who succeeded in becoming president of the United States without winning the state of Ohio was Jack Kennedy," McCain said. "And that's been a long time."

He said the debate will be a major event in the campaign.

"Look, have no doubt about it, the capabilities of Senator Obama to a debate -- I mean, he's very, very good," McCain said. "He was able to beat Senator Hillary Clinton, who, as we all know, is very accomplished, very accomplished."


McCain said that Obama "was able to, I think, with his eloquence inspire a great number of Americans. So these are going to be tough debates."

"But I believe that on the substance, on the substance, I can convince the American people that I can reform government, restore prosperity and keep the peace," he said.

While Obama has decamped to Tampa to prepare for the debate, McCain has kept up his regular schedule, with a reduced number of events. In between appearances and on weekends, he has prepared for the debate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/23/AR2008092303438.html

[scheming daemons]

1. I thought the general consensus was that Hillary beat Obama in the debates, John?

[still_one]

2. hey mcbush, it is about the issues /nt

[hisownpetard]

3. He seems to seems to be repeating himself himself every few words few words

to stall for stall for more time. How annoying!

Annoying.

[Schulzz]

4. But...but...but...McCain's ads keep telling me Obama is not ready!

I wonder if the media will also start praising Obama's debate skills before friday. :crazy:

[Wetzelbill]

5. I think it's too late

Obama started playing it down much earlier. And McCain has been crowing all summer about Obama not wanting to do townhall meetings with him, almost like Obama was afraid to get schooled. Plue, McCain all along has been playing up his experience etc. Right now, the biggest questions about Obama with voters are his experience, leadership capability, and natioanal security ability. He lags behind McCain in all of those in the polls. McCain's campaign strategy has been to make Obama look like the lesser man, and then later on to make Obama and Palin equals, but still far below McCain.

So half the battle for Obama is just getting onstage and going toe to toe with McCain. It was similar with Bush in 2000 and Kerry in 2004. Kerry erased Bush's poll lead and cut into his "national security" advantage too. Almost always a debate is good for the person who is more of an unknown quantity, because it gives them a chance to at least look the part. Now very famously Dan Quayle totally screwed that up, so it could backfire in that sense, but usually if the less experienced figure holds their own it's a good thing.

And McCain isn't a good debater. He thinks he is, but he's not. He thinks that because of those townhalls where he rambles on incoherently half the time, that he's really good in front of a crowd and he's only so-so. It's not good for McCain that they opened up the format, because he gets caught off guard frequently, like he did with the Ron Paul question in the primaries. I don't see this being too good for him.