Presidential Debate 2008

Presidential Debate

Overall, I feel a strong sense of disappointment after watching the first presidential debate of the year. There was a complete lack of organization on the part of the moderator, which probably was the root of all the problems in the debate itself. Throughout the debate, you could see the pattern of how each question was addressed. John McCain would speak only to the camera or the moderator himself, never looking at or responding directly to any point that Obama would make. One problem of the debates that both candidates were guilty of is dancing around certain questions (i.e. the question of how to fix the financial dilemma our country is facing). This problem should have been addressed and fixed at the debate by the moderator as soon as it occurred. The moderator should have done a better job controlling the direction of the debate and keeping the responding candidates on task. When looking at media coverage of the debates, I, like many of my classmates, was surprised to find little to no coverage that was particularly biased to one side or the other. With the exception of polls from different news broadcasters saying who they thought won the debates, most media coverage just simply said that they both did a good job. I found more coverage saying the McCain may have won simply because he began to sort of “bully” Obama and speak over him (not directly of course). I believe that this lack of biased media coverage is due to the fact that this debate was barely a debate at all. It was just two presidential candidates answering whatever questions that are asked and barely interacting with each other. I am hoping for a better outcome for the next presidential debate.