Originally posted @ 1:35 am, Sun 28th Sep 2008
The first presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain had been widely anticipated, only to have been quickly perceived to be a bit dull.
Sky News reports awarded the debate to Obama, citing him carrying himself better, looking into the camera and properly acknowledging his opponent. The neutral BBC however, clearly wanted to award it to John McCain.
But with Obama in the lead, a draw is a lost opportunity for John McCain, and initial feedback seems to suggest that the public think Obama won.
John McCain had raised the stakes higher by threatening to miss the debate whilst a deal to support America's financial institution had not been struck. But his arrival at negotiations appears to have made striking a deal even harder. And that sense that he could reach across to all parties in seeking a deal was not matched by his attitude and demeanour to Obama during the debate.
This was underlined by a comment from Obama who highlighted that McCain would even put pre-conditions on a meeting with the Prime Minister of Spain, a NATO ally.
Meanwhile, it seems clear that George W. Bush has found Gordon Brown's visit during these negotiations useful. This following a lot of nationalisation by the U.S. President in recent days - although I believe the Americans call it "conservatisation". Imagine that applied to the old trotskyist line - "we demand the conservatisation of the top 100 monopolies".
There's still work to be done in stabilising the world's finances, including Britain's. Actions over Northern Rock avoided any saver losing their money, mitigated the risk to the whole financial system and set out a framework by which action on HBOS was very swift. We now wait to hear what might need to be done on Bradford and Bingley.
Contrast that with the values of the Conservative party -
Do you know what their Shadow Chancellor really said? In the week that banks were collapsing the man who wants to run our economy not only said: this is not a problem caused by the financial markets but went on to say and, I quote, that it’s “a function of financial markets” that people make “loads of money out of the misery of others”.
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For a current assessment of the race for the White House, see http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/
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