Barack Obama's strongest debate moment spawns new video

By now, after more than 20 debates during the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination and the initial faceoff with John McCain in the general election campaign, it's patently obvious that verbal sparring is more a chore than a joy for Barack Obama.

As The Ticket noted following their Friday encounter in Mississippi, Obama took a pass on directly challenging what became McCain's mantra as the debate got into the details of foreign policy: "You just don't understand."

The inimitable Maureen Dowd of the N.Y. Times took note as well, writing in her Sunday column that Obama "willfully refuses to accept what debates are about. It’s not a lecture hall; it’s a joust. It’s not how cerebral you are. It’s how visceral you are. You need memorable, sharp, forceful and witty lines. ... McCain kept painting Obama as naive, and dangerous, insisting that he 'doesn’t quite understand or doesn’t get it.' Obama should have responded, 'Senator, I understand perfectly, I’m just saying you’re wrong.' "

Although Obama did not do that in general, he did when the discussion was focused on Iraq, delivering a response widely seen as his strongest in the debate. One result: A video that appeared over the weekend on Huffington Post that took Obama's retort and ran with it.

It was put together by Jed Lewison. If the Obama campaign has any ad staff openings, they might consider giving him a call.

--Don Frederick

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Comments

[Walter]

Joihn McCain and George W. Bush wanted to attack Iraq under any circumstances and for any reason.

For McCain to make pre-war statement that there is no history of violence between Shiite & Sunni reflects his total ignorance of histiry.

McCain is all about McCain and he is unstable and should not be elected President.

[Marcia B]

Not only does McCain lack good judgment on the use of our military, he voted against the GI Bill! He doesn't support our fighting forces in the ways that really count. My 84-year-old father-in-law served as a Marine in WW11 and the Korean conflict. He voted for Nixon and the first George Bush, but he's voting Obama this year!

[madeline]

this video should be showed in as many places as possible.
Obama has the judgment. i feel safest with him. i'd rather not
get into a war or a problem in the first place. i admire his
wide sense of our difficulties and how they are connected.
yes, i trust him. i think i'm going to vote for him too.

[Check into It]

It's amazing how the media makes Obama look like he is clean and has a clue about what he is doing.

Currently in Chicago there is concern that Tony Rezko will be talking about both Rod Blagovich and Barack Obama leading to indictments of both people. I expect there is someone sitting right now with the Rezko family or even with Tony in jail saying - what can we do, so you don't talk about this. This would be the end of his campaign, although previous arrests and wrong doings have been waylayed or tied up in legal knots so people are not aware of those either.

Really a bad candidate, and someone who offers no change, just more of the last 8 years, you can see that from his talks and the debate. Oh yea there is one new thing more taxes for everyone, not just rich - if you think not do some research of your own on these topics you will be surprised.

Obama will keep talking about change, but he is the candidate that plans to offer you more of the same, more war, more financial troubles, higher gas prices.

Time for some change people and its certainly not from this candidate.

[Eli]

I like it.

[Alex]

The thing is McCain made himself look dumb by saying Obama didn't understand. It was clear to everyone that he did understand so by not challenging McCain he allowed McCain to look like a fool. Saying someone "doesn't understand" only works if it is obvious to everyone that the person clearly does not understand. However, it was clear to everyone that not only did Obama understand, he had better ideas than McCain. Stick a fork in McNugget, he's done!

[Don Jones]

The old school method of using the military first and talking later does not get it any more. McCain doesn't get it.

[Joyrider89]

So because Obama made actual sense during the debates he didn't do as good as McCain, who proceeded to ramble on about absolutely nothing even related to the topic at hand?

[Obama - the Socialists' puppet]

Let's see- an hour and a half debate and the puppet comes away with one point.

That's about how I scored it as well.

You guys aren't the biased trolls everyone tells me you are.

[Jessie]

This is purely a propaganda video....and I am a democrat!

[Gdogg]

Nothing about that is patently obvious to any one. What is this whole "blogs taking the place of factual information" garbage. You just tell people what they should think based upon your values. Its preposterous and frightening that people think its journalism.

[Trish]

Dowd is representative of John Q Public's expectation that an election be equivalent to a spectator sport .. or, even worse, a Box Office hit.

If this is the case we all need to wake up. I'll take poise and intelligence any day.

[Jean Weld]

THIS IS AWESOME !!!

I totally agree w Dowd that Obama has to politely & directly confront "John" with how wrong HE (& Bush) were on any number of policy directives which were adopted by the 2000-2005 Congresses. There are a litany of them - including the Bankruptcy Bill which nearly wholly deregulated banks & credit card companies. Short, pithy & witty are the mantras Obama needs to bring with him each of the next two times. He won't have a lot more debates to practice in.

[baz]

Always nice to see truth being told, as opposed to the usual McCain/Palin, & GOP lies/manipulation.

[Mike Greenberg]

This is a non-story by a very liberal fish wrap. The video isn't even worth watching.

[Unci]

Mavericks are good at rounding up cattle and target practice I reckon, but they sure don't win any prizes in good judgment ... they are to loosey goosey with their emotions and run after the critter without thinking ... all they can think of is gotta git that critter without even noticing that his kid is riding on the back of it ......he is too old to stay the course, he has major concerns about his health and he has picked as his maverick "soul" person a lady that one can only feel sorry for..her main qualification was that she was usable....and now even that is up for grabs. Just remember that the lack of an emotional control in crisis will guarantee a bitter outcome.

[phood]

You know, everyone wants Barack Obama to do it THEIR way. He is going to do it HIS way. Period.
And given a preference for which temperament is best suited for the Oval Office I'd go with clear and steady any day. Erratic knee jerk risk taking may be good in a fighter pilot but not a president.

[captbilly]

I very much like the way in which the editor put this piece together. Be able to immediately see McCain saying exactly what Obama claims he said, is very powerful. I wish that the network news people would do the same thing with all the lies that get said by each side in this campaign. From my own knowledge it seems as though McCain is much more guilty of lies and deceptions but I know that the Obama campaign has at least streatched the truth sometimes. It is nice to see that someone has taken the time to show us the actual footage, so there can be no doubt as to the truth of Obama's claims.

I don't agree that this was Obama's strongest moment in the debate. I think that for most viewers the real issue is to get a look at how the candidate thinks, how well they do under pressure, how stable and unflappable they are, even how they can attack back without seeming angry of petty. I felt that Obama just seemed more in control, less likely to do something rash or without thinking through all the possible repercussions of his actions . I think that he showed just those characteristics that I think would be most important in a President.

[Canada]

I'm growing more and more confused as to why we keep criticizing Obama for refusing to be an a-hole. Shouldn't we be encouraging politicians to act like grown-ups?

[maz hess]

the only debate which really could change the political landscape is the debate to come between biden and palin, if and only of she would get completely under the train.

[indytucker]

Debates aren't just a verbal joust, they're about body language and savvy, positions and posturing.

Obama did not want to come of as overly academic or overly disrespectful and pushy, thus he played the reserved prosecutor role. He won on the Iraq discussion, the bailout and Iran, although McCain roused the biggest laugh from that exchange.

McCain has a cold war mentality and his VP choice has runied his chances of swaying the independent vote....like mine.

[ladypatriot1776]

For the life of me, I cannot understand why the polls show McCain and Obama so close.

McCain is certainly a war hero who deserves our countries unending gratitude and respect. But there is no way McCain has the judgement, stability or honesty to lead us out of the mess this country is in.

[Bob Jones]

some gave all like John McCain and some gave nothing like the communist Oboma

[Morris]

LMAO!!!

[Shannon]

You're right - they should hire him. That was powerful.