Barack Obama

Debate part 2: Obama stays on energy independence message

Some people worry that Obama seemed to put energy independence on the “back burner” by suggesting his clean energy plan was the “first thing” he would cut to make room for the $700 billion bailout rescue deal. Significantly, that isn’t the message heard by at least one group of crucial voters — undecideds. During the […]

Debate part 1: McCain tells the truth and lies at the same time

Let me briefly hit the big picture on the debate. The two insta polls out, from CBS and CNN, show that McCain lost by a large margin, by 13 percent or so. That large a gap means independents in particular didn’t like his performance (by 22 percent in this poll). And that is no big […]

A roundup of news on the presidential election

• Barack Obama visited Nevada, where he assured voters that he loves the mining industry. • Locals in Sarah Palin’s hometown of Wasila, Alaska, say that she “fouled her own nest” by promoting rampant development during her tenure as mayor. “Sarah’s legacy as mayor was big-box stores and runaway growth,” said one resident. One of […]

McCain campaign releases contrived ads promoting coal

The McCain and Obama campaigns have been bickering for the past week about who loves coal more. Today the McCain campaign released new coal-happy radio ads in Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The ads claim that “clean coal means cleaner air,” but “Obama-Biden and their liberal allies oppose clean coal.” In reality, Obama has been […]

Debate: spending

Last night moderator Jim Lehrer pressed the candidates about what spending priorities they would postpone or cancel in response to the financial crisis (a bit of framing I find maddening). In the heat of the debate I was irritated with Obama for not countering the frame directly. Going back and watching, though, he did seem […]

Candidates spar on who has most comprehensive vision

Obama said that we “have to have an energy policy to deal with not just Russia” but with other not-so-friendly regimes. He also said the United States should increase “domestic production, and yes, offshore drilling … but we only have 3 percent of the world’s oil .. we can’t drill our way out of the […]

Debate: concessions

Okay, Obama tags McCain for voting against renewable energy 23 times, which is fine. But in the process he concedes offshore drilling, he concedes nuclear, he concedes clean coal. Why play on your opponents’ ground? Over and over again, Obama starts out by conceding and then backing away. It comes off as defensive. Argh.

Debate: fact-checking

Check out ThinkProgress for some pretty amazing real-time fact-checking of this debate. And more at washingtonpost.com, Factcheck.org and Politifact.com.

McCain and Obama trade jabs on energy bill and Big Oil

More on the 2005 energy bill, which came up earlier in the debate. McCain said it was “festooned with Christmas tree ornaments,” and claimed that Obama’s vote for it shows his support of excessive pork spending. McCain implied that his own vote against it was a vote against giveaways to Big Oil. But at the […]