by Kenneth Hofmann

Created on: October 18, 2008

The latest debate between McCain and Obama at Hofstra University may go down as the best of all of the debates between the presidential candidates. If you look at this last debate closer both had a game plan and executed their objectives. In the first half of the debate you can safely say McCain was the more aggressive and Obama played a more defensive role. However in playing defense he answered a lot of questions surrounding Obama from the last few weeks and maybe answered a lot of critics unsure about Obama's character.

Once the first and second wave attacks against Obama, McCain and Obama started to settle back and the debate became more about the issues facing our country and less about the two candidates. Once the fires cooled it was apparent that Obama started to once again paint a picture for America that was clear and concise. While McCain also used his own way of showing that he should not have to show all of his cards with is policies when he has over twenty years in the Senate. He is mostly a man of his word and McCain's policies are from years of expertise dealing with the bipartisan that occurs throughout the government.

The turning point for the viewer could have been from many areas of the debate. If you were looking for more about Education and its polices, Obama was clear on his plan for better resources and better salaries for teachers and with McCain he preferred that the education system be modified but not overhauled. With health-care each candidate has a different plan in which Obama wants the uninsured to be able to get a insurance plan comparable to the same as government workers. In contrast McCain is willing to give a 5000 health-care credit so that everyone has a choice to shop any health-care plan out there even out of state.

In retrospect you can say either side won depending on what you were looking for in each others responses. Including the whole Joe plumber analogy in which there was mostly just more confusion. If you were looking at how each carried themselves I would lean to Obama based on how he handled any question with a detailed answer while still being able to relate back to the audience and not letting McCain frustrate his overall message. One last thing, Obama did use a lot of nonverbal ways of response toward McCain during his criticism which was pretty clear on television and many of these attacks seemed to only humor the Senator from Illinois. People can perceive that kind of action in many ways, but in total it might not be enough to really change the mind of the voters

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