Salah Al-Din wrote:
Maybe you don't get it. National Security and Foreign Policy are not to Obama's strength. If he goes toe to toe with Mcain he has no legs to stand on except for Iraq. It is because of this fact most people would vote for Mcain if the election is solely based on the issue of national security. However, what Obama has tried to do is frame the debate of national security around the economy. The fact that he was able to deliver such a message and came out even in a subject that is not the one he was running on is clearly to Obama's advantage. Mcain lost his chance to frame this election on national security and make it look like Obama could not be commander in chief. He tried to paint him as naive and some one who didn't understand, and say his policies were dangerous but I'm sure most independents who are the people they're trying to sway here could detect that he was condesending and not truthful in his assesments. If Mcain was going to show the country he should be president he blew his chance tonight, as the remaining debates are about issues that favour Obama.
No you don't get it. As was mentioned by the old dude in the beginning, he mentioned Eisenhower's quote about the military being dependant on the economy. Even though the theme is about National Security and Foreign Policy, it was clear beforehand that economy would be a significant factor when trying to delve into the issues of these particular themes. In this regard he chose the tactic, which also worked, by stressing the fact that spending must be controlled considerably, to which Obama agreed of course. McCain also scored some points by shedding some light on Obama's role in the mismanagement of government fundings.
All in all, you are equating the debates to their overall presidential campaign, again, all McCain had to do was to survive and thus be a winner. He achieved that tonight. Much more expect of Obama, but he failed to deliver, simply because he looked like he didn't had the debate under control to the average american viewer, even though ironically he was owning McCain big time on every point.