Sen. Obama Played His Cards Very Well And Used A Strong And Wise Strategy

Sen. Barack Obama was masterful in his approach to dealing with Sen. John McCain during the first presidential debate at the University of Mississippi, in Oxford. Sen. Obama repeatedly spoke of his agreements with Sen. McCain on some of the issues. Some people have taken it as a sign of weakness, but nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, it showed Sen. Obama's ability to reach across the political aisle to complement people and concede when those on the other side are doing things the right way. Most important of all, it was a smart strategy for Sen. Obama to connect with the independent voters who detest political partisanship and want someone who is focusing more on the issues and less on gotcha politics. I think that is one of the reasons that Sen. Obama looked far more presidential in this debate that was supposed to play to Sen. McCain's supposed strengths relative to foreign policy. Sen. McCain was extremely condescending to Sen. Obama by repeating lines like "he just doesn't understand." That was something that did not play well with even some of the regular voters that even Fox News interviewed for debate analysis ... on FOX NEWS! About the only people who felt that Sen. McCain won and looked more presidential were the usual highly-conservative pundits on Fox News and the people in Sen. McCain's camp (now free to jump back into politics as apparently the Arizona senator's campaign is running again ... since he decided to show up in Mississippi for this debate).