First Presidential Debate Revisited: McCain Wins on Foreign Policy

I listened to the debate on my car radio on the way home last night, but I missed the last third of the debate, the part that covered foreign policy. I didn't realize the debate was 90 minutes and thought it was about over when I pulled up in the driveway. However, I just watched the last 30 minutes, which is recorded on CNN's site. This changes my opinion of the debate somewhat.

John McCain certainly appeared more knowledgeable and comfortable with foreign policy than did Obama and won that part of the debate, though it was by no means a knock-out. Obama was smooth and spoke well and even somewhat knowledgeably on the issues, though his major premises were often wrong. His belief that we must "be respected" by the socialist/pacifist governments of Europe as essential to foreign policy successes being a case in point. Those governments are well on the way to self-extinction and I do not want the United States to follow them into the dust-bin of history.

McCain was comfortable, smooth and self-assured, but not particularly aggressive on the issues. As Pamela Geller points out today, one the biggest problems she (and I) have with McCain is his refusal to go for the jugular and press his advantage when the opportunity appears.
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I really liked McCain's suggestion that we replace the United Nations with a League of Democracies, a kind of U.N. with only democratic countries represented. Those countries could then apply economic and other kinds of pressure on rogue states like Russia when they commit aggression. The U.N. is effectively toothless because the inmates are in charge of the asylum.

McCain certainly did himself no damage in this first debate, but that's not enough to impress the public. He needs to make a clearer distinction between himself and Obama. He needs to go for the knock-out punch. Hopefully he will do so in later debates.

You can watch the debate here.