WASHINGTON - Republican White House hopeful John McCain, fresh from his first debate with Democratic rival Barack Obama in Mississippi, expressed regret on Saturday that his performance didn’t win over all the pundits in the press.
“I was a little disappointed the media called it a tie but I think that means, when they call it a tie, that means we win,” McCain said during a telephone call that was caught by cameras filming him at his campaign headquarters.
Both camps claimed victory after the 90-minute debate on Friday.
Meanwhile, Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, sought to lower expectations for the next debate in Tennessee on Oct. 7. It will be conducted in a town-hall style with questions from an audience.
“We will be a decided underdog in that encounter, and John McCain is the undisputed town hall champion,” Plouffe told reporters on a conference call, noting that McCain — who is fond of the format — had challenged Obama to do joint town hall meetings throughout the summer.
“He clearly feels, even more than the foreign policy debate, this is his home turf. So if we can just escape relatively unscathed against the undisputed town hall champion in Tennessee, we’ll be thrilled.”
Obama has held regular town halls of his own throughout the 2008 campaign and does not appear to struggle with the format.
Click here for more Reuters 2008 campaign coverage.
Photo credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder (McCain talks on the phone at his campaign headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, on Sept. 27)
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MCCAIN SHOWED NO RESPECT FOR OBAMA, DID YOU NOTICE, THAT THE OBAMAS HAD TO WALK ACROSS THE STAGE SHAKE HANDS WITH THE MCSAMES. A GREAT POINT WAS MADE, IT’S THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WHO DETERMINES THE WINNER OF THE DEBATE NOT JOHN MCLAME.
- Posted by BIGJOHNA week before the debate I read in a blog that Obama would probably win the debate, but the media would spin it as a tie. Now that every poll shows Obama won and every media source calling it a tie, that person was proved dead on.
- Posted by brNo John, almost no one said it was a tie. The pundits aren’t the important vote on this anyway (though for an elitist like you their opinion probably carries more weight than it should); it’s the American citizens, and according to the poll data that I have read, Obama was the clear winner: the most knowledgeable, the most presidential, and certainly the most statesmanlike!
- Posted by mbakerI watched the debate very carefully and I will say that Obama done his job as the debater. John McCain talked about earmarks. John McCain would not even look at Barack Obama. He is still mad about Barack Obama not meeting with him in and town hall meeting. John McCain can’t make Obama do anything. Obama is a real man not John McCain trying to become one. He acts just like a little kid going to the candy store trying to punish a child because he or she didn’t obey him. John McCain is one of the low down dirty Republican man I have every seen. I wouldn’t vote republican if my life depended on it. Don’t you folks get it John Mcain is for the rich friends of his and not the middle class people that are suffering every day. You get what you vote for.
Sarah Palin is a pathetic Vice President and I pray to god that she is not in the White House come november the 4th. It is best for John Mcain to keep her under lock and key because she is so silly when it comes to reality. She don’t know a dam thing about the United States. Remember she is from Alaska with about five-thousand people and I see that they are not feeling her either. She can’t begin to understand the united states problems because alaska is not a populated like we are. I wouldn’t trust her making not one decision for the people here in the united states because if she did on her little knowledge we all will be bombed and dead. Make a smart choice not a skin choice.
- Posted by ladydiWant to know who REALLY won the debate? Check the latest polls and see who went up and who went down.
- Posted by MikeFor anyone to say McCain won is mindless and dangerously brainless. McCain picked a VP who makes Tina Fey’s caricature of her look more intelligent than Palin. When McCain picked her his judgment shows his true ignorance! His first off was not his pick but rather a terrible joke on America! This woman is more of a valley girl governor voted in more for looks than brains, and had been coasting in small town Alaska but not at all ready for center stage. Her interviews prove how sad this reality is. I feel sorry that McCain’s sexist arse put her in a position to be made a mockery of. Had he wanted a woman there were far more experienced women, but he went on looks alone. Just like he did with his ex-wife, she lost her appeal when she was crippled. So, the pretty shiny trophy one wins. What a narrative for a pathetic shell of a man. If he dies after being sworn in, look what he gave America..a woman who thinks airspace and putin, fungible and molecules used in the same sentence is a qualifying factor, and if not, I’ll go get it for ya mentality, America would be doomed!
- Posted by KayMcCain is a loser. What a has-been. He’s anachronistic. Put him out to pasture. The Cold War is over; nobody wants sit sit on the porch and hear your war stories; there is more to building a country than killing people overseas; you won’t take care of the veterans,you won’t love them and cuddle them like you made is sound you would.
- Posted by bill[...] Friday’s debate, McCain was caught saying this at his campaign headquarters: “I was a little disappointed the media called it a tie but I think [...]
- Posted by John McCain’s war on reality | Hanlon's RazorMcCain continues to demonstrate his delusional qualities–but, I guess, that comes with the turf. There could be no more opportune time for “straight talk”: “Yeah, I was a real SOB to Obama,” “I’m running scared and I’ll try anyway screwy tactic to get elected–what’s there to lose?” “Obama isn’t fit to wipe my boots (or, shine my shoes: you pick)”, and, “I hope the American people are stupid enough to buy this swill about my becoming a populist the past two weeks, regardless of my record aligned with President Bush.”
The straight talk is that Brack Obama was presidential, gracious and showed leadership. THAT is the change we need.
As a side note, Senator McCain, The Stockton Record, a newspaper in the delta of California, endorsed Barack Obama today. It’s the first time in 72 years it has endorsed a Democrat. A paper that endorsed Wendle Wilkie, Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford and, Pres. Bush is not endorsing you…
- Posted by RJ KrugerA tie? Haha..I guess McCain loves surprises. He’s going to have a big one on Nov 4. Then he will go back to big house with drugged out wife and live his Depends years until he withers away into the dustbin of history.
- Posted by Joe the VetI want a President who will actually be here in the future. No, thanks McCain. Oh yeah, Sarah Palin…is an idiot.
- Posted by GeniseModerator Jim Lehrer said he wanted McCain and Obama to engage each other in this debate. Obama’s use of McCain’s first name–John–seemed an attempt to engage the senior senator in debate. By not directing his eyes at the junior senator, McCain seemed on the stump, directing his rhetoric to the audience rather debating Obama. (Of course, I’m prejudiced. McCain lost my respect when he lost his principles–if he ever had any–and reached out to the lowest common demoninator in the GOP electorate.)
- Posted by carolLike Chris Rock said. For a black man to win over a white, you can’t beat ‘em you have to knock them out.
- Posted by NickJohn McCain has been STEALING Sen. Barack Obama’s concepts and presenting them as his own, particularly the “Change” theme of the campaign.
Now he’s taking credit he mastered the “Bailout” and brought the parties together, when in reality it was Sen. Obama’s proposals that were adopted by the legislators.
In his 2002 book “Worth the Fighting For,” McCain unabashedly states the following, although in this campaign is singing a different tune when he is running for president.
“I didn’t decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to be president. I was sixty-two years old when I made the decision and I thought it was my one shot at the prize.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eKwTL8Sw bI
God save America from liars!
- Posted by Sean ConneryQuoted by Paulette: “I am totally afraid that if Obama were to become president he would really muck up foreign relations”. Have you been living under a rock??? US foreign relations have been appalling for the past 8 years. If that’s your major concern, vote the way majority of the rest of the world would if they could - Obama/Biden!
- Posted by KrisObama obviously won the debate. Obama was right on the issues of Iraq, diplomacy even with our enemies and restoring our standing around the world. While again McCain was obsessed with Iraq.
- Posted by KQuarkWhy is everyone getting so upset that McCain looked at the audience (live and on television) instead of looking at Obama? I am glad that McCain answers to “us” instead of to Obama. In “Public Speaking 101″, you always make eye contact with the people you are answering to. This is just another stupid and feeble attempt to discredit the candidate most obviously qualified for the job. Obama was not a polished speaker and continually and irritatingly kept interrupting McCain as he talked. Obama was the rude one!!! As far as presidential, who would you rather have represent the USA when having to meet face-to-face with some of the unsavory leaders of the world? Obama, who tries to turn everything into a negotiation, or McCain, who will stand stedfast in the best interests of the USA? Clearly, the choice is easy. If you get down to very basics - just compare the resume of Obama to that of McCain. This is not rocket science folks!
- Posted by DeborahPerhaps we had a replay of the 1960 debate. Those who watched on TV thought Kennedy won while those who listened on the radio thought Nixon won. McCain’s lack of eye contact with Obama and his grumpy appearance may have cost him the debate in the viewer polls. On the other hand, Obama looked confident and presidential. I wonder if there were any folks who still listened on the radio and what did they think?
Although my mind was not changed, I did learn something significant about McCain. Reading between the lines, I learned that he doesn’t want to leave Iraq without a victory. He thinks that anything less is a lack of respect to the brave men and women who gave their time and some of them, their lives. He spent 5 1/2 years in a POW camp in a war that wasn’t won. Vietnam vets were not admired for many years. He took his personal experience and generalized it to a major component of his foreign policy. I’m scared of a candidate who does that. Some wars have been mistakes and the sooner we get out, the better.
- Posted by RuthWithCouthMcCain represents the desperation and fear which has held this country hostage for the last 8 years. He is but a caricature of extreme moral and ethical disease.
- Posted by No MistakesHe has already lost.
McCain’s world view appears to include a “tie” as meaning he “won”…
Sounds like a man who after 4,000+ Dead Americans, 30,000+ Wounded Americans, more than $500 BILLION spent, Iran increasing in strength, Afghanistan going down the drain, Bin Laden STILL alive, would declare anything at all in Iraq a victory - after all of that nothing in Iraq is a “victory”.
Oh yeah and McCain picked a VP candidate who truly believes that humans and dinosaurs existed at the same time on earth and that because Putin flies over Alaska on his way to the U.S. that that makes her a foreign policy expert and.
Good One Johnnie!!!
- Posted by Rob