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Post by Roland of Gilead on Oct 5, 2008 13:11:34 GMT -5
Anyone care to join me? It's no fun if I do it alone.
With all the spin about who won what debate, it's hard to make an objective judgement on who wins. Let's face it, unless there's a big f-up on the part of our candidates, we all come away feeling as if our candidates won.
So, let's set up some ground rules. You can't quantify body language and personality, but we can possibly judge the way candidates address the issues. So, here's what I propose: Take a scratch pad, divide it in half, with one side for Obama and one side for McCain. Now, give each candidate a score for every distinct point they make. Then, deduct a half point for every time they fail to address a question directly, and a half point for every time they lead off with "I agree with my opponent."
Sound good? We've got a couple of days, so if you have any other ideas for ground rules, post them here.
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Post by Roland of Gilead on Oct 7, 2008 22:37:26 GMT -5
OK...it's very hard to be objective. As I said, I'd score it a "point for a point," but how we judge what exactly a "point" is can be subjective in itself. A good debater can it 4 or 5 points in a single sentence, and in this, going by my gut, Obama seemed far more agile.
So, I scored it 94.5 to 71 in favor of Obama. By my criteria, there were very few penalties, but I guess the format of this debate didn't allow for many departures.
Obama lost 2.5 points. I had him agreeing with McCain 4 times, and 1 departure from topic. I penalized McCain 2 points. He agreed once and departed from topic 3 times. You may disagree with my findings.
There are so many intangibles. Obama still did a much better job looking at McCain and seeming engaged while his opponent was talking. McCain continued to mostly look away, although he did at least try to look up a few times. I can't fault him for taking notes, but he gets lots of criticism for once referring to Obama as "that one," and appearing condescending. No one noticed, but after the debate, when they were both on stage, McCain actually turned away when Obama went to shake hands, and his wife Cindy, apparently embarrassed, walked up and graciously shook Barak's hand in his stead.
Anyway, that's my take...
On the points...I make no distinction as to whether or not I agree with the point when I score them.
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