Noteworthy Debate Reaction From Around The Right Side Of The Blogosphere

The right side of the blogosphere was all over the map on this debate — which is out of the ordinary. Normally, you see most bloggers going in the same direction, but after looking through the blogosphere, the opinions seem to be roughly split between…

* McCain barely squeaked out a victory in a dull debate.

* The debate was dull and McCain did very little to help himself. We’re in deep trouble.

* McCain’s housing bailout is a nightmare! I can’t believe he proposed it!

There were a few “McCain won big” posts, too, but they were decidedly in the minority.

Here are the some of the comments from around the blogosphere that caught my eye,

“I thought that, quite unfortunately, this was a big win for Obama tonight. Not that he did anything great, but that he was very steady while McCain had a very ineffective first two-thirds of the debate. Darn.” — Quin Hillyer at AmSpec Blog

“All in all this was a pretty dull debate. Can we have Rick Warren replace Bob Schieffer for the next debate? I think he’s done the best job of any of these appearances. And you got more of a feel for who these guys are instead of their canned talking points. (UPDATE: I see that Fred Barnes just said the same thing. Great minds….)

I’m with Alex Castellanos on CNN who said that we just learned that McCain wants to buy everyone a house and Obama wants to provide everyone health care. And we’re a country that’s broke.

We’re in deep trouble.

And having Democrats in control of the government is not going to improve anything. But I don’t think that John McCain gave any undecided voter a reason to make a different choice four weeks from now.” — Betsy’s Page

“Well, there’s an hour and a half of my life I’m never getting back.

Generally dull, little back-and-forth, questions that were pretty “meh,” and a bunch of answers that were very predictable to those of us who have been following this race.

Because he’s trailing, we needed to see something different from McCain tonight. It wasn’t a bad night for him, and most of his answers were fine. But there wasn’t anything that any of us are going to remember in a couple of days…” — The Campaign Spot

“I’m declaring McCain the winner of this debate by a wide margin. He was very, very effective.

Unless someone is already pre-disposed for Obama, they will be drawn toward McCain’s greater experience and presumably better judgment. It came through on question after question.” — Gina Cobb

“We have a disaster here — which is what you should expect when you delegate a non-conservative to make the conservative (nay, the American) case. We can parse it eight ways to Sunday, but I think the commentary is missing the big picture.

…Obama comes off as just your average Center-Left politician. Gonna raise your taxes a little, gonna negotiate reasonably with America’s enemies; gonna rely on our very talented federal courts to fight terrorists and solve most of America’s problems; gonna legalize millions of hard-working illegal immigrants.

McCain? He comes off as Center-Right .. or maybe Center-Left … but, either way, deeply respectful of Obama despite their policy quibbles.

Great. Memo to McCain Campaign: Someone is either a terrorist sympathizer or he isn’t; someone is either disqualified as a terrorist sympathizer or he’s qualified for public office. You helped portray Obama as a clealy qualified presidential candidate who would fight terrorists.” — Andy McCarthy at The Corner

I can’t underscore enough what a rotten idea John McCain’s ACORN-like government mortgage buy-up is. I said it during my liveblog. And I’ll say it again: “HE WANTS TO EXPAND THE BAILOUT. He wants to do what ACORN wants to do. We’re Screwed ’08.” — Michelle Malkin

“Instant analysis? McCain won, but not by nearly enough to matter. He was up against a punk kid, and barely came away on points. Barely.” — Stephen Green from PajamasMedia

“What’s the bottom line? McCain performed well, I think, subject to some concern that he may have come across as pretty old. Obama showed, in the first debate and again tonight, that he too can come across well under pressure. He’s no longer stammering and indecisive as he once was on the stump. On the whole, he’s a plausible rogue and I suspect that he passed muster with most people who aren’t knowledgeable about the issues. McCain did fine, but I don’t think anything happened that will significantly affect the momentum of the campaign.” — John Hinderaker at Power Line

“And what about the non-homeowners who have worked hard and decided, responsibly, not to live under the Damocles’ Sword of an Adjustable Rate Mortgage knowing that, at some point, that rate was going to adjust upward and put them in serious trouble?

Screw us, apparently.

…Did I just hear John McCain tell me how government control makes him nervous? Little did I know that he only gets nervous unless its his administration taking more control.

Sounds like another left-wing power grab to me. I already see one of those candidates in office. And if I have to resign myself to having a borderline socialist in the White House, I’ll go ahead and take the authentic one instead of the poser. At least that way I’ll see the socialism coming straight at me instead of having it blindside me in the middle of the most boring debate in the history of the planet.” — The Sundries Shack

My debate analysis in three words “Congratulations, President Obama.” — Viking Pundit

“Did my ears just malfunction?

Did John McCain say minutes ago that part of the solution should be for the Fed to buy my mortgage, then “renegotiate” the mortgage based on the newer, lower property value?

…What do you have to do to qualify, miss a couple payments?

No wonder Obama didn’t have a response to that new tack. He’s kicking himself for not thinking of it first.

Has anyone an earthly clue how much that would cost the government (err… me & you) to do? You don’t want to know, because you, your children, your grandchildren and your great grandchildren can’t pay for it.” — Steve Schippert at Wizbang

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