Heath's Random Thoughts

Debates: Round 2 and Fact-Checks

Last night was the 2nd of 3 rounds of debates that the Presidential hopefuls participated in. This debate had more of a "town-hall" style where most of the questions came from undecided voters in the audience and on-line. I really enjoyed this format. It forced the candidates to interact with real people, and not just those who obviously already support one candidate or the other. These are people that have some real good questions and are taking their time to make a well throughout decision and not just blindly going off of what the media or the candidates are telling them. This format also forced the candidates to be, for the most part, civil with each other, rather than some of the childish attacks that typically happen during an election season. I will be honest, I only saw the second half of the debate because I was out buying much needed groceries and doing my part to pump money into the economy. But I did TIVO the whole thing and hope to watch the the rest tonight. I though that Sen. McCain did a slightly better job in the second half of the debate in fielding the questions. He seemed to be more direct and concise with his answers. Though both rarely answered the exact question that was asked of them. At least in my opinion. At any rate, I did watch some of the analysis after the debate that included a panel of undecided voters. Again, I loved this set-up. The panel had some great insight and pointed out strengths and weakness they saw in each candidate without really taking a side. Once again both candidates, distorted or stretched the reality of their opponents background/stance and encourage those reading this to check out the fact check resources. The two I have looked through so far include this Associated Press write-up on Yahoo! News and a sight where some the write-ups info came from called factcheck.org. Check-em out and if you have other sources you use, please leave a comment with what they are. I would love to look through them. On a related note, a friend of mine sent me a site the other day called http://www.votegopher.com/. Its is a nice little site that summarizes each candidates stance on many of the major issues. Check it out if you get the chance.

posted by Heath @ 9:59 AM