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I watched Al Jazeera's coverage of the first presidential debate this morning (because Livestation trumpeted something about their broadcast when I turned on my computer, mostly). It was quite informative and I discovered a lot of things that I didn't know about the two candidates. I've been asked many times today who I thought 'won' the debate. While I think that most people on both sides of the political spectrum will agree with me when I say that McCain fared better than he was expected, I'd still hand a victory to Obama (CNN apparently agrees with me). However as an Obama supporter, I'm still worried to see such a strong performance by McCain.

A thought that struck me while watching the debate, particularly when they were discussing the Middle East, was how far both candidates have moved towards the centre. Obama seemed less left-wing and McCain less right-wing - although it may have just been tactics by both sides to win the votes of moderate swing voters, or those who are disillusioned by each candidates' VP choice. Watching this debate, it really seemed like there was not that much difference between the two candidates (and I'm not necessarily sure if this is a good or bad thing - I'm thinking bad). This became particularly apparent for me when Obama was discussing Iraq. Earlier on in his campaign he seemed so anti-war and railed on about how he wanted to pull troops out of Iraq as soon as possible. Today, the only discussion on the topic was about tactics and strategy (eg McCain wants to stay in Iraq, and Obama wants to send more troops to Afghanistan and even Pakistan). Now that there are no (mainstream) candidates that are anti-war, as there were in the primaries, there is no reason for Obama to continue with his 'pull out of Iraq' rhetoric. So I guess that whatever the result, America will be stuck in Iraq for quite a few years to come.

As many other people have pointed out, including third-party candidates in the debates would probably have been a good idea (more than 50% of voters polled say they would like to see Nader and Barr in the debates). I'm all for inviting Nader, Barr, McKinney, hell, even Baldwin along, but then the format of the debate would probably have to be changed quite a bit. And I do enjoy the standard bipartisan debate.

The next presidential debate will be on October 7 in Nashville. It will be more a 'town-hall' style debate, where audience members ask questions (which should be more interesting than the others). The third debate is on October 15 in Hempstead, NY (focusing on the economy and domestic affairs). There is also a vice presidential debate before both of them on October 2 in St. Louis. I look forwad to seeing Biden and Palin come head to head. Election season is exciting!

Tim