US debate - the final showdown.

The third and final debate kicked off at Hofstra University in Long Island, New York on Thursday 12pm AEST.

Did I hear my name being mentioned?

At the beginning, the focus was on the economy. McCain put down a serious and consistent message. Whether you agree with him or not, he certainly made his points clear. Obama started off a bit 'flat' by his standards. Answering the questions and reeling off the talking points, without going further than what was required.

So I guess after the worm was at an all time high for McCain, he switched to attacking Obama.

While McCain had a brilliant anecdote about a guy named Joe, a plumber in Ohio, and how his business would be screwed over by Obama's tax plan. McCain then managed to overdo it and it was just another cliché (see also drill baby drill). His attacks from that point on sounded a bit desperate and unfounded. In response, Obama cited his views in a clear manner and justified any misconceptions which had given McCain fodder to make the attacks in the first place.

McCain then just looked like an angry old man who had lost his mind. Ayers, Acorn associations - clear non-issues compared with the economy. The voting on a bill that "was against afterbirth care for failed abortions" - absolute bullsh!t.

But the weird thing was, Obama would outline a policy, which actually could have been tactically argued against, but instead McCain chose to focus on petty character jibes. WHYYYYYYY? Perhaps he had a script and was unable to deliver something sensible off the cuff? Perhaps his prep team are conspiring against him? (Indeed rumour had it that Joe was not even registered to vote, although now it appears he is registered under a slight misspelling of his name.)

God only knows.

Exactly.

Now as they say, a picture can tell a thousand words... particularly when there are around a thousand words in the picture. Let us now examine some word clouds from the third debate between Barack 'everything I say is edifying' Obama and John 'everything I say is jabberwocky' McCain.

First, Barack:


Second, John:
After finally getting the Java Applet thingy work, I say thank you dear wordle.

As you can see from the word clouds, there are some key differences. If you look quite closely, you can see 'John' in BO's cloud but no corresponding 'Barack' in JMc's cloud.

Health is more important to Obama. Campaign is more important to McCain. Taxes/tax is equal.

BO's key words from the debate were = think, people, now and make. JMc's were = America, need, now and Joe. So if we say the two 'nows' cancel each other out. We have 'make people think' vs America need Joe.'

Sorry Joe, I don't think so.

In sum, Obama came across as a statesman, a gentleman. He has a vision for the US. He was the winner. McCain came across as fairly out of touch, sounding very much like Nelson from The Simpsons. He needs vision correction. He was the loser.

Pretty much sums it up really

So the question to now ask is: how much would Obama have to fuck it up to lose?

That is all.