I had to chuckle quite a bit today when I started hearing all of the editorials coming out bashing ABC News for the debate last night. There were many different writers who attacked the debate for not asking important questions or trying to simply stir up controversy.

Daylon and I had a different take on it. We both felt that the first portion of the debate did go over some issues that have been brought up numerous times over the last couple of weeks. Granted, the issues including Obama's church are not key to running the country, however these are topics that are being discussed, and the best way to handle a controversy is to tackle it head-on. If nothing else, this gave Hillary and Barack a taste of what will likely be coming at them during the general election.  Also, considering this is nearly the 30th debate, and both of them have fairly similar positions, if ABCNews had simply asked questions about health care, the economy, and Iraq, the answers would have been the same ones that we have already heard.  

A few other comments:

1) For Obama -- His campaign needs to spend more time preparing him for debates. During tough questioning, he tends to have trouble giving a straight-forward, sharp answer. He needs to learn how to be more direct with answering a question instead of trying to simply gloss over it and give a more flowery answer.

2) For Clinton -- Since both of them have similar policies, she needs to work harder to highlight more of her efforts to cross party lines and work with Republicans. She also needs to highlight the fact that she can pull in rural voters as a strength during the general election.

3) For McCain -- He looked very good on Hardball recently and seemed to have a very good rapport with the college crowd. However, he still needs help with his big speeches where he does not convey any inspiration. At times he also comes across as an amature speaker much like Bush