Presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain met for their first of three debates on Friday.
Though the debate was initially supposed to focus on foreign policy issues, the candidates spent the first half of the debate discussing the current financial crisis.
Held at the University of Mississippi, the debate began with a question from moderator Jim Lehrer about whether the nominees agreed with the financial recovery plan, which will give Congress $700 billion in buying power. Both McCain and Obama said they would vote for the plan, but differed when asked how each would lead the country out of a failing economy.
McCain, who has established himself as an anti-earmark politician through much of his career, said the answer to a better economy lies in cutting government spending and regulating earmarks, which allows direct funds for projects and circumvents the corresponding executive agency.
“I’ve got a pen, and I am going to veto every single spending bill that comes across my desk. I will make them famous,” McCain said.
Student response to the debate was generally consistent with their views about each candidate prior to the debate.
Jesse Melgar, president of Bruin Democrats, said he found McCain’s stance on government spending hypocritical because he belongs to the party responsible for excess spending over the last eight years.
Obama’s plan for boosting the economy was a stark contrast from that of the Arizona senator; he said his tax cuts for 95 percent of working families were more likely to help better the economy.
“The ordinary American out there (with Obama’s tax plan) … they’ve got a little extra money to be able to buy a computer for their kid, or fill up on this gas that is killing them,” Obama said.
Committee chair of Bruin Republicans Stephen Crisafulli, said he wished Obama had more specifically addressed his tax policies, especially the capital gains tax, because they are likely to have a greater impact on the economy.
Throughout the debate, the two candidates also accused each other of taking actions or having policies that harm the economy.
Obama said McCain’s policy to give $300 billion in tax breaks for the wealthy neglect most Americans, while McCain said Obama only suspended his own earmark requests after beginning his candidacy.
But both McCain and Obama did agree that the economy had been failing well before the last week.
Obama, in particular, discussed what he called a failing health care system, while McCain talked about the failure of regulatory agencies, which should check corruption in Washington.
In the latter half of the debate, the nominees addressed foreign policy questions on a range of issues.
Many analysts prior to the debate said McCain had the upper hand in a foreign policy discussion because of his experience, but students disagreed on whether that was apparent in the debate.
Crisafulli said when discussing the Iraq surge especially, McCain demonstrated more knowledge and a better understanding of the situation.
“It was apparent Obama had less experience dealing with (foreign policy) than he did,” Crisafulli said.
But Melgar said it wasn’t clear during the debate that Obama had significantly fewer years in the senate than McCain.
“(Obama’s) into this against McCain, who’s been involved in government for 30 years. When putting McCain up against Obama, you would expect Obama to be blown out of the water, but I don’t think that was the case at all,” Melgar said.
The foreign policy portion of the debate began with a discussion of Iraq. When asked about the lessons learned from Iraq, McCain said the war has been successful after a strategy change in decreasing violence within Iraq as well as influence from Iran.
“This strategy has succeeded. … We are winning in Iraq,” McCain said.
Obama drastically differed from McCain on this issue and said that the war never should have been entered into because the major security threats of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda actually exist in Afghanistan.
“We have to use our military wisely. And we did not use our military wisely in Iraq,” Obama said.
Indeed, a large portion of the debate was a back-and-forth between the two candidates on the issue of Iraq; who had better judgment and who would be able to use that judgment as president.
McCain emphasized the success of the recent surge while Obama maintained that much of the resources spent on Iraq should be spent on Afghanistan.
The two senators also discussed U.S. relations with Pakistan, Russia and Iran.
In most of these discussions McCain emphasized his experience: for example, in making decisions about Somalia and Kosovo, meeting with several leaders, as well as visiting countries such as Pakistan.
But Obama approached the questions slightly differently, generally focusing on his plans regarding how he would handle each problem if he were elected.
In the latter half of the debate, the two candidates disagreed most on meeting with dictators without pre-conditions.
McCain said Obama’s willingness to meet with leaders such as Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Cuban president Raul Castro without precondition gives them a platform for propaganda.
But Obama said his priority is the nation’s safety and that may require meeting with dictators before they have agreed to America’s requests.
In only the first of the three debates, both candidates stayed true to their original campaign platforms and delved into both their economic and foreign policy stances.