On September 26^th, the University of Mississippi hosted one of three presidential debates between John McCain and Barack Obama, and was moderated by Jim Lehrer. The main issues at hand were foreign policy and national security, but of course the economy was going to be thrown in there. Here is how it mainly went down.

The first question spoke about the bailout (both candidates voted "yea" on the bill). The two went back and forth on the bailout and they agreed that more responsibility needs to be taken in the future. McCain kept saying that he had a "fundamental belief" in our country. It appeared as though he was avoiding question, and decided to talk about beliefs. This is a situation he cannot "hope" goes away or fixes itself. The specific bailout just signed by Bush isn’t the right process, but there are steps we need to take to solve the problem.

Next was earmarks and oil. Obama criticized McCain for his proposal that would give $300 million in tax cuts to rich companies and people. McCain fired back by saying Obama wants to spend $800 million on new programs. Obama repeated that McCain wants to give $4 billion to oil companies. McCain responded with an energy bill that had tax breaks for oil companies, which he voted against and Obama voted for. One article the next day said that both candidates had made factual errors; Obama said he is giving tax cuts for 95% of American households, when it is really about 80%. Is 80% still a lot? Yes. McCain also said earmarks have tripled in the past year, when they have not, but rather fallen. Both errors are critical, because Obama uses that 95% comment a lot, and one of McCain’s strong points are earmarks.

The disagreements began to grow as the question "What do you see as the lessons of Iraq?" was asked. McCain said that the U.S. had immediate success, but admitted that from then on, the war was mishandled. It is debatable if invading Iraq was right or wrong, but one thing is absolutely certain: Bush had no exit strategy. It is hard to fight a war in a holy land however, especially with shooting and bombing restrictions on mosques containing the enemy. Obama mainly agreed, saying "we took our eye off the ball" and then went into the numbers pertaining to the war, like casualties of allied forces and Iraqi citizens. After McCain was asked if he agreed with the lessons Obama previously mentioned, he jumped on Obama, bringing up the troop surge again and said that he supported it all along. He also brought up that Obama was "the chairperson of a committee that oversights NATO in Afghanistan. To this day, he has never had a hearing."

Obama was asked about that, and he instead brought up what Joe Biden has told him about the meetings. Obama should still attend the meetings and not just rely on his VP choice all the time. He then said "John, you like to pretend the war started in 2007," which has no evidence to back that charge up. He continued with "You said that we were going to be greeted as liberators. You were wrong." What pictures and videos of Iraqi citizens and Allied troops have Obama seen?

The most important question of the night was "What is your reading on the threat to Iran right now to the security of the U.S?" Both candidates agreed that Iran is a thread, but Obama was more for diplomacy and negotiations. McCain responded, when asked about talking, that he would "Sit down with anybody, but there’s got to be preconditions." Diplomacy works well with persuasive people, but there are certain people you do not negotiate with, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is one of them, mostly because of his continuously harsh comments about Israel. Even the words "negotiations" and "Ahmadinejad" in the same sentence is scary; one may think of Neville Chamberlain and his appeasement to Hitler.

The situation with Russia came up; this was another question that the candidates agreed on. There were few attacks, but one was where Obama brought up energy and said "McCain voted twenty-three times against alternative energy." McCain responded, saying that he has voted for alternative energy all of the time. Both are wrong, because according to factcheck.org, McCain voted eleven times against alternative energy. Offshore drilling had a quick mention during the question. Offshore drilling while investing time in alternative energy is the best way to go; it is all about getting off of that expensive foreign oil. Even with alternative energy we will still need oil to make an important product like plastic.

As for appearances and actions, both candidates had unexpected performances. John McCain seemed nervous at the beginning, when they were talking about the bailout bill. He was stumbling and repeating himself. Barack Obama, meanwhile, was calm in talking about the economy. Some people do not like when the candidates look into the cameras, but where else can they look? They cannot address the audience, as they are in shadows. It is better to look into the cameras and sort of talk to the nation.

Things turned around for John McCain in the end, however. He was nervous in the early parts of the debate, which was more concerned on the economy. He even said knowledge on the economy was not his strength early on in the primaries, and he was rightly criticized for it. Later on, however, he was back in familiar territory with the topic moving to foreign policy, his strength. It was he who looked good in the end, while Obama wanted to "move on" with some follow up questions.

John McCain came out on top in thsi debate. Supporters of McCain had to be worried during the economy questions; they are very hard questions for McCain to answer. Luckily for him, the debate revolved around foreign policy and national security, McCain’s two strongest issues. When asked about Iran, he was clear and concise in that he would not negotiate without preconditions. He refuses to take it any other way, and that is good. There was no evidence that he tried to have it "both ways" on any question; he was either across the line or behind it. While Obama stared into the camera more, McCain’s message was clear: I am ready to be your next president.