Obama wins second debate

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Barack Obama has emerged triumphant from the second presidential debate against Republican candidate John McCain.

Senator Obama appeared calm and collected going head to head with the opposition contender and now leads the presidential race by five percentage points in the national polls as well as leading in the majority of battleground states.

Eleven undecided voters put their questions to Obama and McCain and polls taken immediately after the televised debate all revealed Obama held the advantage. One CNN poll declared Obama the winner by 54 to 30 points and a CBS poll saw him push his adversary out of the picture by 39 to 27 points.

The Democratic candidate succeeded in personalising the current economic climate by referring to rising petrol prices in Nashville, where the debate was being held.

His comments on foreign policy packed an equally powerful punch when he addressed McCain's dig that Obama did not have sufficient knowledge of world affairs to be president.

'Senator McCain, in the last debate and today, again, suggested that I don't understand. It's true. There are some things I don't understand. I don't understand how we ended up invading a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, while Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda are setting up base camps and safe havens to train terrorists to attack us.'

The nail in the coffin came for McCain after he said that a president had to 'speak softly' to allies. Mr Obama responded saying: 'Now, Senator McCain suggests that somehow, you know, I'm green behind the ears and, you know, I'm just spouting off, and he's sombre and responsible.

'Senator McCain, this is the guy who sang, 'Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran', who called for the annihilation of North Korea. That I don't think is an example of 'speaking softly'.'

He added: 'This is the person who, after we had - we hadn't even finished Afghanistan, where he said, 'Next up, Baghdad'.'

Wednesday 8 October 2008

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