Overall 2008 debate winners?

Maybe you thought it was the same thing, but I would have liked to see a choice for "Everyone lost". Would have gotten my vote.

I think that, while Obama and Biden were superior debaters and would have won a properly scored debate, the Republican party gained most from the VP debate, so that is a kind of win there. This is because ordinary viewers were not scoring it. Most were looking for a reflection of their own views and more would have found that in Serah than Joe. There was also the poor little soccer mum out in the grown-ups world thing. A few days later and this advantage was lost as they got to know her better

The thing that bugs me in just about any debate I’ve ever seen is that they rarely answer the asked question. Brushing Palin aside on this issue, here's an example from McCain and Obama:

Example from the Second Presidential Debate:

QUESTION: Senator, selling health care coverage in America as the marketable commodity has become a very profitable industry. Do you believe health care should be treated as a commodity?

OBAMA: Well, you know, as I travel around the country, this is one of the single most frequently asked issues that I get, is the issue of health care. It is breaking family budgets. I can't tell you how many people I meet who don't have health insurance. If you've got health insurance, most of you have seen your premiums double over the last eight years. And your co-payments and deductibles have gone up 30 percent just in the last year alone. If you're a small business, it's a crushing burden. (Blah Blah Blah Blah, etc like this for a while…)

MCCAIN: Well, thank you for the question. You really identified one of the really major challenges that America faces. Co-payments go up, costs go up, skyrocketing costs, which make people less and less able to afford health insurance in America. And we need to do all of the things that are necessary to make it more efficient. Let's put health records online, that will reduce medical errors, as they call them. Let's have community health centers. Let's have walk-in clinics. Let's do a lot of things to impose efficiencies. But what is at stake here in this health care issue is the fundamental difference between myself and Senator Obama. As you notice, he starts talking about government. He starts saying, government will do this and government will do that, and then government will, and he'll impose mandates. (Blah Blah Blah, etc like that for a while....)

Did they ever answer the question about whether health care should be a commodity? It’s hard to tell.