DENVER—Financial services worker Evelyn Gifford hoped John McCain and Barack Obama would use Friday’s debate to talk about how they would handle the economy, but she was disappointed
Gifford, 43, a business analyst who lives in suburban Wheat Ridge, said she worries about layoffs amid the financial crisis. “I’m scared,” she said in a phone interview.
She has already felt the effects of the crisis firsthand. “My bank crashed today,” she said. “I’m a WAMU (Washington Mutual) customer.”
Gifford said she is a Republican and disagrees with Obama’s policies but is leaning toward voting for him anyway, citing his personality and the Bush administration’s handling of the economy.
“It’s very difficult to think that after the last eight years you can’t change your mind,” she said.
She was also disappointed that McCain didn’t look at Obama or address him by his first name. She said that made McCain look like he was “pontificating.”
At Denver’s Skylark Lounge, some 150 people gathered for a viewing party hosted by Drinking Liberally, which touts itself as a “progressive social group.” The atmosphere resembled a football game, with the crowd cheering for Obama and booing at McCain, including when he referred to himself as a “maverick of the Senate.”
Some in the raucous crowd noted that Obama appeared to be wearing a flag lapel pin while McCain was not.
“McCain did better than I expected him to,” said Denver attorney Eric Triplett, 34, who was at the bar drinking a beer.
“On some issues he did display some expertise, while on some questions he was much more coherent than others,” Triplett said. “The one where he talked about North Korean children being shorter than South Korean children was just very tangential.”
Triplett said he had already made up his mind for Obama.
“I’m hoping that some of the doubters will be convinced by his style,” he said. “He provided specific example and showed a good mastery of the Georgia and Russian conflict. A lot of people thought he as inexperienced and I think he has proven that he does have a good mastery of the issues.”
Attorney Pat Meyers, one of the original founders of the Quiznos sandwich shop chain, watched the debate from his living room couch in Denver with his twin daughters.
He said McCain came across as “folksy” and Obama as “smooth,” and neither impression surprised him.
Meyers, a long time Republican, said he recently switched parties in order to be able to vote in a primary in heavily Democratic Denver. He supports Obama but considers himself a conservative Democrat.
“The only way the debate would change my mind is if either said some radically different from their positions in the past, and that didn’t happen,” he said.
Meyers said he gave money to both campaigns. “They’re both good people and both are capable of being president,” he said. “If I was on the fence at all with McCain, that probably ended with his pick of Sarah Palin as vice president.”
