Men are from Mars Women are from Venus in the Presidential Debate
If you watched the presidential debate on CNN, you could watch the green and orange lines of the focus group reacting to everything each candidate said. What is quite amazing is that men reacted more slowly than women and men tended to react less to McCain's tough rhetoric than women.
Here are some quick reactions to what we saw tonight:
The Bullshit Discount
McCain's points, even when the lines hover above the flatline, are significantly discounted by the bullshit discount. He never reaches Obama's highs, because even when people reluctantly agree with him, they have to factor in the fact that they just don't believe anything he says.
Guys are Trainable
In the CNN focus group lines, which divided by gender, men end up in the right place -- agreeing with the thoughtful, cerebral Obama -- but they're at least a beat behind the women.
Maybe they have a different processing speed; maybe they are truly more thoughtful. But guys, for efficiency's sake, just listen to the ladies. It will save so much time in the long run -- and aren't you supposedly all about efficiency? Girl power; you know we're right. All you have to do is admit it. We promise, we won't gloat -- it's not in our nature! (Not!)
BOTTOM LINE: OBAMA WON THIS DEBATE ACCORDING TO THE FOCUS GROUP. WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Read more reactions to the Obama-McCain Town Hall Debate from HuffPost bloggers
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Perhaps women are naturally quicker than men, but being "a beat behind" isn't such a handicap.
As a male, I thought the differences in the graphs were fascinating as well, and I agree that Obama seemed to consistantly track higher on the graph. The women did seem to be more astute to the bs factor than the men, however, can anyone explain to me why the women were rating McCain very high when he was discussing his idiotic health care plan? The men flatlined it, and deservedly so.
As the female is supposed to be the more nurturing sex ANY mention of healthcare evoked a postive response, even McCain's sorry plan, which also involves cutting back Medicare by 1.3 trillion dollars.
Unfortunately they didn't get the huge difference in the policies. The men were properly more skeptical of a Republican plan.
This was a very conservative focus group. Almost all white areas in Ohio are Republican, this was probably one of them.
Linda.
That Obama's supporters believe everything he says should disturb you as well. They've been consistently uncritical, unquestioning and blindly loyal. If he drives the country into the 'left' ditch, they will surely follow.
I'm sorry, but you've got it wrong. Obama supporters "UNDERSTAND" what he says because he isn't talking BS like your boy, Johnny. And in case you haven't noticed, you may want to grab a newspaper sometime. Your "Other Boy," Dubya has already driven us into a ditch. So keep it straight okay?
Now repeat after me:
"Obama is the one who is going to help us get out of the ditch that the Republicrats and especially John McCain got us into" (repeat 100,000 times as needed).
Now you can come with us if you want. Or, you can just stay there in "Johnny's Ditch"....
Obama can't drive the country into a ditch because your man McCain and his pal Bush have already driven the country in a ditch. Don't you read the papers?
Now, Obama has to drive the country OUT of the ditch. Obama supporters don't blindly believe everything he says. What Obama says makes sense and what McCain says doesn't. Staying in a "war" we shouldn't have started doesn't make sense, especially when Americans are dying over there for no reason. Spending billions of dollars a day in Iraq when that money isn't doing anything at all to help Americans REALLY doesn't make sense. Deregulating business and especially financial institutions and insurance companies, doesn't make any sense. Putting the husband of a billionaire heiress into the White House, when the husband doesn't have a clue how to pump gas or pay for it cannot even make sense to you.
Do you get it? What McCain supports doesn't make any sense to anyone who isn't a billionaire, and even billionaires are saying it doesn't make any sense. So, who is following whom blindly?
Obama can't drive it into a ditch, because of Bush and McCain Obama has to drive it OUT of the ditch! You know that, and you also know that if you don't vote for Obama, the ditch will just keep getting DEEPER. It isn't that Obama supporters believe everything he says, Obama supporters are able to look at the situation, look at WHO CAUSED THE SITUATION, and NOT be stupid enough to vote for the person who voted for Bush's policies over 90% of the time. It isn't a mystery. It is common sense.
100% agree the Republican plan reminds me of the story of the driver who says to his passenger "we're lost but we're making great time!!!
That's so funny. I remember none othe than George Will predicting, during the 1992 election, that Clinton would drive the country's economy into the ditch. Well, we all know how that turned out. The strongest economy in US history!
Republicans seem to have a fascination with ditches. Maybe they should try getting out of them, and joining the rest of us on the road to prosperity.
"They've been consistently uncritical, unquestioning and blindly loyal"
Kinda like the republicans when GWB drove america into the iraq 'ditch', right?
Got an answer for that one?
*crickets chirping*
Didn't think so.
Obama won it on health care invoking his Mother. That moment resonated with me and "pre-existing conditions".
Doc - as always a great post in spite of the fact you just could not resist playing the gender card. Of course we are slower...a
ANYWAY, your question is a non-starter. McCain looked out of gas....dis
The more he and the Avon Lady Governor talk the faster this is coming to an end...
Don't forget that McCain knows how to find Osama bin Laden. He said so again tonight.
I really wish he wouldn't keep this information to himself, but I guess the idea is that once he is elected, he can secure his place in the history books by capturing bin Laden at Disney World. Being a maverick, he wouldn't want to share that limelight with Bush
My sincere thought on his often-repeated line of knowing "how to find Osama bin Laden" is that his method will be to invade Pakistan with all the force we invaded Iraq. "Shock in Awe" if you will. I'm truly fearful of that.
Thoughts?
As Olbermann said a while back, if you take him at his word and he REALLY puts "country first," then he should tell the people in charge now how to do it. Otherwise, he's essentially holding the country hostage - "I'll tell you how, but only if you elect me."
Hey, my husband agrees with you! And actually so do I! I was just being provocative. BUT, women and men DID have different reactions ot the different points. If I had more time, i would do a more thorough analysis, but even at a quick glance, you could see that women were reacting to different points from men. In general, i think women reacted more positively to Obama than McCain, but I will leave it to the viewers and the public to tell me something different.
Most marketing research will show that women tend to be a bit more in the group of "early adopters" though with a larger sample, it might balance to more equal on the scale CNN uses.
I'm fascinated by this newest profile. Last debate & this we intentionally watched the debate on CSPAN first, then watched CNN. It was interesting to compare our perceptions with the Ohio group. My wife & I also enjoyed 'anticipating' how the Ohio group would respond.
I posed a few days ago the idea of having CNN's "Best Political Team" also be in a room and 'run the knob.' I'd like to see how their impressions compare to real people.
Also, MSNBC has a small group of people do the same thing, but they presented the results in Dem, Rep & Ind. The few shots of THAT were very interesting. The Reps were ++, The Dems -, and the Ind - - on a couple of negative attacks by McCain.
Fixed Noise has a phone-in poll. And guess what? McCain's in the lead there.
But in America, where the rest of us live?
http://www
Gonna vote, gonna vote Obama!
Obama won - hands down... consistently higher dial ratings...
anyone else catch mccain not shaking o's outstretched hand at the end?
Yeah, I did. Glad someone else did. None of the other several people watching with me saw it. It seem a clear, intentional snub, not a missed cue or oversight.
I noticed that women trended highest for Obama when he talked about health care. That didn't surprise me; I work in health care, so I see every day how women are the family health care 'managers' -- and I hear their complaints 40 hours a week.
The CNN poll has just come out -- Who did the best job in the debate? Obama 54% and McCain 30%
Opinion of Obama goes up by 4% to 64%; McCain favorables and unfavorables remian same -- 51% favorable and 46% unfavorable
"I think Fox News doesn’t have an online poll on who won the debate because they’re scared that Obama might actually win"
l just went to the fox news website and saw this comment on the their YOU DECIDE: Who Won the Debate? page......
http://ele
Near the bottom of the page it says:
Question of the Day
Who won the second presidential debate in Nashville?
John McCain
Barack Obama
Just voted. Obama 65% McCain 35%
If you go to that page you see an ad on the right with Bill O'Reilly saying he's giving fair and balanced reporting "Not Favoring Anyone."
That made me laugh OUT LOUD.
I def noticed that gender difference. But I know in my marriage, I have a quicker instinctual reaction, and my husband usually catches up to my position, but at times, he does talk me back. I'm going to say it's a 7/30 split -- generous :)
ABSOLUTELY. Obama without a doubt.
I think that Sen. Obama won this debate handily. He was reserved, graceful, yet authoritative when necessary. Sen. McCain however, well let's just say the less said about his performance the better. Also, why in the world was he standing during while Sen. Obama was speaking? It made him appear lost because he would dodder from one end of the floor to another while it was not his turn.
I don't think I could have been more disappointed in both of these guys tonight, neither would answer questions just like last time.
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