CELL Blog | Center for Engaged Learning in the Law

After watching the debates between Obama and McCain, I was less interested in who “won,” (unlike the many pundits who always declared victory for their guy), than how they responded to each other’s assertions. It seems to me they generally had two basic structural choices in responding to the opponent other than saying “I’m not sure:” (1) You are wrong because…..; and (2) You are correct, but….. Most of the time, they both were uttering “you are wrong” before the other person had finished his sentence. I don’t know what this means, but perhaps it has to do with going on offense or being on defense. At the very least, how they argue seems like something worth keeping track of, rather than who “won.”

–Steve Friedland