The first presidential debate

I watched the first presidential debate this year between Obama and Mccain.

You can read the reactions and spin on these in several places, and here are my observations. These aren't criticisms, but observations of the training these guys went through, and what I noticed as they were clearly trying to do, or were clearly unable to do. It is unclear until plenty of people have analyzed it and have done polls, how much these will matter in the final outcome.

1. I noticed that Obama consciously, very consciously, looked away from the host and faced the camera directly when making a point about his readiness or his abilities. In contrast, Mccain did not do that even once in the entire session. While at times it felt as though it was unnatural, it was effective for Obama. Each of those times, it connected him to the people watching.

2. Obama, whenever addressing Mccain, would look at him straight and talk to him. Mccain on the other hand, seem to not want to look at Obama. That seemed a bit rude and robotic -- don't you always look at the people around you, especially when you are speaking to them, or referring to them?

3. Obama, not once in the entire debate, gave one sound bite that others would want to repeat. It was very plain, very labored speech. In contrast, Mccain, whether or not he was saying anything meaningful, had it down much better. Calling Obama naive, repeating specific numbers (930M, 18B, etc), claiming "Obama doesn't understand" -- all these he repeated and ensured would be picked up and repeated by a lot of people the next day. Obama needs to loosen up, get less embroiled in the correctness of details, and give his people sound bites to repeat after him.

4. The debates need some fact checkers. Mccain could stand there and lie through his teeth, and it would be on Obama to point them out as lies -- but how many would he be able to? Maybe candidates need better strategies to point out the lies, and tell their own lies with more conviction.

5. Mccain's lies put Obama on the defensive. Obama wasn't taking the war to Mccain. Even strong points were put really mildly. Take an example: Mccain took his time to drive home his point that "Incredibly, INCREDIBLY, Obama has not gone to Afghanistan" -- and he repeated it twice. Now, when Mccain said he wouldn't publicly state making offensive strikes against Pakistan and just do them, Obama should have really taken Mccain to task. Here is a presidential candidate openly saying he has double standards. On top of that, this is the same president who sang a song to "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran." These double standards, these reckless speeches, these reckless mindsets are the cause of the economic mess this country is in. This is the same recklessness earlier president had, this is the same recklessness Mccain champions. BUT, no, all Obama could muster was that given Mccain's bomb iran video, this comment from Mccain was not very credible. C'mon now -- you've at least got to walk through doors that open!


The debates coming up later should be more interesting. So far the candidates were sparring, and hopefully there would be fire from Obama we would see in the future.

Please vote

After the pathetic eight years of lack of leadership and asinine handling of foreign affairs, no patriotic American should sit on the sidelines and feel their vote doesn't count.

Please vote. And vote Obama. It would be appalling if the Republicans are allowed to lie their way to a victory.

Microfinance

As you might know, Jambool partners with Kiva to make loans to needy entrepreneurs around the world -- especially in third world countries. Since we launched the partnership in mid August, we've made loans to over 50 businesses (that's roughly 3 loans a day). You can see more at: http://tinyurl.com/karma2kiva.

Kiva has been great to work with -- simple and effective. In case you don't know about Kiva, it enables peer to peer lending for businesses in developing countries that need small loans. The lenders themselves do not charge or expect an interest on the loan, and more often than not (I think), they don't even expect a repayment. But repayments make it far more sustainable of course.

I also found out about Microplace today -- an EBay owned company -- that also provides a similar peer lending model for needy businesses.

As I found out from elsewhere -- there is a subtle difference between the two. The loans on Microplace are returned with an interest to the lender, and the loans here are securitized -- which implies these loans can be sold to another investor.

The Kiva model seems simpler. Having heard the story of the beginning of microfinance from Mohammed Yunus, it would seem one wouldn't want to tack on interest in order for these loans to work. That said, apparently even the Kiva loans are often given out at an interest to the businesses and it helps support the field operators. I personally find it better that there are fewer people earning interest from the loan given to a needy entrepreneur, and any interest that is indeed paid stays very close to the source.

Thoughts?