Here I am at Denver Airport (where, by the way, the free wireless has improved substantially) and watching McCain and Obama debate. The dial is interesting, it seems the undecided voters like what both candidates say for the most part; tho' I think McCain has gotten more extreme negatives and Obama more extreme positives from the dial.
But the crowd here at gate B55 for the flight to Minneapolis are silent. There are 50 people and no-one has clapped, no-one has hmmphed, no-one has laughed. I guess this demonstrates the more-American idea that you shouldn't talk about religion or politics with strangers. I would be interested to watch the debate in a bar (next election! come on 2012!) because that is my only point of comparison for watching political debates in public places. I watched a New Zealand election debate in a bar in 1999, and it was like being at a sporting event. People cheered, they jeered, they laughed.
Now, it's likely if you self-selected to be in a bar to watch a political debate you had a greater interest in politics than people who somewhat randomly ended up at the same gate for a plane together, but still. An airport seems like a slice of middle America, and I am not picking up any sense of how the average American is feeling about the election. Guess I'll have to rely on the internet, which you can do from overseas in your pyjamas. So, the audience is unusually quiet here. Partly that might be to actually hear the debate because unlike normal airport tv the sound is down at a frustrating just a little too quiet level, rather than the normal just a little too loud.
Posted by eroberts at October 15, 2008 9:13 PM