Tonight’s debate was dull, stupid and disadvantageous to John McCain. What I saw in this event — hate to say it — was a replay in some ways of the Nixon-Kennedy debates in 1960. (Yes, I was alive for them, but not nearly old enough to know what was going on. I have, however, studied them closely.) The bottom line in 1960 was visual perception.
Tonight, McCain gave mostly right answers but Obama looked and acted (and “act” is the key) more presidential. McCain came across as simultaneously feisty and formulaic in responding to a set of questions in a format that together were anything but “townhall” in nature. This was a Brokaw bait-and-switch for which Brokaw deserves an “F”. But McCain’s people should have prepared their candidate better.
I think McCain’s proposal to refinance mortgages — which I have supported on this blog — was misunderstood in part because McCain didn’t do a good job of explaining it. McCain was presidential, but Obama’s youth and physical stature — together with his calm cadence — worked to McCain’s disadvantage.
For most Americans, it boils down to three things:
1. Which candidate’s policy prescriptions do you prefer?
2. Do you believe that the candidate will actually deliver the policy prescriptions he promises?
3. Which candidate is likely to be the most effective leader?
For me, McCain wins number 1 and 2, hands down. Number 3 is contested. My vote goes to McCain because (a) I don’t like what Obama promises and (b) I do not believe that Obama is playing it straight with the American people. In other words, as bad as his stated agenda is, Obama’s presidency would be controlled by an agenda far more leftist than he lets on.
Number 3 (leadership) is contested primarily because the top requirement for effective leadership is trust. I think Obama is a liar on multiple fronts and will rapidly lose the trust of Americans and foreign leaders when they finally wake up to who this guy really is. And I think he is being used by interests far beyond his level of understanding.
For some Americans, however, other things are more important than policy, character or leadership. Some are unfortunately focused on race and “changing the paradigm,” which is liberal speak for getting a “real” black president for once. Here’s hoping that these short-sighted folks do not rue the day that they sold America’s birthright for such a sorry mess of pottage.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Toes 10.07.08 at 11:36 pm
“And I think he is being used by interests far beyond his level of understanding.”
BINGO!
April 38 10.08.08 at 3:17 am
Well, for whatever it is worth, 87% of over 40,000 Fox News viewers gave a victory to McCain, 11% to Obama, and 1% undecided.
No question, Obama is being used by interests way over his ability to understand or control. He is a willing but not-that-bright puppet. He has way too much to hide.
Regina 10.08.08 at 6:33 am
gotta look for someone to blame, eh?
can’t just admit that Johnny Baby was less than stellar…..
tsk, tsk
Doran Williams 10.08.08 at 8:31 am
Regina, I think Kurt is projecting, on behalf of his Chosen One, when he describes Obama as lying and McCain as being the candidate who will deliver on his promises.
McCain has made lying a central technique of his campaign. He lies mostly about Obama’s record, but also about his own. He promises tax cuts, but he promises new programs for the middle class that will have to be financed by taxes, but tax cuts that will primarily benefit corporations. McCain cannot deliver on both promises: To cut taxes on the middle class while providing new programs to benefit the middle class. He is lying.
Obama also promises new programs, but he makes it clear that the tax cuts he promises will not go to corporations and the CEOs of hedge funds, for example, but to the middle class.
I agree with Kurt’s assertion that “For some Americans, however, other things are more important than policy, character or leadership.” Those are the Americans who are supporting McCain.
Cayuga 10.08.08 at 9:23 am
Why don’t you, doran, and you regina get together on some other site. There are lots out there where you can be preaching to the choir - like kos, moveon etc.
By the way, does it matter that the organization that obama was so closely associated with was just raided in Nevada? That they are the same organization that is registering the homeless in Ohio. I wonder what they give to the homeless so that they will vote for their man?
Gotta go to work.
Regina 10.08.08 at 12:26 pm
hopefully a warm blanket and a new hat and gloves….
Doran Williams 10.08.08 at 3:11 pm
When I was growing up in San Antonio, votes were rumoured to be purchased with tacos.
rikitikitavi1 10.08.08 at 3:51 pm
How could the debate format have been to McCain’s disadvantage? It was his campaign that demanded a town-hall setting because that’s supposedly the format he does well in. Oh well.
Kathy 10.08.08 at 5:15 pm
After mulling over the debate all day I’ve come to the conclusion that neither of these two are qualified to lead this country. This nation is in big trouble if this is the best we’ve got. Pitiful!
I guess my choices are to either vote for the lesser of the two evils, write someone in, or not vote this year. I fear what’s ahead.
Kurt Schulzke 10.08.08 at 5:15 pm
Riki –
It was not a townhall format. That’s the point. It was a tightly controlled press-conference format with Brokaw doing nothing more than get in the way.
I’m perfectly willing to concede when McCain screws up. But I expect a modicum of sincerity from his opponents, as well. Perhaps your question was sincere. If so, now you have the answer. If not . . . now you have the answer.
Kurt Schulzke 10.08.08 at 5:40 pm
Cayuga –
Doran & Co. serve a valuable purpose on the blog. I believe the term is “useful idiots.”
rikitikitavi1 10.08.08 at 5:58 pm
Kurt, both campaigns signed off on the format & the rules & moderators before Debate Season started. If McCain didn’t like the format of this debate, he shouldn’t have signed off on it. I myself would like to go back to the “old style” debates that the League of Women Voters would put on. If the candidates don’t like that, then well, we’ll have 90 minutes of dead air with questions being asked & a camera focused on empty chairs.
It was painful to watch McCain last night. I would have voted for him in 2000, but not now.
Riki–another useful idiot
Cayuga 10.08.08 at 6:53 pm
OK Kurt, you win!
Doran Williams 10.08.08 at 8:37 pm
duuhhhh.
Toes 10.08.08 at 8:42 pm
Doran and Regi,
I have an idea. There sure is a lot of vehement arguing going on, and I am a peaceful person. We both think the other guy’s candidate is going to ruin our country. So here’s a proposition.
I am willing not to vote for McCain, IF you agree not to vote for Obama. I’m looking at 3rd party candidates, but I won’t throw away my Republican vote without a similar promised move by a Democrat.
Now, I am only one person, and there are two of you. Any other volunteers out there?
Pliggy 10.08.08 at 8:43 pm
“tap, tap, tap. And the choir will now sing….”
Kurt Schulzke 10.08.08 at 9:35 pm
To the extent that history and polls mean anything, Doran’s vote is unlikely to matter. Texas ain’t in play. Don’t remember where Toes hangs her hat - Utah?
Toes 10.08.08 at 10:35 pm
North Carolina. I guess to make it worthwhile, we’d have to be compromising in Ohio.
Cayuga 10.08.08 at 11:06 pm
Please don’t do that! Our mayor did that last Presidential election, or so he says. He knew he came from a state that would vote for Bush, so he traded his vote.
How could you trust anyone?
Besides, men and women have fought and died to give us this privilege and we shouldn’t be bartering with it.
Jayde 10.08.08 at 11:42 pm
“gotta look for someone to blame, eh?
can’t just admit that Johnny Baby was less than stellar…..
tsk, tsk”
Were you watching, Regina? They were both putting me to sleep! My husband really did fall asleep. Without mentioning that to a friend today, when someone else asked if any of us had watched it, she replied, “I was falling asleep! They were boring!”
I guess Obama, “the great one”, wasn’t so great either!
Jayde 10.08.08 at 11:47 pm
“McCain has made lying a central technique of his campaign. He lies mostly about Obama’s record, but also about his own.”
The “analists”, as I prefer to call them, I watched after the show, flipping through NBC, PBS, and FOX (just Fox, not FoxNews–I can’t afford cable, let alone private school) pointed out more inaccuracies in Obama’s statements than in McCains.
Jayde 10.08.08 at 11:49 pm
“Kurt, both campaigns signed off on the format & the rules & moderators before Debate Season started. If McCain didn’t like the format of this debate, he shouldn’t have signed off on it.”
Obama was the one who requested to change the rules, he’d signed-off on, half through the debate.
Toes 10.09.08 at 12:13 am
Cayuga, I guess you didn’t see the “wink”
Cayuga 10.09.08 at 12:40 am
Sorry Toes, I guess I wasn’t looking when you winked.
Cayuga 10.09.08 at 12:41 am
Oh, duhhhhh I looked back at your comment and it was a cute wink.
Doran Williams 10.09.08 at 8:00 am
I will trade votes with you, Toes, but you’ve got to throw in some kind of really great, unique food from your part of the world. I can offer some outasite Tex-Mex or some world famous Elgin Hot Sausage. Are not barbeque ribs really great in N.C.?
Toes 10.09.08 at 10:45 pm
NC BBQ = a pig-pickin’, a whole or half hog cooked all day on a smoker often made from a steel drum, known as a “pig-cooker”. The final product is shredded pork with a thin and somewhat vinegary BBQ, and served up with hush puppies, butter beans and slaw.
The alternative offering is calabash-style seafood, breaded and fried local shrimp and sea scallops, also served with hush puppies, butter beans and slaw.
Oh, I almost forgot Paul’s World Famous Dogs, the favorite hotdog of tv attorney Ben Matlock, with Paul’s special relish (no pickles) developed during WW2 when for some reason there was a local pickle shortage. No butter beans with that one, but you can order slaw on top of the dog. (The TV series’ exterior courthouse scenes were filmed in Wilmington, not Atlanta.)
Take your pick.