So the last Presidential Debate for the 08 election was on last night. I feel it’s necessary for me to put in my two cents. To avoid droning and/or tangential diatribes, both of which I’m prone to, I’ll be using the Pontification format, and limiting myself to a reasonable paragraph per point.
McCain started stronger, but lost it. These days, I find McCain about as charming as a used kleenex (and that didn’t used to be true), but even I’ll admit that he opened with vigor. “I’m not president Bush” was ballsy, accurate and frankly long overdue. Obama’s rebuttal was (in so many words) “you could’ve fooled me,” but he was too nice about it and it got watered down. As time went on, Obama’s more even demeanor started winning out, both in my opinion and according to numerous polls. I think the appeal of it was that it made his opponent look desperate, almost frazzled. McCain started out with a bang, and reignited that spark once or twice, but it came at the cost of a somewhat flailing style, and not everything he threw at the wall stuck there. A lack of consistency cost him in what was otherwise a much better performance than the others.
Hot Temper. McCain’s getting a lot of grief for getting fired up during the debate, but I think it’s been exaggerated. Yeah, he definitely rolled his eyes very obviously while Obama was speaking, and sure, his debate style went a little gung-ho near the end, but I think he kept himself cool well enough to qualify as a professional who was simply playing to win. Truth be told, word’s been around the campfire that John McCain has a ferocious temper which explodes at very bad moments, and I think that impression made people see his performance last night with a slight bias. By the way, I have no idea if the thing about his temper is true.
Joe the Plumber. See, we mostly avoided anecdotes last night, which I appreciate since they’re a pet peeve of mine (I hate hate hate them, in any kind of debate anywhere). This one, unfortunately, surfaced anyway, and we were stuck with it for some time. Some plumber wanted to buy a company he had been working for, but gasp, Obama’s tax plan would mean he’d be paying more money to the government once he was a CEO. I thought this was a terrible, terrible argument, but they latched onto it and ran full speed ahead. It really did come close to self-parody for both of them. Kind of a low point if you ask me.
Going Negative. McCain has indeed corrected rabble-rousing speech attendees who call Barack bad names, but I liked that instead of congratulating himself too much for doing so, he opted to vehemently defend his supporters and isolate people who call out derogatory words. Barack, on the other hand, definitely won the debate over whose ads were more negative by treating the issue as beneath him. Every time he got the question, he tried to field it off with (more or less), “I don’t care if my feelings get hurt. I care about how we’re going to help the American people.” This went a long way to make his opponent look petty. Also, public perception has McCain’s campaign pegged as more negative and Obama knew it, so he fired off at him for the nature of his ads. John’s retort that his opponent’s ads were just as negative because they “attacked my healthy policy” was a little bit of a stretch. A health policy is not a person, and attacking it is what you’re supposed to do. That’s the opposite of a negative campaign.
Rhetoric. McCain’s biggest blunder, in my opinion, was his concession that Obama was an eloquent speaker. Now I see where he was going with it, trying to paint Barack as a silver-tongued sneak, but I noticed the polling numbers plummeted when he did it, and I think I know why: it highlighted McCain’s shortcomings in the same department. Rather than an astute observation, or even an honest admission of his opponent’s strengths, I thought it played like, “Ok, so maybe he can kick my rear in debates, but so what!” By no means am I claiming that this is necessarily the truth, but both times he did, that was how it played. The numbers I saw suggest that moderates felt the same way. Even people who might not have thought Barack was actually doing better were more likely to walk away with that impression, since McCain “admitted” it.
Easy Doesn’t Do It. By contrast, Barack’s most obvious blunder (to me) was his easygoing approach. Now let’s not mince words here: Obama is winning, and he only has things to lose from taking risks during the debate, so maybe the straight and narrow was politically wise. Nonetheless, from a purely objective standpoint, he was almost too cooled off. Even when diligently refuting every smear made against his record, he seemed so…calm about it. A little fire is not a bad thing, Barack. It lets people know you’re going to talk tough, lay it on the line, et cetera. Obama’s a smart and well-worded guy, and several times I sensed he had a better retort ready than the one he used; it annoyed me.
Overall.
-McCain did a lot better than he has before. He talked issues, he left anecdotes at the door, he pressed hard and got some great one-liners in. The trade-off was, his agitated style seemed a little desperate, and he let his rival calmly paint him as a petty name-caller more than a few times.
-Obama played it the same way he always has. He was ahead, he didn’t feel like pushing it, he just stuck to the fundamentals. Not as inspiring as he’s often been, but okay. The lack of fire sometimes put him on the business end of some really good zingers, but it also gave him consistently better numbers, and his unflappable disposition confounded McCain’s attempts to get a rise out of him.
What’s Next
-Despite Obama’s laid-back performance, his campaign’s activity reveals a man still very aware that he’s not home yet. They’re spending more money than ever, digging their heels into swing states, and paying top-dollar for prime time ad space.
-McCain is in the fight of his life. I think he knows this is his last shot, and he’s got to be scared to death. Palin and the “Straight Talk Express” have been dispatched to several key states, which is a smart move, since her broad appeal in certain demographics could sow up some moderates and swing states. McCain himself, meanwhile, has to be careful with his negative ads, since they come off as throwing rocks at the throne, when the point of a campaign is to make him the guy on the throne. In my opinion, that mistake is what put Hilary down. We’ll see if John has something better up his sleeve.
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