Presidential Town Hall
Tuesday night is the Presidential Town Hall style debate, moderated by Tom Brokaw. Questions will come from the audience, both in person and pre-submitted via e-mail. Brokaw will select the mail queries he wants to submit.
This is the format John McCain prefers, supposedly because he does best in dealing with voters face to face. But I don't know how long it has been since McCain was asked a good question by someone not pre-screened by his campaign. He has been a little testy lately, as his campaign is stalling like the two Navy planes he crashed stateside [see this interesting McCain fantasy popper from Rolling Stone, link sent by Chris in Bangkok]. I sure would like to see an audience member, perhaps a soft spoken middle age woman, ask McCain a legitimate question that gets his goat and stirs his sarcasm, leading to him blowing a fuse. I suppose it is wishful thinking, like maybe that Palin would do a Couric flop at her debate, but then Palin got a lot more debate prep than McCain has been getting.
McCain has nothing positive to offer. He can only do like Palin, offering trite slogans and attacks on Obama. Attacking the voting record of an opponent, or criticizing his policies is one thing, but the McCain campaign has now sunk to the low level of the smear. Maybe a critical question about his smear tactics, implying hypocrisy, will be what launches a tirade. He is overdue for a temper tantrum.
Obama has a simpler job, just to be himself. He will have to avoid getting too professorial, which he seems to be much better at now. If he gets a touchy question, like on a hot button issue such as abortion, he needs to give it a quick, political answer and move it along. Voters have come to recognize Obama as a very intelligent and well informed candidate, with a positive vision of the changes he would like to help bring about. He has always seemed calm, almost to a fault, but the contrast between his demeanor and McCain's, at the first debate and during the Congressional consideration of the financial bailout, has been stark. McCain, like his campaign, is an erratic impulsive. Obama is under control and sensible. McCain is a high stakes casino crap shooter. He gets a thrill out of betting a bundle on the roll of the dice - think Palin and "canceling the debate". Obama took up poker playing with members of both parties in the Illinois State Legislature, at the recommendation of an old pol, to be sociable and strengthen friendships and to learn how to play the hand that is dealt.
McCain the gambler may decide to do something dramatic, hoping to shake Obama. At the first debate McCain tried to appear superior by not even looking at Obama. That only made McCain look discourteous and odd. McCain doesn't have many dramatic options left. He has tried attacking Obama's experience, judgment, knowledge, patriotism and religion, all without success. About all he has left is the race card - maybe disguised as an attack on Obama's "difference" and how Obama "has a hidden agenda to work for people who are different from most Americans, like when he worked to force lenders to make loans to unqualified people, people who are different [especially their color]from the rest of us, the kind of people who were given the sub-prime loans that caused our financial system to crash".
Whether or not McCain attempts a gamble, I expect Obama will come across as the steady winner.
posted by Tom Blake | 8:29 PM
2 Comments:
Snap polls, focus groups and impartial commentators all agree Obama won again. He continues to meet the Presidential appearance test. He is also excelling as most likable. If he was white, this would be a done deal. The very knowledgeable David Gergen says some researchers are suggesting the race factor, voters who will not vote for a black man but will not admit that to a pollster, could add six percent to the Obama burden. If the last polls done right before the election all concur within the margin of error, then however much the actual vote differs from the polls may be the demarcation of the racial factor on the national level.
But there may be another factor in this election not being fully disclosed to pollsters. There are people who may vote against McCain because they believe his brutal imprisonment negatively affects his mental health, and they will not say so to a pollster because they don't want to disrespect what McCain went through. So this could be a factor in the outcome and could interfere with measuring the race factor.
Last night, McCain was the aggressor, constantly jabbing at Obama. Obama was the counter puncher, defending against the jabs and adding a few of his own. Obama landed the only punch that rocked an opponent, when he again mentioned the blunder of McCain singing the "bomb Iran" song. In the first debate, McCain did not respomnd. This time he actually admitted he was hurt, and then said he hated having to respond to this and then feebly trying to write it off as a poor joke to a fellow veteran. It was not a knockout blow, but it took its toll, adding to questions about McCain's judgment and mental state. And it delighted people like me,
McCain came across as the least responsive in his answers, partly because he did not actually always answer, but also because he spent more time attacking rather than answering. This made him appear more angry and less likable. McCain sends lots of mixed messages, such as that he is an effective bi-partisan but also not a Miss Congeniality. Last night he blamed the financial crisis on unqualified people buying houses, but then later advocated a program of the government buying these loans and reducing the debts of the buyers.
McCain did look at Obama this time, but he had his game face on. In his mind, McCain was so much casting Obama as an enemy that at one point he referred to Obama as "that one" while facing the audience and pointing sideways to Obama. It was condescending and dismissive to be sure, probably intended as a disparagement of the relative youth of Obama [way to write off everybody under 50 John] and particularly offensive to some African Americans who could not help but wonder if there was not some aspect of reducing a black man to the status of an object or a second class person, as was done under slavery and then Jim Crow.
When asked who he might name as Secretary of the Treasury to handle the financial crisis, since Paulson says he will not stay on, McCain mentioned Warren Buffet, who has endorsed Obama, and Meg Whitman, e-bay pioneer, whose business is struggling and has just announced a large layoff. McCain is an old school male chauvinist who tries to appeal to women by using them as objects. He likes to mention Whitman and Carly Fiorina, business whose careers peaked a while back. His Palin choice shows not only his bad judgment and cynical putting of America second, but also disrespects all women by the extent to which Palin represents more of a mythical female package of hokum than a woman of true political skills for worthwhile government service. When he dumped out on his first wife to get with Cindy, it was because she was gorgeous and rich.
The format of this debate was pretty good. The questions were pre-screened by the moderator, Tom Brokaw, who asked quick related followups. The chosen questions were actually asked by the submitters who were present. The moderator read the few e-mail questions selected. The moderator was able to put together a good mix of legitimate questions, avoiding dramatic ones of questionable legitimacy. So while the format made for a good educational debate, there was not a high level of entertainment value.
A humorous moment occurred at the end of the debate, as Brokaw was reading his end of debate comment from the Teleprompter. An old man head suddenly appeared in the screen, blocking Brokaw from view and making him unable to read his script. I figured some old fella in the audience was eager to leave and unknowingly walked in front of the camera. Brokaw then asked the man if he could move out of the way. It turned out I was right about the old fella, except he was not from the audience. It was John McCain. The wives of the candidates then came out and they and their husbands started shaking audience hands. Barack reached out to greet Cindy. John patted Michelle on the back as she was walking around. The McCains left promptly. The Obamas stayed fifteen minutes longer.
Tom,
I admire your stamina. I watched bits and snatches of the debate, but could not watch for any length of time because I could not help myself from cringing at both candidates' messages. The economy is in the tank with many people, especially retirees, losing 25% of whatever fortune they once had. And what do our future leaders talk about? Do they give hope to the nation as FDR once did? No. Obama says it was all McCain's fault. McCain says he had the answer years ago but no one listened. I saw classical political hoorah. And that's the reason I hate the political rituals and normally don't watch the presidential debates. But this is an historic election and the economy makes this an historic time. So I watched and almost got physically ill. Maybe the pollsters will declare Obama the victor, but if they had a third candidate in their polls named "neither of the above" he or she would win.
John from Phoenix
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