Oh. Your. God. That was a brutal smack-down.
You will notice that I am a day or two behind on my weekly political screed. It is mostly due to my wife not being in town. You would think I would be MORE productive when I have the house all to myself, but that theory was debunked last night. I had good intentions – edit some photographs, blog the debate, flesh out an article about poverty in the Woodlawn community – but I just vegged (sp?) out in front of the television all night. Did I really need to watch that debate twice? I think not. But maybe I was able to glean a little extra insight by watching the two different feeds (C-SPAN for the live version, CNN – with their dial-testers – for the replay). Let’s go to the videotape:
First things first: Bob Schieffer did the best job of any of the debate moderators – fair and unobtrusive. Just ask the questions and let the candidates talk. The sit-down format was nice, too, as it seemed to be more conducive to a dialogue between candidates and between the individuals and the viewing audience. The previous debates felt much more rehearsed and it was like they were just lobbing campaign talking points at the voters.
Secondly, if the snap polls are to be believed (and there are enough of them to be considered a pretty fair assessment of the viewing public’s opinion), the country saw the same thing I saw – John McCain went nasty. I’m not going to push a bunch of numbers on you (you can go to any major news outlet and view them on your own, if you’d like), but one poll I saw last night asked “which candidate was more likeable?”. The results were 77% for Obama, 22% for McCain. That is a remarkable margin.
McCain was playing to his base, and I’m sure die-hard conservative republicans thought he nailed it. But he doesn’t really have to convince those people to vote for him, now does he? What will the reaction of independents and moderates be? My guess is that they’ll be turned off. The public opinion trends last week already were indicating that the negative McCain ads were hurting, not helping, him. This final debate just reinforced those opinions.
Furthermore – Obama’s demeanor and, frankly, his answers were more thought out, more spontaneous, and more in touch with the American people than McCain’s. He stayed above McCain’s silly character smears and spoke directly to the average voters and their collective concerns. From McCain, there was no hail mary pass. No “gotcha” quote. Nothing. Not even the ludicrous “Joe the Plumber” shtick, which backfired.
Please watch the video, if you didn’t catch the live version, and form your own opinion. I begin these political posts with every intention of trying to be at least somewhat fair, but I really cannot find anything good to say about Mr. McCain’s performance last night. He is a petty little man who cares about power, not people. Every decision he has made in this campaign – from his disastrous choice of an inexperienced, extremist running mate to his reliance on negativity, smears and lies – is indicative of his low opinion of the American voter.
I want to point out what I thought was the most important thing Obama said last night. Abortion has become the gigantic lead albatross of political wedge issues. I hear more people cite the Democratic Party’s pro-choice platform as the reason they could never vote Democratic than any other reason people give. I would go so far as to say that, were it not for the abortion issue, there would be no gridlock in Washington because the government would be dominated by Democrats – they are just more in sync with the values of “Main Street Americans” than the big-business, free-market-worshipping Republicans. Obama, in a candid moment at the end of one of his answers, added this rare nugget:
But there surely is some common ground when both those who believe in choice and those who are opposed to abortion can come together and say, "We should try to prevent unintended pregnancies by providing appropriate education to our youth, communicating that sexuality is sacred and that they should not be engaged in cavalier activity, and providing options for adoption, and helping single mothers if they want to choose to keep the baby."
Those are all things that we put in the Democratic platform for the first time this year, and I think that’s where we can find some common ground, because nobody’s pro-abortion. I think it’s always a tragic situation.
I do not think that this language will change the minds of hard-core conservative Christians, but it shows a depth and a thoughtfulness and a willingness to cut though the slogans and litmus tests and partisan rhetoric. It is a quality that has been missing in American politics for years – an acknowledgement of our differences but with an emphasis on what unites us, not what tears us apart. That, and I have never heard a politician articulate my own personal view on abortion as clearly as Barack did last night. Radical pro-lifers tend to react to “I’m pro-choice” with “how can you support killing innocent babies?!!” when that is a gross distortion perpetuated and encouraged by evangelists and the hard-right politicians that use those genuinely-felt beliefs as a way to hold on to power. This is the climate of this political age… and it is time to clear the air.
That was a little off topic. To return to the debate – Barack’s biggest challenge has been to convince older, white moderate voters that they can trust him to run the country and make decisions on their behalf. He has met that challenge. Congratulations, Mr. President.
Now let’s get out there and grab a whole mess of senate seats.
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x-posted @ Daily Kos
