Remembering the vice presidential debate of 2004, I would have recalled how Dick Cheney tried to marginalize John Edwards. His back turned to his opponent, refusing to make eye contact, visibly derisive and scornful, Cheney did everything he could to make Edwards appear insignificant, a waste of vice presidential time, a cypher. With respect to last night’s debate, this would have been my prediction: McCain would give Obama the Cheney treatment.
But I never got a chance to make this prediction. Because I forgot to write it down and post it. And none of you believe me, do you? Right now, you are probably asking yourselves this question: “What kind of prognosticator is (O)CT(O)PUS for making predictions after the fact?" By the same logic, is a political campaign really suspended just because the candidate says it is? After blowing off David Letterman, did McCain miss his plane, or was he trying to rein in Spain? What strange laws of physics have we here? The debate may be over but (O)CT(O)PUS will make a second prediction:
Just to prove my point, I found these post-debate comments on the Reuters website:
September 26th, 2008 - 10:10 pm GMT
Barack Obama won. John McCain has a lot of experience, but he just lost me. The main reason was his defensive and condescending responses. He keeps trying to paint Obama as naive instead of answering the questions.
- Posted by Kim
September 26th, 2008 - 10:20 pm GMT
Obama clearly distinguished himself as the more intellectual, reasoning person. McCain clearly has some temper issues as he frequently seemed angry at Obama.
- Posted by jazzyc
September 26th, 2008 - 10:28 pm GMT
McCain could not look his opponent in the eyes, even when addressed. McCain followed the same pattern – belittle opponent, name drop, reminisce about the “good ole days”, belittle opponent – throughout the debate … Clearly, Obama has the stronger character even in his relative youth!
- Posted by mark
September 26th, 2008 - 10:31 pm GMT
Obama won. McCain got tired and cranky as the debate progressed and he started resorting to cheap shots against Obama.
- Posted by Michelle
September 26th, 2008 - 10:32 pm GMT
Obama stood out as the thoughtful elegant candidate in my opinion. McCain smirked like a school-yard ruffian that had nothing substantive to say so he tried to bully without logic or thought.
- Posted by Beth
September 26th, 2008 - 10:34 pm GMT
Obama was excellent, level headed and coherent. McCain was sneering, grumpy and took the dumb-it-down for the little people road. No Question. Obama won.
- Posted by Sarah C
September 26th, 2008 - 10:37 pm GMT
I like McCain as a person and I have always been a republican. It hurts me, but I have to recognize that our leaders are just plain stupid and dumb. For the first time in 40 years, I will vote for Obama. Not because I like him, but because I’m just afraid of the alternative, I don’t want 4 more years of cowboy politics. We need somebody smart to pull us out of this situation.
- Posted by Salamander
Of all the comments posted on the Reuters webite, this was my favorite:
September 26th, 2008 - 10:37 pm GMT
OK, McCain supporters … Most of you are the indirect cause of the wars and the financial crisis. You are as incapable of admitting you were wrong as the village idiot is. The only reason you are contending that McCain won the debate tonight is that you stubbornly refuse to concede that you were wrong for the last 8 years or longer. Everyone else in the world sees the obviously mistaken or misled nature of your voting record. Please just stay home on election day and do the country and the world a favor.
- Posted by Tony
So there you have it. McCain was angry, cranky, grumpy, condescending, bitter, sneering, stupid, and dumb. Just as I predicted! Now do you believe me?
Sounds perfectly believable to me. I've also read a good analysis of the likely scene for the Biden/Palin debate: Palin is likely to spend most of her time attacking Obama. Makes sense because she has nothing of substance to say for herself. Attacking is the only viable strategy for such a candidate. But I just don't see how she's going to avoid one of those chucklehead gaffes she seems to make as naturally as breathing, and a few of them would be enough to sink anybody.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post - how nice to know that there are people who "got it" about McCain's surly, arrogant as all hell performance in which he tried to claim "maverick" status by so naming himself & his running mate. McCain succeed in letting the air out of his own "maverick balloon" by pricking it with the pin of his own arrogant labeling of himself. I could hear the balloon leaking as he simultaneously claimed & lost the label of "maverick."
ReplyDeleteAs for the quotes - I thought the one that talked about "reminiscing about the good old days" was esp. astute. Yes - McCain has a foreign affairs past - but what is his foreign affairs PRESENT?
By now the media dogs have chewed this into something resembling a victory for McCain. I saw it on CBS and they had a Nielson instant poll showing Obama being a solid preference for the audience, and the most interesting thing was the phone call to Kissinger that showed McCain was indeed lying when he accused Obama of lying about what Kissinger said about meetings with foreign leaders. I haven't heard anything about that since.
ReplyDeleteAll in all you'd think Obama came out better, but for those who watched it, only their prejudices will be confirmed and for those who didn't, they will believe the media which is misrepresenting the whole thing.
Doom and gloom
Fogg - do you think that perhaps he is being perceived as the winner because he went in to the debate as the negatively perceived, unprepared, debate-ducking candidate? In other words, did low expectations translate into a warped sense of victory because the only direction McCain could go in was up?
ReplyDeleteDoes that make sense what I just tried to say?
These comments posted at Talking Points Memo are making the rounds of the blogosphere (in reverse chronological order):
ReplyDeleteI study monkey behavior -- low ranking monkeys don't look at high ranking monkeys. In a physical, instinctive sense, Obama owned McCain tonight and I think the instant polling reflects that. So McCain may have given away his status as a low-ranking monkey.
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Cute, but the more serious and thought-provoking comment is this one:
As a psychotherapist and someone who treats people with anger management problems … I think it's significant that McCain didn't make much, if any, eye contact because it suggests one of two things to me ... he is prone to losing control of his emotions if he deals directly with the other person, or, his anger masks fear and the eye contact may increase or substantiate the fear.
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This aspect of McCain’s personality has always concerned me. In my opinion, McCain is seriously character-disordered and far too risky for the job he seeks.
SQUID
ReplyDeleteIf McCain's performance has been molded into something other than what it was, I have to blame it entirely on the little panels of talking heads who toss it back and forth until the truth is no longer recognizable.
They are all so afraid of seeming to take sides that they have to make any losing performance seem better and the better performance seem weak.