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The Final Debate: A Study in Contrasts By William WongOctober 15, 2008 It’s been an especially rough couple of weeks for Republican presidential candidate John McCain. The economic and financial meltdown has hurt his campaign because many voters see his party, which is, ahem, running the government, as principally responsible for screwing up royally. The Bush administration’s laissez-faire attitudes have allowed Wall Street fat cats do whatever they wanted to fatten themselves up at the expense of the rest of us. His campaign’s response was to try to tar Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama as, well, virtually a domestic terrorist because of Obama’s past acquaintance with William Ayers of the radical Weathermen group from the 1960s and 1970s. McCain and his inept running mate, Sarah Palin, pounded Obama on the campaign trail, as a way of distracting the public’s attention from the GOP ticket’s tie to the Bush administration’s failed economic policies. Recent polls have shown that’s been a stupid mistake on McCain-Palin’s part. The final presidential debate was McCain’s chance at redemption. Unfortunately, for him, he wasn’t redeemed. At least this time, however, he seemed more respectful to Obama, certainly more so than he was in the first debate when he hardly looked Obama’s way, a sign of disdain or contempt, or the second debate when he dismissively pointed to Obama as “that guy.” I found McCain’s manner to be jittery, excitable, and mildly inarticulate at times. I know we’re not supposed to judge a future president on style points. Yet, when contrasted with Obama’s calm and coolness and demonstrable intelligence, McCain appeared nervous and discombobulated, almost unable to coordinate his brain with his voice. On substance, both candidates pretty much echoed their well-worn positions and talking points. Not a lot was learned about policy positions that we hadn’t previously heard in the two earlier debates or from regular campaign coverage. Bob Schieffer, the debate moderator, asked a few fresh questions. One was about the negativity of both campaigns, although I feel the McCain-Palin campaign has been much more negative and personal toward Obama than vice versa. Certainly, the Obama-Biden campaign has attacked the opposition too, but it’s mostly been on issue differences, not below-the-belt hits of McCain-Palin that come close to inciting violence against Obama. In response to this question, McCain resurrected the Ayers accusations – that Obama consorts with a domestic terrorist. Obama coolly responded with the facts of his acquaintance with Ayers and rightly asserted that the American people really aren’t interested in hearing about this irrelevant (my word, not Obama’s) morsel of history. Instead, Obama said, we the people want to know what the next president is going to do to take our country in a different direction from the past eight years of disaster under George W. Bush. To me, Obama scored the most points on that assertion. Now, we have less than three weeks to go, and right now, the poll numbers look good for Obama-Biden. Once again, I don’t trust these poll findings even though they are trending in favor the Democratic ticket’s favor. But that’s me, a nervous-Nellie when it comes to over-exuberant optimism in the final stages of this incredible and historic campaign. I still have fingers crossed. William Wong is an author, writer and oral historian. |
