Clarion Content

Senator John McCain thrashed Senator Barack Obama last night in the first of three scheduled presidential debates. While the Clarion highly doubts either man moved the needle even a bit on the other's core supporters, it is our interpretation that McCain likely won handily amongst undecideds and independents. No less of a craven Obama supporter than the New York Times noted, "It took Mr. Obama 37 minutes into the debate to make one of his most important points: linking Mr. McCain with President Bush."

There were obvious signs, Obama saying, "You're right John," or "my opponent is right," nine times. By comparison McCain said something along the lines of "What Senator Obama doesn't understand is," or "what Senator Obama is being naive about is..." eight times. One candidate essentially conceded he got hammered, veteran political commentator David Broder noted, it was clear who the alpha male was Friday night in Mississippi.

Worse, Obama was made to look duplicitous and like a flip-flopper from the start; now he opposes earmarks, but before he proposed $932 million of them for his state. McCain landed a further blow when he verbally trapped Obama into saying that it wasn't a significant amount of money, technically by Washington budget standards correct, but just the kind of elitist trappings McCain wants to pin on him. Obama, by contrast, when handed a softball by Senator McCain, who asked his opinion of what rich is, neglected to slam it home with something along the lines of "Well Senator McCain, I feel you and your family are in far better position to tell the American people what "rich" is." At the Clarion, while we respect Obama's high minded reluctance to go truly negative and fight dirty, he looked like a kid getting a lecture from a much more experienced politician.

He was again trapped by McCain in what he tried to call "Senatorial inside baseball." While fellow wonks might know and agree that it wasn't a huge sin that Obama's NATO subcommittee never met to discuss Afghanistan, agreeing with the Illinois senator that it was handled by the full committee, all that Joe Six Pack heard was Obama railing on McCain about taking his eye off of the ball on Afghanistan and then being forced to admit that he never held a meeting on the same, even though it was in his area of responsibility. (as he allowed McCain to define it.)

The same happened when McCain excoriated Obama for voting for a pork barrel laden energy bill two years ago, here was Obama on turf he should clearly win; which candidate is more beholden to the oil companies, which candidate it more pro-alternative energy, and what happens? McCain pounds him with, "...this is a classic example of walking the walk and talking the talk. We had an energy bill before the United States Senate. It was festooned with Christmas tree ornaments. It had all kinds of breaks for the oil companies, I mean, billions of dollars worth. I voted against it; Senator Obama voted for it."

It went the same way on Iran and Israel. Obama attempted to be high minded and intelligent, offering up a reasoned critique of the practice of unwillingness to negotiate at all with America's enemies, and how poorly that has gone as policy toward Iran and North Korea. And McCain pounded him with the simplistic but effective, "So let me get this right. We sit down with (Iran's president) Ahmadinejad, and he says, "We're going to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth," and we say, "No, you're not"? Oh, please." Obama astutely pointed out that the president of Iran isn't even the most powerful person in Iran, clearly the religious leadership is, and it was swept aside with no further mention by either candidate or Lehrer. (Most folks probably didn't even hear him make the subtle distinction.) He lost the exchange on Henry Kissinger's opinions the same way, probably substatively right, but technically made to look like a naive kid, McCain's had a relationship with Kissinger since Obama was 8 years old.

The formula repeated itself all night, early on Obama attempts to be the first of the two candidates to honestly admit, Jim Lehrer's point that they both had been trying to dodge, that the economic crisis might actually effect their budgets, spending priorities and therefore the way they govern. Admirable, thoughtful, and how does McCain respond, "Well, I want to make sure we're not handing the health care system over to the federal government which is basically what would ultimately happen with Senator Obama's health care plan. I want the families to make decisions between themselves and their doctors. Not the federal government." Not on topic, not fair, but short, clear and effective.


Link to a full transcript of the debate here.

Labels: 2008's President, Politics