Thursday, October 16, 2008

Quick Points on the Debate   [Jay Nordlinger]

I’ll start with some general ones, then go to specific ones — in order. By that I mean, I’ll give them as I jotted them down, while watching the debate:

 

1) Obama, obviously, is the far superior debater. And we are electing a president, not a debater. Obviously, McCain has the better positions and would make the better president. But to return to the first point: Obama, obviously, is the far superior debater.

 

2) Did McCain do what he “needed to do”? No, not by a long shot. But that might have been impossible.

 

3) Obama again came off as Joe Moderate — maybe even as much a moderate Republican as a moderate Democrat. I think it’s largely an act — a general-election act. But McCain could not puncture it. Maybe that was impossible.

 

4) Bob Schieffer seems more palatable to me than other MSM bigs — maybe it’s the age and the accent . . .

 

5) He told the candidates that they were to dispense with their talking points and tell voters things they had not yet heard. Well, that’s a little unfair: Part of politics is repetition. And if you ask the same questions, you’re going to hear some of the same answers. That’s consistency, actually. Besides which, maybe some people haven’t been paying attention till now.

6) Oops, there’s McCain trying to smile again — it looks so unnatural. Frankly, it would be better to scowl naturally.

 

7) Obama is sitting there with a natural expression on his face. Natural is much better than un.

 

8) McCain again opened with his medical report — just as he had in the first debate. (I missed the second.) The first time, it was Ted Kennedy, “the lion of the Senate”; on this occasion, it was Mrs. Reagan. I’m sure that McCain was right and honorable to note these matters. But . . .

 

9) He said that people are angry about the financial crisis many, many times. He seems like the one who is angry. He also seemed breathy and nervous, which was responsible for the repetition, probably.

 

10) Obama, particularly at the outset, looked cool and collected. He usually does. Unfortunately, he has a lot to be cool and collected about.

 

11) McCain said “Fannie and Freddie Mae” — as though they were a couple named Mae. Not a big slip, and you always make allowances for Johnny Mac. He’s a man of action, not of letters (thank goodness — we have enough of those).

 

12) Obama’s opening answer was about a thousand times crisper than McCain’s — and more reassuring (to the uninformed viewer) and more commanding. Yes, he’s the better debater. But may I stress that the president doesn’t spend his time in office debating? What does your ability to debate have to do with how you confront Iran?

 

13) I thought it was corny and cheesy when McCain looked into the camera to address “Joe the Plumber” directly. Also, I think saying “Joe the Plumber” is condescending, bordering on insulting. Makes the man sound like a character on Sesame Street or something. Would it be too much to use his last name — call him “Mr.”?

 

Obama was laughing at McCain — literally, I mean — and I don’t blame him.

 

14) Obama said “between Senator McCain and myself” — which is better than his earlier “married Michelle and I” (as in, Reverend Wright did it). (By the way, where is that rev?) Maybe in a few months, he can go all the way to “me.”

 

15) He again charged that McCain would benefit the oil companies. So? The Democrats always do this — bogeyize oil, pharmaceuticals, and insurance. Where are they going to get their oil, pharmaceuticals, and insurance? ACORN?

 

16) When Obama talks, he sounds like the entrepreneur’s best friend — incredible. The Chicago radical, Saul Alinsky’s guy, is nowhere in sight.

 

17) Political sophisticates (I’m speaking in relative terms) know that “spreading the wealth around” is code for socialism. But regular people don’t know this — so “spreading the wealth around” may sound pretty good. McCain should have elaborated, instead of merely assuming knowledge — really spelled it out. “When a politician says ‘spread the wealth,’ hang on to your wallets, folks.”

 

18) Instead of talking about spending, Obama talks about “investing” — which is something Bill Clinton invented, I believe. Very clever, very misleading.

 

19) McCain demonstrates the personality of a naval aviator, not a pol, and not a debater. I like it — but it doesn’t quite work in these forums. (The man has gotten elected in Arizona a million times, and he is the presidential nominee of one of the major parties — that has to be acknowledged.)

 

20) He is hot and frenetic — and that makes him seem less mature than the man who is by decades his junior, and has far less experience.

 

21) Oh, those smiles: pained and strained. Alarming.

 

22) McCain keeps trotting out this business that Kennedy and Goldwater agreed to go around the country, having a kind of rolling debate. Would never have happened, IMO. I think the president was humoring Barry.

 

23) McCain is wrong — Jim Crow was not the worst chapter in our history. Slavery was.

 

24) He shouldn’t have said that Lewis’s words were “hurtful” — he should have said they were “disgusting,” “appalling,” “abhorrent,” “outrageous,” etc.

 

25) It doesn’t play well, as I see it, for McCain to be the injured man, saying that Lewis’s comments were “very unfair and totally inappropriate.” Awww . . .

 

26) Who cares how much money Obama is spending? Looks like whining or envy — complaining about all the money Obama has.

 

27) I do think Obama should be made to explain, by some journalist, why he went back on his public-financing pledge.

 

28) Obama was just devastating when he said that voters “don’t care about our hurt feelings” — devastating. Frankly, he sounded like a conservative — like the ex-military man, rather than the ex-community organizer.

 

29) McCain stuck a toe into Ayers without diving in — and sticking a toe in wasn’t good enough. Obama was able to parry very, very well. Professor Ayers, indeed! Again, Obama is Joe Moderate, Joe Reasonable. “Nothing scary or non-mainstream about me, folks.”

 

30) My uncle Barry once said to me, “Sometimes you call me ‘Barry,’ and sometimes you call me ‘Uncle Barry’ — how do you decide which to use?” Similarly, I wonder, “How does Obama decide whether to go ‘John’ or ‘Senator McCain’?”

 

31) Does it sometimes seem that McCain is Bob Dole to Obama’s Bill Clinton? Actually, Dole was better in those debates than people remember — or thought at the time, IMO.

 

32) In the discussion of potential vice-presidents, McCain didn’t say enough about foreign policy — yes, foreign policy: about Palin’s realistic view of the world, particularly where Islamofascists, Chávez, and the others are concerned. That was too bad.

 

33) McCain said a couple of times that he was “proud” of Governor Palin — which I thought was a little condescending. It’s not his place to be proud of her; he’s not her father.

 

34) He talked about Biden’s having been wrong on the Gulf War and a few other matters. I wish he had gone a little into the Cold War, too — where Biden opposed pretty much everything that worked.

 

35) Schieffer said they were going to talk about “climate control,” which sounded like the temperature in a living room, or car. McCain corrected him to “climate change” — guess he couldn’t help himself.

 

36) I’m sitting there thinking, “We Republicans certainly couldn’t have Romney — he was too smooth, too slick, too articulate, too handsome, too successful, too rich, too this, too that.” Yeah, well, a little Romney might be helpful right about now.

 

And yet, the contrast — the sheer contrast — between Obama and McCain should work. It has its own effectiveness.

 

37) McCain said, “I admire Senator Obama’s eloquence, but you have to listen to him very carefully” (or words to that effect). An excellent rhetorical tactic.

 

38) On Colombia, on which he is extremely unreasonable, Obama managed to sound reasonable — talking about the assassination of labor leaders. I wish McCain had said something like, “Uribe knows plenty about assassination — he faces it all the time. He is fighting a war against full-time assassins and terrorists. His father was assassinated by terrorists. Uribe is one of our best allies in all the world. We should help him, Colombia, and most of all ourselves — by trading freely with them.”

 

39) Obama said, “. . . insurance companies can’t discriminate on the basis of preexisting conditions.” I’m sorry, but what’s the job of insurance companies if not to discriminate — to exercise discrimination? Isn’t that how the business works?

 

40) When McCain was talking about luxury health care, he mentioned cosmetic surgery and then transplants — did I hear that right? Am I misunderstanding?

 

41) Obama says “choose to keep the baby.” Very, very interesting wording: “choose to keep the baby.” Another way of saying that is: “choose not to . . . well, do away with the baby.” Same diff, right? 

 

42) McCain was very, very strong on education as a civil-rights issue. This was his best segment of the night, probably.

 

43) Oh, well. I think I’ll knock off for now. Forty-three’s enough. (No GWB jokes, please.) And I’ll end as I began: Obama is the debater, yes. But we’re not electing a debater. These are incredibly difficult, even perilous, times — and I hope McCain pulls it off. I hope he and Sarah have a superb, surprising last few weeks.

 

In these debates, Obama had to prove that he was not a leftist who would take the United States in dangerous new directions. He did — that is, he came off that way: moderate, reasonable, measured — practically a David Boren or Sam Nunn (and maybe even a Richard Lugar — a Republican he mentioned during the third debate).

 

McCain could have framed the election as an old warrior — conservative but maverick — against an untested and callow leftist: “the most liberal member of the Senate.” That did not quite happen. But I’m sure he did his best. And — who’s repeating himself now? — I hope like mad he wins.

 

That’s enough from me, ladies and gentlemen, and I’ll see you soon, with more points: though not so many at once.

10/16 10:26 AMShare