Obama’s Cool Wins Him 3rd Debate; McCain Sharper, but Attacks Undermine Argument

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Related subjects: J.E. Robertson, Mortgage & Credit Crisis, Opinion, ThoughtPossible.com, U.S. Elections, U.S. Politics, Vote 2008 Comments (1)

16 October 2008 :: J.E. Robertson

Barack Obama appears to have kept his cool, delivered his message and kept his focus firmly on issues and the work of governing. John McCain fired a number of gimic-enabled shots at Obama, but failed to deliver a coherent message, other than his allegation that Obama wants to raise taxes and he would cut them for everyone, a factually untrue claim about his tax proposal.

The third and last of the presidential debates between Obama and McCain illustrated more clearly than the other two that Sen. McCain has rooted his strategy and his policy proposals in the philosophy of his party, even where that philosophy has been the underpinning of failed economic policies, over the last 8 years.

McCain enjoyed a bold moment when he fired at Obama that “I am not Pres. Bush”, saying that if he wanted to run against Bush, he should have run in 2004. But the point-score slipped away because Obama’s retort was more powerful: he noted that McCain’s tax policy and economic philosophy were nearly indistinguishible from Bush’s.

McCain falsely accused Obama of “class warfare” and suggested that “spreading the wealth” would be negative for economic recovery. The charge against Obama didn’t stick, and McCain failed to explain how his opposition to “spreading the wealth” fits with his suggestion of using $300 billion to renegotiate home loans in danger of being foreclosed by uncooperative banks.

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McCain has had the problem of wanting to have his cake and eat it, too, shifting gears a little too often to win favor among undecided and independent voters. He has tried to court moderates by not voicing the personal attacks that have alienated them, but has permitted his campaign to continue the attacks, and tonight he jumped in.

Criticized for the intensely negative attacks, even threats against Obama at rallies hosted by Gov. Palin, Sen. McCain’s running mate, McCain seemed to downplay the seriousness of the cases where Obama was threatened and said he’s “proud” of the people who attend his rallies. Clearly, he did not mean to suggest he was proud of those he called “fringe people”, but he failed utterly to explain that he disapproved.

Meanwhile, Sen. Obama was spoon-fed an opportunity to attack McCain’s VP choice on any number of fronts, at his choosing, and he took the high road, consistent with his admonition that voters were turned off by the back and forth of the campaigns and wanted substantive strategies for dealing with looming economic, energy, environmental and security crises.

Pressed by McCain for his campaign’s huge spending advantage, with McCain accusing Obama of spending “more on negative advertising” than any campaign in history, the Illinois senator quipped coolly: “I think the American people are less interested in our hurt feelings than in the issues they care about so deeply”, and noted that analysis had shown Sen. McCain’s advertising had reached 100% negative.

While Sen. McCain appeared more confident and more prepared than in the previous two debates, his focus on attacking Sen. Obama robbed him of the time he needed to better explain his positions to undecided voters. This may have been a strategic blunder, exacerbated by the unrealistic claims he made, such as alleging that ACORN was trying “to destroy the fabric of democracy”.

Sen. McCain also falsely alleged Sen. Obama was in favor of denying emergency medical care to newborn infants, while the issue hinged on a legislative vote, with Obama’s position supported by pro-choice Republicans, mainstream Democrats and by Illinois doctors, because existing law and the Hippocratic Oath already require doctors to provide medical care. As such, the bill was not really an attempt to help the infant in question, but a veiled attack on the Roe v. Wade decision.

McCain then alleged there is a “pro-abortion movement”. This language comes not from the Republican party’s mainstream “federalist” position on state’s rights to decide such policy issues, but from the radical groups that have in the past used violence against family planning clinics and obstetricians who worked in or around abortion procedures.

The dishonest phrase “pro-abortion” has seeped into electoral politics because it is considered to be a way to stain Democrats and to help Republicans court conservative voters. Its use is problematic because it suggests a lack of precision in matters of social policy and awareness of the political landscape. This is McCain’s biggest problem and his way of attacking Obama seemed to feed into the perception that he is not attuned to the political moment.

What’s more, he seemed to mock Sen. Obama’s suggestion that there’s an issue about “health and life of the mother” in late-term abortion, after Sen. Obama said he could not support the ban on that procedure because it had no provision for protecting the health of the mother, as he had requested. This could be a misunderstanding of the issue on McCain’s part, but it seems a terrible miscalculation to have so dismissed the mother’s health concern, which is part of the mainstream position on late-term abortion and not contrary to being pro-life generally.

A close examination of the night’s key moments demonstrates that McCain did well in terms of a debate on traditional conservative issues, and did get some key points across, but the event was not a debate on conservative issues, and Obama was able to achieve the night’s highest objective: to give the impression that he is cool under pressure, calm in the midst of the storm, ready to lead in a time of crisis, even as McCain was on the offensive against him.

Even in this muted performance, Obama spoke with presidential grace, as a man already on the job: “I don’t mind being attacked for the next three weeks; what the American people can’t afford is four more years of failed economic policies”. Sen. McCain will need to pull his message together, and find a way to demonstrate problem-solving ability, which is to date his most serious deficit. [from Thought Possible, at Open.Salon.com]

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