The Subliminal Slam Dunk

[Waiting For Everyman]

Huffington Post, 10/8/08
Mary Lyon

I was going to start out by calling the second Presidential Candidates' Debate between Barack Obama and John McCain a "running out the clock" affair for Obama. Basically a draw - no big wins or losses, with an edge to Obama because he didn't give up any ground and McCain didn't gain any. But then I kept watching after the debate itself ended. And I know who won hands down. It was all in the body language and other nonverbals, and it put Obama decisively over the top, because it said more about the character issue for the two candidates and their wives than anyone's verbiage had just done.

The debate itself had just wrapped and the principals began to mill about on the floor, shaking hands, thanking moderator Tom Brokaw, congratulating each other and their loved ones. I watched as the two contenders and their wives started making the rounds of the nonaligned voters who made up the audience, and more handshaking ensued. Except for Cindy McCain. She trailed around just a couple of steps behind her husband, hands firmly clasped behind her. Perhaps she didn't intend to convey this, but it still evoked an aura of a sheltered aristocrat who doesn't want to touch or be touched by the hoi polloi. Then, the McCains vanished altogether, while Barack and Michelle Obama hung around to shake every last hand. It struck me then and there that Obama had won over the whole room of undecideds, simply by doing that.
...
Superstition prevents me from declaring Barack Obama the winner much beyond this third-in-a-series-of-four campaign jousts. But it seems to me something in this campaign started to solidify for Obama after this debate, putting John McCain that much closer to crossing a bridge to nowhere.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-lyon/the-subliminal-slam-dunk_b_132857.html