Obama Won (the Independents)

[McCamy Taylor]

By this point in the campaign, Sen. Barack Obama has done all that he can reasonably do to secure his base, and any stragglers are going to have to find their own way to the polls . Likewise, Sen. John McCain tossed a very fleshy bone in the form of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to the Republican base, and now he is having to live down that choice.

For the next month and a half, both men will be fighting tooth and nail to secure the votes of a group of Americans who may or may not choose to vote---it just depends upon whether or not one of the candidates catches their interest. These people are called Independents.

While the polls are not out yet, I suspect that Barack Obama kept his eyes on the prize tonight and won the Independent vote.

America’s Independents do not have a constant ideology. Their needs and wishes change from election cycle to election cycle. Here is how Zogby characterized them this winter:

http://www.america.gov/st/elections08-english/2008/January/20080131130854hmnietsua0.9798853.html

Independents are more moderate because they do not hold strong opinions on political issues. When they do consume a meal of politics, they bypass spicy dishes and consume mild servings that won’t cause indigestion.

Snip

Voters have given us every indication that they are tired of the bickering. They want solutions. They want good management. They want someone who will not fight with the opposition, but instead will work with the opposition. They want a commander in chief.

John McCain used to pride himself on working across the aisle. However, tonight he lobbed verbal grenades across the aisle. During the debate, he sought to belittle the Democratic nominee as unfit, inexperienced, illegitimate, not even worthy of his gaze. By his body language, McCain seemed to imply that this debate was a waste of his time and his opponent was not worthy of him. Since Barack Obama was chosen to represent 36 million American voters as their official presidential nominee, by extension, John McCain called 36 million Americans---and the democratic process---unfit.

Or, to put it more simply. John McCain acted like a mean, arrogant Republican who hates his opponent for standing between him and the White House.

Barack Obama, on the other hand, went out of his way to compliment McCain, agreeing with him on numerous occasions, finding common ground. In a particularly poignant moment near the end, Obama praised McCain for bringing up the issue of torture. However, McCain was unwilling to accept the fact that the two men might have anything in common---even an aversion to torture. Instead, he went back to an issue that seemed to obsess him---the U.S. must not be allowed to “lose” in Iraq the way that it lost in Vietnam.

If Zogby was correct in January, if America’s Independent voters are tired of Bush style partisan politics, and if they want a statesman who can work across the aisle and one who can come up with real solutions rather than merely pointing fingers and calling people nasty names, then Obama won the Independent vote.

I think Obama also won the Who would you rather kick back and drink a beer with vote. There is a reason why Dick Nixon stopped debating after 1960. I do not remember a time when our nation has ever selected the candidate that it thought was the less likable of the two.