McCain's High Horse Meets Obama's High-Mindedness

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: McCain's High Horse Meets Obama's High-Mindedness
By Tom Shales, WP TV Critic
Saturday, September 27, 2008; Page C01

John McCain wore the more presidential tie -- that much can be said for him -- but Barack Obama displayed the more presidential temperament, or the kind of demeanor people presumably would want in a president, when the two candidates met at the University of Mississippi last night for their first debate of the campaign.

Both men seemed well equipped in terms of facts and figures -- especially, as one would expect, dollar figures -- and neither made an outrageous blunder, although McCain did misidentify the new president of Pakistan. More critically, he came across as condescending and even rude to his opponent, a bit of bad behavior especially evident because Obama may have overdone the fair-minded bit in many of his remarks and answers.

Imperiously enough, McCain -- who had threatened not to show up for the debate because of America's financial crisis -- seemed determined to avoid even looking at Obama as the debate went on, although they did shake hands at the beginning and end. Many of McCain's answers were preceded with belittling references to Obama as if he were talking to a college freshman way out of his depth: "I'm afraid Senator Obama doesn't understand the difference between a tactic and a strategy," was one typical remark.

Obama supporters must have been displeased, then, to hear their candidate keep agreeing with McCain, a case perhaps of sportsmanlike conduct run amok. Doesn't Obama want to win? On the matter of congressional earmarks and wasteful spending, Obama began one answer with, "Well, Senator McCain is absolutely right . . ." and later, on an issue related to the Iraq war: "Senator McCain is absolutely right . . ." etc., etc.

After all the nice-guy stuff from Obama, which may have reached self-defeating levels, it's perhaps not surprising that the most, perhaps only, electrifying moment of the debate was when he finally told McCain he was wrong -- three times in quick and effective succession. This was during debate about the origins of the war in Iraq. "You were wrong" about saying the war would be quick and easy, Obama charged, his voice rising. "You were wrong" about finding weapons of mass destruction, he continued. And there was one more "you were wrong" for good measure....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/27/AR2008092700037.html?nav=hcmodule

[helderheid]

1. K&R

[ProgressiveEconomist]

2. K&R. IMO, Obama intentionally brought out the contrast between his own polite competence

and McCain's ill-tempered rudeness and arrogance. After all, Obama's main goal presumably was to win over uncommitted voters. And a CBS/Knowledge networks poll of 500 uncommitted voters shows clearly that Obama may have achieved that goal--see http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/pdf/2008Debate1.pdf .

The proportion of uncommitted who think Obama is prepared to be President rose from 44 percent before the debate to 60 percent after the debate, while their assessment of McCain's fitness for office remained unchanged at 78 percent.

The proportion of uncommitted whose opinion of Obama improved because of the debate was 14 percentage points more than the proportion whose opinion of McCain improved. And the proportion of uncommitted whose opinion of Obama worsened was 13 percentage points less than the proportion whose opinion of McCain worsened.

IMO, those measures of debate gains for Obama are HUGE.