Two candidates walked on stage Saturday night. One of them walked off looking like the next President of the United States. And it wasn't John McCain.
American voters could not have been given a clearer choice. As this season's first presidential debate clearly demonstrated, John McCain is hot; Barack Obama is cool. John McCain shoots from the hip; Barack Obama speaks from facts and logic. John McCain represents the past; Barack Obama looks to the future.
Even their physical differences were striking. Obama is young, tall, thin, robust, and looked like he'd just come from working out in the gym, which he had. McCain is old, short, pasty, porked up from gobbling too many doughnuts on the campaign trail, and looked like he'd just walked off an airplane, which he had.
Perhaps the biggest difference we saw was that Obama came eager to debate, while McCain was clearly unhappy to be there. He never addressed Obama directly and never called him by his first name. In fact, he never even once looked at Obama.
Long-known for having the biggest ego in Congress (which is saying something!), McCain was obviously pissed at having to share the stage with a senate rookie, and he let everybody know it. Seven or eight times, he testily dismissed Obama's comments with a condescending "Senator Obama just doesn't understand." While, twice, Obama had enough self-confidence to observe: "John McCain's right about that."
On both the economy and foreign policy, Obama more than held his own. He cleverly tied McCain to the Bush policies of deregulation which caused today's Wall Street crisis. He very effectively undercut McCain's strange ranting about $18 billion in earmarks by pointing out that McCain himself proposes $300 billion in corporate tax breaks. And he nailed McCain for supporting the invasion of Iraq and insisting it would be a walk in the park.
McCain didn't make any game-changing mistakes, but he did have his embarrassing moments. Despite several comical attempts, he never did figure out how to pronounce "Ahmadinejad." He got the name of the new president of Pakistan wrong. And he strangely delighted in professing his 35-year friendship with Henry Kissinger, who is responsible for perhaps the worst foreign policy disaster in American history.
McCain, in fact, seemed to see the debate as an opportunity to stroll down memory lane: rattling off names of countries he'd visited and world leaders he'd met, quoting Dwight Eisenhower, Franklin Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan. It was all so 20th century. McCain even gloated that Reagan had ended the Cold War with "S.D.I." -- which left anybody under 50 wondering what the hell he was talking about.
In the end, McCain came across as just what he is: a senior senator who's been around forever and been in the Congress so long that he's locked in the past and incapable of taking the country in new direction. And Obama showed us who he is: a new face, a new leader with new energy, an agent of change, and ready and qualified to be president.
Not since Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy has there been a starker contrast between the two candidates on stage. Yet, even with his five o'clock shadow, Nixon looked better than McCain.
Obama is always a gentleman and gives credit where credit is due. McCain is a negative soul, in much turmoil inside and out. He could never give any credence to Obama for any reason. He feels superior over Obama and will never accept him on his level. What a shame McCain is to the human race for being no void of compassion.
The best is yet to come.
that's a smile i want to see for the next eight years.
1. failure to make any progress in the so-called "war on terror"; indeed, the squandering of the good will we once had around the world
2. domestically, people are losing their homes, dying because they cannot get health care, and dying because deregulation has allowed unsafe food and other products to enter the market
3. the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression
...the list goes on...
Maybe the Republicans or just John McCain are loathe to show respect for their colleagues in public service but it was striking how rude and condescending McCain acted towards Obama. For most people their first reaction would be to show the same animositybut Obama was smart and kept showing his basic human respect for another human while taking him on the issues.
Obama addressed the failure of 'the war on terror' and he addressed the case of middle class. Obama was the only one in the debate to even mention the middle class or education and job creation. McCain was obsessed with cutting out 1% of the budget in earmarks that goes to state projects while ignoring the other 99%.....50% of which goes to the Pentagon.
Not once did Obama lower himself to McCain's level. He called him out for being wrong on issues but not once did he malign or disrespect McCain. That's the man you want at the negotiating table when diplomatic relations and global issues are getting tough.Not some angry little man who doesn't even have the courtesy to acknowledge his opponent.
ps i'm old too but i know a good thing when i see it. and we'd be lucky to get obama; i hardly know why he wants it, with the mess we're in. but i'm glad he does!