McCain Fizzles as Obama Sizzles
McCain's big build-up promised a game-changing assault on Obama's credibility.
Led by the shrill Governor Sarah Palin, McCain's campaign shot a cannonade across the bow of the USS Obama to put them on notice of a historic showdown. Palin boasted that John McCain had the ammunition to redefine Barack Hussein Obama as a closet radical and a pliant pawn of convicted terrorists led by that dastardly villain of yesteryear, William Ayers of the notorious Weathermen.
Palin shrieked a thrilling war cry for McCain to do battle with Obama that incited her crowds to shout out, "Kill Him!" McCain's minions followed suit on Fox News with a welter of dire warnings of the forthcoming destruction of Obama in the second debate set in their favored format - a town hall auditorium in the red state heartland of Tennessee.
Amidst threatening shouts of, "Kill Him!" that sent a chilling pall over the presidential campaign of 2008, John McCain swore an oath before a huge audience to get tough with Obama in their no-holds-barred main event in Nashville, but he was all talk and no trousers.
On the night, McCain faltered and fidgeted and failed to deliver one single syllable about William Ayers, domestic terror or Obama being a radical candidate with a dangerous anti-American agenda. McCain went in like a testosterone-fuelled lion, but he came out like an impotent lamb - roasted, seasoned and garnished with a huge dollop of mint jelly.
When McCain charged that Obama did not understand foreign policy, Obama retorted that he understood it was a colossal mistake to invade Iraq. When McCain charged that Obama mis-spoke when he said he might strike Pakistan to destroy Al-Qaida, Obama reminded McCain that he had sung, "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran." In the course of the debate, McCain was outclassed, outgunned and outrun, time and time and time again.
Obama's performance was so commanding that he barely noticed the petulant and pesky McCain. In the most telling moment of the crucial event, the debate moderator, Tom Brokaw, put the question to both contenders: "Is healthcare a right or a responsibility?" McCain plumped conservatively for "responsibility," while Obama opted for the progressive notion that healthcare is a fundamental human right. This dichotomy clearly defined the two candidates just as starkly as their foreign policies and their personal performances in the town hall debate.
McCain seemed like a man about to explode in a fit of fury, but he was merely frustrated because he did not have the spark to ignite his own fuse. Obama was as calm and commanding as ever. McCain behaved like a drunken braggodocio swilling double shots of scotch in a smoke-filled officer's club, while Obama exuded an aura of effortless superiority typical of a Commander-in-Chief in charge of the Situation Room during a crisis.
The background was far more complex than the McCain build-up would have had us believe. The most conservative national polling organization, Gallup, reported that Obama is leading McCain by a towering 9 points. Dick Morris, a right-wing apparatchik who is rooting for McCain, published an electoral map assigning Obama no less than 386 electoral votes to McCain's rather paltry 118. The more authoritative polling organizations, Real Clear Politics, FiveThirtyEight and Pollster.com are all indicating that Obama will garner over 300 electoral votes with McCain spluttering below 200.
While hope is being abandoned for a resuscitation of the political corpse that is the McCain-Palin ticket, diehard Republican operatives are hard at work purging voter rolls, caging thousands of eligible voters and suppressing the vote in Democratic strongholds in battleground states. In the denouement of this election, the last fading hope of John McCain has devolved from deception to deceit.
In an information age when little can escape the gaze of the multitude, McCain is now perfectly on course to vanish from the world stage on the fourth of November, Election Day - 28 days and counting. Rumors are circulating at the Monocle that the manufacturers of Viagra and Cialis are in search of a new poster boy, and McCain is said to be moving smartly toward the top of the list.
Read more reactions to the Obama-McCain Town Hall Debate from HuffPost bloggers
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Seachild, you are definitely right about the race issue. They deny it because they are too cowardly to admit that this if the reason that Obama is "bad" to them. I would respect them more if they just came out and said it. It is very sick and it is disheartening to me that people would put race in front of them and their country's well-being. I don't know if you can get more sick than that. It it sad to me and, of course, I wasn't under any illusion that racism didn't exist but I am 31 and have never really seen how ugly it can feel because it hasn't been so prevalent for years. I see how ugly and hurtful it can be now. And it isn't sad for me but for the ones who feel so much hate. You have to really be a miserable person to have time for hate in your life! If Barack wasn't black, it would be 90% Obama and 10% McCain. That's sad but true.
P.S. And if I hear another thing about socialist, terrorist, traitor, or any other of the baseless comments, I am going to scream! Or laugh that they can be so pathetic.
people not voting for O: it's all about RACE...kne
How right you are, seachild. Imagine what the polls would be if the racial situation were reversed and Obama was a white moderate and McCain a black conservative. I suspect the polls would show something like 67% Obama to 33% McCain but it could be even worse than that. American racism is the 800 pound gorilla sitting in the boardroom of this election.
Obama cares about the PEOPLE in our country.
He wants things to be fair, health care for everyone is the right thing to do.
I will never ever understand why so many people don't see this, people who can also be left without healthcare in an instant, yet they still want McCain!
OBAMA 08
Ouch!
Mr Puddles? Mr Puddles? I have some Snausages!
Gallup still has Obama up by 11 points, not 9.
If one of McCain's or Sarah Palin's supporters actually does go 'deranged' and does harm to Sen. Obama, McCain WILL STILL NOT WIN. Everyone will vote AGAINST him just to spite him.
Wtf?
The McPalin ticket are big talkers, but they fold up like a tent. I guess that's what happens when you are out of touch and your only ideas are to continue the failed Bush policies. Obama possesses so much better judgment, and, beyond the words being spoken, his coolness exudes confidence. After eight years of a president who overcompensates for his lack of intelligence with bluster, the American people are demanding more. Bring it home Obama / Biden; the country needs you.
No complacency! Only a landslide is going to overcome high "minion" turnout plus " The Bradley Factor"
(which was on the "Left Coast," remember) plus a whole dumpster load of election dirty tricks by the experts.
Fantastic! A beautiful recap and analysis of the "debate," status of the election, and the candidates. Keep up the great work---we must be aware of the REAL story.
Sure it would have been a change of pace if McCain stood up at the end and asked the American people:
"Do you want to live in a socialist fascist state controlled by a dictator whose political career began in the living room of a domestic terrorist.
People were looking for blood last night and I can understand that. But in reality as the media did their number to set up Palin to fail in her debate the media was attempting to set up McCain as well. Obama did not say anything different. In fact Obama was more boring than McCain. You can only stretch "style" so far.
1) It is not possible to be both a socialist and a fascist. They aren't just nasty words, they have distinct features which are directly opposed to each other. Learn what the words actually mean.
2) Obama isn't a fascist (which would be right-fringe) or a socialist (which would be left-fringe). He's not even especially liberal. One survey ranked him most liberal, it did exactly the same with John Kerry during his presidential run i.e. it was designed not as an evaluation but as a smear tool for cretins who think "liberal" is a bad thing.
3) Being elected would mean he wasn't a dictator.
4) Obama and Ayers served on a charity board together, that's all. They were courteous collegues, not close friends. Ayers, who was tried, imprisoned and has long since served his debt to society, did hold a fundraiser for Obama but Obama has never even been in Ayer's house.
5) The USA has the most conservative media in the free world. This is not up for dispute or debate in the same way that gravity isn't. The only possible way anyone could believe the "liberal media" lie is through limitless stupidity or endless repetition, it's certainly not with regard to facts.
Thank you, EbonBear. More comments like yours would raise the discourse here. Countering the ranters with facts usually makes them go silent. Would that it encouraged them to actually look up some facts on their own, but I fear this is never the case.
The American media does certainly have a lot to answer for, Ebonbear. If the NYT were published in Europe, it would be the most conservative newspaper with the narrowest political views on the continent. The Wall Street Journal is so far to the right, Europeans would consider it to be for the lunatic fringe only. Most regional newspapers are far to the right of the global center of political gravity, and US television is a disaster. Last night, commentators on Fox were still shouting about William Ayers and Obama's alleged, "Socialist, Liberal ideology." But, does anybody -- incliuding Olberman, Maher, Stewart or Colbert -- ever take on neoconservatism? Why doesn't somebody launch a progressive TV channel that takes on racism and neoconservatism head on? Gates and Soros could afford to do it. While Soros does some good things with his massive wealth, Bill Gates plays it safe by investing his philanthropy in vaccines and medical research. Unless Gates and other billionaires like Buffet and Pickens invest their philanthropy into healing the political diseases of the USA (chronic racism and acute neoconservatism) they should be criticized for benign neglect of their social responsibilities.
Is that you Rush or is it Hannity? No you didn't get really outrageous in your hate driven vomitus. Maybe one of the lesser demons from faux news or talk radio that thrives on hate , sexism, rascism, and submission to the rich & powerful
"JCampbell" your comments are as hollow as McCain's campaign. We will not hold anything against you if you vote for Obama. Embrace the next POTUS! Come on you can do it....
Poor Sarah set up to fail by being asked substantive questions. So you agree that she failed, good for you for facing the facts.
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