Obama a Skittish Debater; McCain Keeps His Cool

I personally can’t think of a more boring way to spend an evening than listening to a debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. But I hung in there for their evasive exchanges on the economic crisis during the first 45 minutes and then heard them out for the remainder of the time on major foreign policy issues.

Afterward, commentators at CBS and CNN appeared to agree there was no clear winner. One or two observers criticized McCain for treating Obama with condescension on occasion, but no one mentioned how time and again the skittish Obama rudely interrupted McCain before he had uttered a complete sentence and continued to talk over him without intervention by moderator Jim Lehrer.

Part of my boredom was due to having to listen to Obama one more time boast of having opposed the Iraq war from the beginning without mentioning that he was not a member of the US Senate at the time. Also, whenever he had an opening, he repeatedly accused John McCain of having supported President Bush 90% of the time for the past eight years. McCain had the advantage of being able to refute Obama by pointing to his record; Obama has no record to speak of unless you consider his 100+ present votes in the Illinois State Legislature.

Overall, I’d say Obama, known for his cool, was the more aggressively defensive of the two adversaries in the debate; he seemed on edge and as I mentioned earlier, repeatedly jumped the gun. The first term senator tried several times to get under McCain’s skin, but the former fighter pilot, known for getting testy now and then, smiled patiently and remained calm and collected throughout the debate. For that reason alone, I’ll declare McCain the winner.