McCain Needed to Beat Obama to the Pavement, But All He Did Was Knock Himself Out
Written by John Erianne on October 16, 2008 – 12:43 am -If McCain had a chinaman’s chance of winning this election (and I really can’t see it), it rested largely on his performance in the three debates. He had to do a number of things: He had to make Obama seem like an unacceptable choice for President. He had to make himself out to be the clear choice for President. He had to completely sever himself from George W. Bush’s record. And, lastly he had to connect with average Americans on the core issues affecting their lives. Sadly for McCain the third time was not the charm.
Instead of presenting a cogent argument for his candidacy, John McCain invoked the name “Joe the Plumber” a number of times and attacked Obama on William Ayers and Acorn and taxes and the usual Republican talking points. Obama, for his part, provided a reasonable explanation of these tangential relationships. McCain tried to turn it around by making himself seem like the victim of negative attacks, whining about John Lewis’ comments comparing the McCain-Palin playbook to George Wallace’s and accusing Obama of negative attacks seeming hurt and angry at the injustice of it all. I don’t think this will play well with most voters. There is no logical comparison between Obama’s negative attack ads on policy issues and McCain’s false character assassinations. Nor did McCain disavow the wingnuts of his party — rather, he embraced them.
McCain didn’t really distance himself from George Bush either, though he tried. He got one good zinger in there about that, suggesting that “if [Obama] wanted to run against Bush, [he] should have run against him four years ago.” Nice line, but then, a moment later Obama pointed out that McCain’s policies are clearly more like Bush’s than not. McCain said nothing about his own plans for the country that contradicted this, and for the second time he failed to deny that his health care plan essentially includes a new tax on benefits. McCain also stepped in it, tangling with Obama on the abortion issue. McCain has, throughout his career, had a reputation for being anti-woman. His ill-conceived choice of Sarah Palin and the manner in which she’s serviced his campaign hasn’t really helped his credibility. His extreme pro-life stance and the manner in which he argued it during this last debate was nothing if not condescending and hurtful to women. Consider that most women in this country are pro-choice and that all women, regardless of their stance on abortion have a big stake in health policies that affect their bodies. A male politician cannot afford to be seen as a cranky misogynist when talking about women’s issues. Even George Bush was saavy enough to know how to talk about Roe v. Wade without coming across as a hater.
Obama, with his usual zen calm, didn’t fight to knockout or humiliate McCain. Again, he didn’t really have to. All he had to do was look presidential, take apart McCain’s often testy and ludicrous attacks and let McCain run his mouth empty. Obama was there to maintain his lead. McCain was there to argue for his political life. He didn’t make the sale. I believe if there was a knockout to be had in this debate, McCain knocked himself out. McCain’s people are probably counting on the “Bradley Effect” to salvage their guy’s hopes after tonight. I don’t think the “Bradley Effect” will have much of an effect. I think if it applied this year, than Obama would’ve lost the primary to Hillary and any residual racism is probably already reflected in the polls (i.e. if you’re a racist, you’re probably already in the bag for McCain).
