Debate 3: McCain's Wrath meets Obama's Serenity

Last night's third and final presidential debate drew the boldest contrast between the candidates. For an hour and a half the two candidates addressed issues and debated plans. Moderator Bob Schieffer did a great job of allowing the candidates time to answer and rebut the other's statements and charges. What did we learn about the candidates from their tone and styles? How would they act as President for the next four years?

Senator McCain came out of the gates playing the role of the angry grandpa. His voice was strained and often filled with mock sarcasm (did he learn that from Governor Palin?). McCain's body language was stiff and jerky and he seemed to rise and fall with every comment Senator Obama made. McCain's facial expressions changed by the minute and his eyes rolled around in his head several times. If McCain wanted to come across as vigorous, I think he overplayed that card. His actions and demeanor seemed to reinforce the "erratic" characterization of him by the Obama campaign. McCain was on the offense but Obama's defense was better.

Then there was Senator Obama. He was serene and steady. He was composed and never rattled. His body language exuded a calm in the midst of McCain's raging storm. Obama seemed the model of a statesman. He was rational and even smiled occasionally. Yes, he seemed a little sad at times but that seemed to match the tone of the country right now as Americans watch the market go through a meltdown and we keep hearing news about a war that seems to go on forever.

In this last head-to-head debate, Americans were looking at these two candidates trying to judge which person has the right tone and bearing to lead our country for next four years. McCain misplayed his hand and failed to make that case. And this "misplaying his hand" seems to be a pattern by McCain since the Republican convention. His choice of an unqualified person to join his ticket (which he couldn't defend last night and failed to make a case for Palin when the question came up) is one example. His odd decision to "suspend" his campaign and head to Washington D.C. during the beginnings of the financial crisis (but then fail to lead his Republican colleagues) is another example.

Senator Obama won all three presidential debates this campaign season (all the post-debate polls say this). This level of debate dominance rarely happens during a presidential campaign. Now I hope that some civility will return to the campaign trail over the next three weeks. Americans are tired of campaigns waged on fear, hatred, anger, and uncivil behavior. Simply stated, the race is over for John McCain. Please Senator McCain, go out with some dignity still intact.

Joe Wins, Sarah Revives

The first and only VP candidate's debate of 2008 is now history. So what did we learn?

To nobody's surprise, Joe Biden showed that he knows his stuff. He articulated well the differences between the two tickets and was particularly effective in painting John McCain as not the right man to lead the country. He was articulate, emotive, and never condescending or abrasive. He was the model of a gracious statesman. I think he left no doubt in most viewers' minds that he's ready to lead the country if something unforeseen were to happen to Barack Obama.

To some people's surprise, Sarah Palin performed above expectations. I expected that she would present herself well after seeing some of her stump speeches. The question on everybody's mind was: will she look or sound uninformed like she did in some of her recent high profile interviews? Here she exceeded most expectations. She didn't come off as being unintelligent or abrasive. She checked "most but not all" of her condescending speech inflections which give some people migraines. Honestly, I don't like Palin's style as she uses facial expressions and a speech style that tries to be ingratiating. She likes to use folksy words like "gotcha" and phrases like "you betcha" which I feel is best left back in Alaska. But most importantly for her, she made no large stumble or gaffe. Sure she failed to answer a few questions and decided instead to say whatever she wanted which I guess is a "Palin thing." Heck, she even stated early in the debate that, “I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you (Biden?) want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record.” And she did use the name of a Union Civil War general (McClellan) in stead of the actual name of the current commander in Afghanistan (McKiernan). But hey, given what we all saw in the interviews leading up to this debate, it could have been a lot worse. I think she revived her own career and maybe she'll be less of a punch-line for a few days. Personally, I still don't feel she made a strong enough case for herself in terms of being able to lead this country if something were to happen to John McCain (which is the primary responsibility as a Vice President).

Conclusions? Joe Biden won the debate on all the substantive points. Sarah Palin performed better than the extremely low expectations that had been set for her. Biden helped make the case for Obama. Palin helped revive her own faltering national image. But how does any of this help John McCain? I think McCain was the loser tonight and that certainly won't help is stumbling campaign.

*** 10-9-08 UPDATE ***

Someone asked me if I had read the transcript to the debate between Senator Biden and Governor Palin and I responded that I hadn't. So I went back and read some of the actual answers (more like statements) by the candidates. What struck me was just how few times Palin actually answered the questions. If you remove Palin's charming smile and ingratiating tone and just read her answers to the questions, her lack of coherence is simply appalling. She doesn't sound as if she even graduated from college. It's no wonder that her oldest boy is going into the armed services (and not headed to college) and that her oldest girl is knocked-up (and not headed to college). I'll give you just one appalling example at Palin's incoherence:

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GWEN IFILL: Governor?

GOVERNOR PALIN: Say it ain't so, Joe, there you go again pointing backwards again. You preferenced your whole comment with the Bush administration. Now doggone it, let's look ahead and tell Americans what we have to plan to do for them in the future. You mentioned education and I'm glad you did. I know education you are passionate about with your wife being a teacher for 30 years, and god bless her. Her reward is in heaven, right? I say, too, with education, America needs to be putting a lot more focus on that and our schools have got to be really ramped up in terms of the funding that they are deserving. Teachers needed to be paid more. I come from a house full of school teachers. My grandma was, my dad who is in the audience today, he's a schoolteacher, had been for many years. My brother, who I think is the best schoolteacher in the year, and here's a shout-out to all those third graders at Gladys Wood Elementary School, you get extra credit for watching the debate.

Education credit in American has been in some sense in some of our states just accepted to be a little bit lax and we have got to increase the standards. No Child Left Behind was implemented. It's not doing the job though. We need flexibility in No Child Left Behind. We need to put more of an emphasis on the profession of teaching. We need to make sure that education in either one of our agendas, I think, absolute top of the line. My kids as public school participants right now, it's near and dear to my heart. I'm very, very concerned about where we're going with education and we have got to ramp it up and put more attention in that arena.

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That is a direct quote of Governor Palin. You can find the entire transcript which includes many of her other incoherent statements at the following link:

Transcript: The Vice-Presidential Debate