The third and last debate between John McCain and Barak Obama was more interesting that the first two but still left me disappointed. In my view, the last debate will not change the dynamics in the current race for President of the United States. Based on the most recent polls, Obama seemed to have an almost insurmountable lead going into the debate, and I do not believe McCain gave voters who were supporting Obama or were leaning toward Obama a strong reason to shift their allegiance.
I thought McCain was feisty and came on fairly strong during the first half of the debate, but he seemed to lose steam during the last half. As in the first and second debates, McCain failed to challenge effectively many things that Obama said. Obama remained calm and cool and unflappable. As the leader in the race, Obama’s primary goal was to avoid making a major blunder. I believe he was successful in achieving this goal.
There is a stark contrast between the policies advocated by McCain and Obama. Unfortunately, this race is not about the best policies for the future, as it should be. Instead, the focus of the race is on the current economy and on the personalities of the candidates. McCain is unfairly getting the blame for the current state of the economy because he is the Republican candidate for President and the current President is a Republican. It does not matter that the Democrats are as much to blame as the Republicans for the government policies that led to the current economic crisis. As for personalities, McCain is no match for the oratory skills and charisma of Obama. Obama is young, clean-cut, smooth, articulate and very cautious. He made some mistakes during the debates for the Democratic nomination for President, but he learned from those mistakes, and he did not repeat them or make other mistakes during his three debates with McCain.
Although I do not agree with all of McCain’s policies, I strongly prefer them to those advocated by Obama. I have been and will continue to use this blog to discuss the dramatic differences between the achievements, voting records, and positions of the two candidates. If personalities and emotion could be eliminated from the decision-making process, I believe most Americans would support a candidate with McCain’s achievements, voting record and positions over a candidate with Obama’s achievements, voting record and positions. But this is not the way the political game is played. The successful candidate is usually the one who looks and talks the best, promises the most, and appeals to your emotions with meaningless slogans. We live in a “feel good” society, and most Americans will vote for the candidate who makes them feel good even though they may have little knowledge or understanding of the candidate’s achievements or voting record or of the consequences of adopting the positions advocated by the candidate. In this race, the debates have done little to change this unfortunate dynamic.
The economic issues facing the country are extremely complex. Both candidates have made proposals to change existing government policies regarding taxes, health care, education, energy, the environment, spending, and a host of other matters. The format for the Presidential debates is simply inadequate to allow the candidates to explain their positions and to distinguish their positions from those of their opponent. These complex matters cannot be discussed in two minutes followed by a minute or so to respond to what the other candidate said. Generally, the candidates take the brief time allotted to them to mischaracterize their opponent’s positions rather than explain the rationale behind their own. The net effect is that the viewers who watch the debates—who also happen to be the voters who will determine the outcome of the election—are as uninformed after the debates as they were before.
Selecting the next President of the United States should not be the same as selecting the winner of a high school or college debate tournament. We should not select our next President based on looks or personality. We should view each candidate’s campaign promises with a high degree of suspicion. As I have said repeatedly, I believe an informed voter should suppress his or her emotions and base his or her decision on each candidate’s experience, voting record, achievements and policies.
I am not a Howard Stern fan, but he recently conducted random interviews on the street with people who were supporting Obama for President. The person conducting the interviews described McCain’s positions and attributed them to Obama. It should not surprise you that the Obama supporters agreed with McCain’s positions after being told they were Obama’s positions. If you would like to be amused and disillusioned at the same time, click on the link below and then click on the button at the top next to “Press to Play”. I need to warn you in advance that Howard Stern is known for his profanity, and he uses a four-letter word at the beginning of this audio clip. I would have deleted the profanity if I had known how to do so.
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