Accidental Blogger

We did have a presidential debate last Friday after Drama Queen John McCain (do read Frank Rich’s spot on analysis of McCain’s theatrics) managed to create a short lived suspense around the event. The inaugural debate has been characterized in the media as a lukewarm tie (the press didn’t get a single memorable one-liner and neither man drew much blood with verbal thrust and parry). Using boxing terms, the pundits have declared that the contest was close and depending on the political and personal leanings of the commentator, we were told both Obama and McCain won on points in the "content" part of the debate. But in "style," Obama was a knock-out winner – almost everyone, including TV viewers agreed that he looked decisively more "presidential" than the grumpy old man he debated. While Obama was relaxed and gracious, addressing moderator Jim Lehrer as well as his opponent, McCain looked churlish, angry and cagey – refusing to look at Obama for 90+ minutes.

McCain’s incredible feat of totally avoiding eye contact with his challenger did not go unnoticed. The first thing my husband said when the debate got over was, "Not once did McCain look at Obama!"  The post debate TV analysts also picked up on it. I don’t know whether you noticed but even during the first handshake and the one at the end, Obama looked straight down at McCain while the latter averted his eyes after a fleeting and unfocused glance in Obama’s general direction.

Determined to show his superiority, McCain repeatedly stated, "Sen Obama doesn’t understand," or "Sen Obama doesn’t know."  To burnish his own standing as a man who’s been around the globe a few times, he dropped names repeatedly – of distant and obscure places as also those of exotic (and obsolete) political figures. He rattled off anecdotes about Henry Kissinger, Tymoshenko, Yushchenko, Waziristan and Sebastopol although he stumbled over Ahmadinejad a couple of times! I felt I was watching a B-grade spy movie from the 1970s!

McCain’s petulance and dismissiveness have been variously interpreted as anger, disdain and contempt for Obama whom he considers an empty suit, light on experience and heavy on silver tongued rhetoric. It is entirely plausible that McCain was affected by any or all of those emotions.  But there may be another credible explanation – McCain was fearful of his  youthful opponent and exhibited the body language of a nervous male primate. Writes a reader on Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo:

I think people really are missing the point about McCain’s failure to look at Obama. McCain was afraid of Obama. It was really clear–look at how much McCain blinked in the first half hour. I study monkey behavior–low ranking monkeys don’t look at high ranking monkeys. In a physical, instinctive sense, Obama owned McCain tonight and I think the instant polling reflects that.

Low-ranking monkey indeed – a jarring realization for an arrogant man who is used to being the alpha-male at most gatherings.

I will be leaving for a longish trip in a week and will miss the remaining two presidential debates. Fortunately, I will be here to watch next Thursday’s vice-presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. Palin, the perky running mate of John McCain has shown her aptitude for reading from a teleprompter. But the very few times that she has faced questions from the press "unescorted," she has been exposed for the ignoramus that she truly is. Her last "outing," when she gave an interview to CBS anchor Katie Couric, was so full of imbecility that even some conservatives are calling for her withdrawal from the GOP ticket. Her upcoming stint at the podium with Biden is likely to resemble a Demolition Derby, media mavens are saying.

I should relax, right?  Things seem to be going okay for the Dems with poll numbers up and what not. But although my general outlook in life can be characterized as "sunny" for the most part, like Matt, I am a pessimist when it comes to the political fortune of Democrats. Their bad luck in national politics in recent years defies logic. I cannot relax until I find out what Palin will do in the debate … and more important, how Biden will behave.  Senator Biden, knowledgeable though he is, is also a first class windbag who doesn’t listen well to others.  I am afraid that he may get caught up in the magic of his own garrulity and start speechifying. He could also fall victim to a misplaced sense of chivalry and let Palin off easy. Palin on the other hand, could get away by mouthing inane sound bites and the occasional below-the-belt punch line without answering a single question seriously. The McCain campaign has negotiated a debate format where this may come to pass. Will Biden have the gumption or the presence of mind to challenge her?  I hope so but am not too sure. The bar is now so low for Palin that she will get points for just showing up. On the other hand, Biden, a veteran debater on the senate floor, may stray into a rambling, pedantic trajectory and thereby fail to pluck the "low hanging fruit" that Sarah Palin is as a political adversary. We’ll see.