The Obama/McCain debate: Deer in the headlights

The debate: This headline says it all

Swampland judges the debates

The folks over at Time’s Swampland had their own debate reactions, including this one:

10:31 p.m. – Jim Poniewozik: My wrapup: For those who complained the last debate was dull—which I guess was all of us—it provided more sparks. Did it answer what viewers wanted answered? There was acknowledgement at the beginning and the end of the fact that the economy is melting down… and then a long section in the middle that told us it apparently had to do with abortion, William Ayers and Joe the plumber. There were, though, strong differences not just of policy but, sharply, of temperament. America saw a mad guy and a calm guy. I’ll be very curious to see how the candidates’ reactions—especially in split screen—played at home. How pissed off do you want your President to bee, America?

A good question. Do we want a president who’s angry at the situation and says “You have to get mad, you have to shout ‘I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it any more’”, or one that says “There’s nothing to fear but fear itself”?

So. The final debate.

And the final debate between Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain is over. So how did it go?

Long story short: This did not help John McCain. He needed a major game changer. Something that would really change the story. But instead of talking about issues, there was a long stretch of time about negative attacks – primarily aimed at Obama – that wasted time.

I’m not going to go into people’s facial ticks or body language. I will say that McCain spent more time looking at Obama than he has in all of the other debates combined, and actually addressed Obama by name.

The problem though was in those negative attacks. For the past few weeks, we’ve been hearing about William Ayers and ACORN, and tonight, finally, it was brought out in the debate. McCain should have let it hide in the shadows.

Look at this exchange:

McCain: Yes, real quick. Mr. Ayers, I don’t care about an old washed-up terrorist. But as Sen. Clinton said in her debates with you, we need to know the full extent of that relationship.

We need to know the full extent of Sen. Obama’s relationship with ACORN, who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy. The same front outfit organization that your campaign gave $832,000 for “lighting and site selection.” So all of these things need to be examined, of course.

Schieffer: All right. I’m going to let you respond and we’ll extend this for a moment.

Obama: Bob, I think it’s going to be important to just — I’ll respond to these two particular allegations that Sen. McCain has made and that have gotten a lot of attention.

In fact, Mr. Ayers has become the centerpiece of Sen. McCain’s campaign over the last two or three weeks. This has been their primary focus. So let’s get the record straight. Bill Ayers is a professor of education in Chicago.

Forty years ago, when I was 8 years old, he engaged in despicable acts with a radical domestic group. I have roundly condemned those acts. Ten years ago he served and I served on a school reform board that was funded by one of Ronald Reagan’s former ambassadors and close friends, Mr. Annenberg.

Other members on that board were the presidents of the University of Illinois, the president of Northwestern University, who happens to be a Republican, the president of The Chicago Tribune, a Republican- leaning newspaper.

Mr. Ayers is not involved in my campaign. He has never been involved in this campaign. And he will not advise me in the White House. So that’s Mr. Ayers.

Point by point, Obama had the chance to completely and utterly destroy the “Obama is big friends with Ayers who is a scary, scary man” argument.

When Obama mentions how it was financed by conservatives, fellow board members were Republicans, it moves Ayers from “scary former terrorist” to “just some dude.”
Then there’s the ACORN issue:
Now, with respect to ACORN, ACORN is a community organization. Apparently what they’ve done is they were paying people to go out and register folks, and apparently some of the people who were out there didn’t really register people, they just filled out a bunch of names.

It had nothing to do with us. We were not involved. The only involvement I’ve had with ACORN was I represented them alongside the U.S. Justice Department in making Illinois implement a motor voter law that helped people get registered at DMVs.

Now, the reason I think that it’s important to just get these facts out is because the allegation that Sen. McCain has continually made is that somehow my associations are troubling.

Let me tell you who I associate with. On economic policy, I associate with Warren Buffett and former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker. If I’m interested in figuring out my foreign policy, I associate myself with my running mate, Joe Biden or with Dick Lugar, the Republican ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, or General Jim Jones, the former supreme allied commander of NATO.

Those are the people, Democrats and Republicans, who have shaped my ideas and who will be surrounding me in the White House. And I think the fact that this has become such an important part of your campaign, Sen. McCain, says more about your campaign than it says about me.

Again, one point after another, laying it out. Even if you think ACORN was a bad group, bringing it up in the debate let Obama dismantle the argument. Now if it ever comes up again, only a true-red McCain supporter will believe it.

The other issues laid out as much as anyone expected. Obama’s pro-choice, McCain’s pro-life. Obama supports charter schools and increasing education, McCain believes in the market.

This was true in the health care arena:

McCain: Now, my old buddy, Joe, Joe the plumber, is out there. Now, Joe, Sen. Obama’s plan, if you’re a small business and you are able — and your — the guy that sells to you will not have his capital gains tax increase, which Sen. Obama wants, if you’re out there, my friend, and you’ve got employees, and you’ve got kids, if you don’t get — adopt the health care plan that Sen. Obama mandates, he’s going to fine you.

Now, Sen. Obama, I’d like — still like to know what that fine is going to be, and I don’t think that Joe right now wants to pay a fine when he is seeing such difficult times in America’s economy.

Sen. Obama wants to set up health care bureaucracies, take over the health care of America through — as he said, his object is a single payer system.

If you like that, you’ll love Canada and England. So the point is…

Schieffer: So that’s your objective?

Obama: It is not and I didn’t describe it…

McCain: No, you stated it.

Obama: I just…

McCain: Excuse me.

Obama: I just described what my plan is. And I’m happy to talk to you, Joe, too, if you’re out there. Here’s your fine — zero. You won’t pay a fine, because…

McCain: Zero?

Obama: Zero, because as I said in our last debate and I’ll repeat, John, I exempt small businesses from the requirement for large businesses that can afford to provide health care to their employees, but are not doing it.

I exempt small businesses from having to pay into a kitty. But large businesses that can afford it, we’ve got a choice. Either they provide health insurance to their employees or somebody has to.

McCain was his own worst enemy here. He brought up the “Obama’s going to make you pay a fee, small business owner”, and Obama was allowed to state pretty simply “Uh, no. I’m not.”

I’m not sure I would call this a “loss” for McCain. But by letting the negative smears against Obama hit the open light of the debate, I think it removed a lot of their power. Which means that McCain has even less to attack Obama on – unless he just wants to repeat arguments only his base will believe.