Obama K.O.'s McCain....Again.

The third and final presidential debate of the election season, was by far the most interesting debate. Bob Schieffer did an excellent job as moderator, picking thoughtful questions that forced the candidates to be answer them in a detailed and decisive manner. Without making a big fuss, Mr. Schieffer prodded both candidates to remain on point, stay within the time limits, and refused to let either candidate slide out from underneath a question. I noticed that Mr. Schieffer called out both Senator Obama and Senator McCain at least once for dodging a question. BRAVO!

I have to give it to McCain: He really showed a lot more poise at the beginning of the debate. He was calm, collected, and was taking the lead as he answered the first two questions. I think it was the question about negative campaigning, that his "Straight Talk Express" completely derailed, and he boarded the "Shit Talk Express." McCain postured antagonistically, attempting to go on the offensive. Instead of putting Obama on the spot, McCain succeeded in appearing like a petulant first-grader, hurling accusations, and muttering "No I'm not. No I'm not" when Obama returned fire. McCain seemed visibly agitated and sulked throughout the remainder of the debate.

In typical Republican style, he latched onto a narrative about Joe the Plumber and tried to present himself as a man of the people; a man that sides with the average Joe wanting to achieve the American Dream of owning his own business. Unfortunately, the tactic backfired. Frankly, I found it annoying, and I'm pretty sure that more people disliked McCain's repeated reference to Joe the Plumber than those who found it endearing. CNN's panel of undecided voters in Ohio certainly tired of McCain's Plumber Joe refrain.

To his credit, McCain did also provide the highlight of the campaign when he said "Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago." But aside from pointing out that he was in fact, not Mr. Bush, McCain did little to differentiate himself from his frenemy, George. He was not without opportunity to do so; Obama has pointed out on numerous occasions, that McCain votes with Bush 90% of the time. Instead of the "I'm a maverick and I've got the scars to prove it, gosh darnit!" song and dance routine, McCain should have at least mentioned Bush's rabid dog attacks when they were competing for the Republican nomination in 2000. That would have humanized him, and illustrated a very real emotional distance between Bush and McCain. How could McCain support a guy who ran an "anonymous" smear campaign against him, and humiliated him with such accusations of being mentally unstable, or having a drug addict wife? Regardless, Obama countered, "that if I occasionally have mistaken your policies for George Bush's policies, it's because on the core economic issues that matter to the American people, on tax policy, on energy policy, on spending priorities, you have been a vigorous supporter of President Bush." Boo-Yah.

The low point of the debate also came from McCain, when Mr. Schieffer asked both candidates about the negative campaigning that has dominated the tone of both campaigns int he recent weeks. McCain expressed disappointment that Obama did not call on Congressman John Lewis to repudiate his remarks in reference to a McCain-Palin rally where people shouted "Terrorist!" and "Kill Him!" when Obama's name was mentioned. Congressman Lewis likened McCain and Palin's refusal to condemn those people at the rally to that of segregationist, George Wallace. Lewis said that like Wallace, McCain and Palin were creating "the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans." Obama said that he had put out a statement condemning Lewis's remarks, and that Lewis also issued a statement saying that the comment was inappropriate. Yet McCain never apologized for the hate-filled comments at his own rallies, defending himself by saying: "And I'm not going to stand for somebody saying that because someone yelled something at a rally -- there's a lot of things that have been yelled at your rallies, Senator Obama, that I'm not happy about either. In fact, some T-shirts that are very...unacceptable."
Really? You can justify such despicable behaivior at your OWN rallies because of some T-Shirts that are "unacceptable?" C'mon, give me a break! Death threats are okay because some fools made shirts that hurt your feelings?? Ridiculous! McCain should have simply apologized for the behavior of his "die-hard fans," and promise to take swift action if anyone else were to get out of line at future rallies. Instead, McCain childishly points to a T-Shirt in a "he started it!" fashion, and expects that issue to drop.

If you notice, every time McCain was asked a question, he glossed over some details before attacking Obama. Obama was consistently calm and answered each accusation clearly and definitively, at which point McCain would attack him again, on an unrelated issue.

I guess the "Shit Talk Express" is going to keep rolling full steam ahead. Luckily for us, the American people aren't buying it. McCain is struggling in what were once reliably red states, like Virginia. I'm sensing a landslide for Obama, and that will effectively put an end to the McCain-Palin "Shit Talk Express." Alllll aboooooard......NOT!