I listened to the talking heads after last night’s final presidential debate. I was stunned by their comments. Many of them indicated that Obama seemed off, disengaged. They also uniformly felt that McCain seemed to be the aggressor, and gushed that it was his best performance and finest moment. What were they watching?
I saw a nervous, fidgety old guy who seemed incredibly uncomfortable in the auditorium, in his seat and in his own skin. He appeared angry…constantly searching for opportunities to insert his dozen or so prefabricated talking points and zingers, most of which were awkwardly placed into the conversation.
His comments were largely empty. He said he could balance the budget in his first term, but had no specifics on how he arrived at that conclusion except for, “I know how to do it.” His remarks on health care were off the mark, as were most of his tax ideas and his remarks about the preparedness of Sarah Palin to assume the presidency.
He made it seem that Obama had all the negative campaigning coming to him, because he declined McCain’s invitation to a series of town hall meetings. He vented his hurt about the remarks of Rep. Lewis’ accusing him of “sowing seeds of hatred” and blamed Obama for not rebuking Rep. Lewis (but Obama had distanced himself from certain aspects of those remarks, saying they were not correct). McCain dwelled on the William Ayers connection as Obama effortlessly turned the issue aside…you could just feel McCain’s support fading.
I hope it’s over soon. Perhaps McCain will grasp the inevitable and go out with grace. I doubt Sarah Palin EVER will. We need to end the politics of feigned outrage. We need to resurrect the idea of the loyal opposition. We can all be Americans, even if we have differernt ideas and different politcal persuasions.