Debate at ´Ole Miss´: McCain vs Obama

On Friday evening, September 26th, the first Presidential debate between Senators McCain and Obama as their respective party´s Presidential nominee was held in the deep south at the University of Mississippi, ´Ole Miss´, in Oxford, Mississippi. It was intended to be a debate on foreign policy.

It was moderated by Jim Lehrer, host of "The NewsHour" on PBS television. My understanding of the debate format was that it was to be largely a back and forth discussion between the candidates. Lehrer prompted them to do so several times. That did not happen to a large degree. The candidates instead responded to the moderator which may have been effective or not. It was not the intended format.

It began with some obvious tension between the two candidates who clearly were uncomfortable being in close contact on the stage. (It was no Barack / Hillary love fest.) Initially, there was hesitancy in their responses as neither candidate seemed able to specifically answer questions or give finite details of any programs or policies they would enact if elected especially which programs they would cut due to the huge government bailout of Wall Street.

The first 30 minutes or so veered off foreign policy to the domestic front where the current fiscal crisis was upfront. Neither candidate quite nailed that discussion as neither was going to give away their intentions on voting for or against the Congressional fixit bill. I conclude that neither has decided on that issue.

It was about 45 minutes before the debate got into full swing when the debate turned to foreign policy, it covered mostly Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Russia, as well as Pakistan. It grew contentious at times as McCain mentioned more than once Obama´s lack of experience in dealing with world affairs. Andrea Mitchell of NBC News called McCain "dismissive of Barack Obama on foreign policy." Eugene Robinson, Washington Post Associate Editor and columnist, called Barack Obama a good "counter puncher" in the arguments brought up by McCain in the foreign policy area.

McCain´s best moments were his passion on Iraq and winning the war there as a prerequisite of peace in the Middle East and throughout the world, that we could not suffer the possibility of losing there. Obama´s were his calm statements on energy and domestic policy. Both, after initially seeming ill at ease, steadied themselves and finished strongly. Barack stood his ground on foreign policy; he admitted that the world cannot tolerate a nuclear Iran at one point.

Post debate analysis differed varied. Pat Buchanan called the debate as a prize fight. "John McCain won 10 rounds to 5." he related. Chris Matthews, host of ´Hardball´ on MSNBC, critiqued Barack for agreeing with McCain too many times and not attacking McCain instead on his support of President George Bush although he said that Barack "looked more Presidential". (Chris loves a good bloody political fight having once worked for Tip O´Neal.) Chris came down hard on McCain for never looking directly at Obama and interpreted it as a gesture of contempt.

Each camp called it a victory for their candidate as might be expected. The campaign spin machines for both candidates will be in full swing for the next several days making the case that their ´President - hopeful´ won overwhelmingly when that is not the case.

In conclusion, I offer these observations on the debate as an event: The one moderator format was not the best for this debate. The primary debates usually had two or more moderators and that seemed to work best. Lehrer may have been a little tame. At the outset he acknowledged that he had developed the questions himself. They did not seem too difficult or probing, nothing to really challenge the candidates, no ´gotcha´s´. (Where was Tim Russert when we needed him?) The time of 90 minutes was probably adequate considering neither candidate was in a position to clearly and in detail offer specifics on nearly any question.

Finally, there was no clear winner in the debate as both seemed to have strong and weak points. Both scored several times, neither committed any unpardonable gaffs, and both appeared ´Presidential´ to a degree. Tie! No overtime, but a rematch is scheduled for Thursday, October 7th in Nashville, Tennessee hosted by Tom Brokaw.

(Post Script: Keith Olbermann was excluded from the MSNBC post debate discussion panel indicating his recent demotion in status at MSNBC/NBC is real. However, his ´Countdown' program aired immediately afterwards and he, and his new lefty cohort Rachel Maddow, got their biased licks in and enthusiastically declared Barack the overwhelming winner.)