I missed part of the original airing of the McCain-Obama appearance at Saddleback Church on Saturday because I was out watching The Dark Knight with Triya and Ali. I wanted to watch all of it before commenting and finally had a chance to do so on YouTube last night. (You can watch all of forum here or read the transcripts.)
Overall, I was very impressed with the forum and found it a much more probing, informative, and balanced format than most presidential debates. I hope this sets the stage for holding similar venues in the future. I thought both Obama and McCain came off well, as did Rick Warren. Of the two candidates, I (surprisingly) thought that McCain came off far stronger than Obama did. McCain did not couch his answers and did a fantastic job of giving short, well-defined, direct answers to all the questions. I think that style sits better with most voters than Obama's tendency to give more long-winded answers with less certainty to them.
William Kristol had an excellent opinion piece on the forum in the New York Times which seems to agree with my impressions:
I strongly agree with Kristol on all three. Here is what he's referring to in point #3.
- Rick Warren should moderate one of the fall presidential debates. Warren’s queries were simple but probing. He was fair to both candidates, his manner was relaxed but serious, and he neither went for “gotcha” questions nor pulled his punches.
- It was McCain’s night. Obama made no big mistakes. But his tendency to somewhat windy generalities meant he wasn’t particularly compelling. McCain, who went second, was crisp by contrast, and his anecdotes colorful.
- Obama and McCain really do have different “worldviews,” to use Rick Warren’s term.Perhaps the most revealing moment was the two candidates’ response to a question about evil. Yes, evil — that negation of the good that, Friedrich Nietzsche to the contrary notwithstanding, we seem not to have moved beyond.
This was the first time the public got a chance to see both candidates side by side since both of them become the presumptive nominees. I thought McCain came off far better than imagined.
While there is some accusations that McCain was not actually in a "cone of silence" during Obama's questioning, there is no evidence of this. I heard this before watching all of the video coverage last night and noted McCain was just as quick to answer questions Obama had not been asked as those he had. (If McCain continues to be more adroit on his feet, Obama may have trouble during the presidential debates.) I agree with Megan McArdle when she writes that these accusations make Obama look bad and underscore the consensus of McCain's "win" on Saturday. McArdle writes:
Then there are the insinuations swirling around McCain's performance at the Rick Warren event, which his supporters are calling a win, and which Obama's supporters are calling a draw, from which I infer that he won. Since we all know this is impossible, of course he must have cheated.Indeed.
I've obviously seen the tightening national polls, and what I'm starting to hear is that among likelies and battlegrounds, McCain's gaining a commanding lead. Since I'm hearing that from McCain supporters, however, I've been a little sceptical. Less so after this weekend's performance.
I think McCain surprised many (including me) on Saturday and for the first time has me thinking he might actually have a chance of winning in November. I think this year's presidential race just took another unexpected turn and got a lot more interesting.
2 comments:
Here's the problem with McCain's answers.
First, they were all his canned stump talking points.
Obama actually tried to engage in a conversation with the pastor; McCain simply repeated his stump speech.
Second, while such direct and "black and white" responses may make for some good impressions in this type of forum, it reminds me of what we achieved with our current President.
McCain's answer on evil was rather hyperbolic...and his repeating for the millionth time about his going to chase bin Laden to the "gates of hell" was rather sickening. Too bad the policy of going into Iraq probably cost us our best chance of actually catching bin Laden in Pakistan.
And again, his answer to defeat evil has no connection with reality. Judging by his other bellicose comments, I guess he means to go after all the evil regimes on this earth with our military.
Obama tried to actually speak about evil in intelligent terms, and remind us that sometimes we commit evil in trying to fight evil. That's a rather profound point that Christians should applaud.
As Jack Cafferty on CNN put it, one after another, McCain's answers were shallow, simplistic, and trite.
As for the questions, they were really tilted towards McCain. The question on taxes was something like "how do you define rich?" It could have been asking about the fairness of the tax code, or the fairness of tax cuts tilted towards the very wealthy.
As for the cone of silence controversy, I agree that it's kind of silly. But even McCain's camp did admit that he was late arriving to the church and was never in a real cone of silence. When asked about someone getting emails on a blackberry, they did not answer. So it definitely would have been an advantage to know the questions in advance.
However, the most alarming point is that when Warren asked McCain about being in the cone of silence, he basically lied.
In fact, so much of what McCain puts out for policy is pure lies and deception.
He claims to support alternative energy and yet has a poor voting record. He lists a $3 million bear DNA research program as an example to explain skyrocketing deficits, yet doesn't care about $10 billion in Iraq. He makes it seem as if pork barrel spending is to blame, when it clearly is not and no economist would back him up on that.
So sure McCain had a good night, but his policies are still lousy.
One more point about the crowd: it's rather odd to hear a church crowd applaud the loudest at the mention of offshore oil drilling. And the fact that Saddleback charged anywhere from $500 to $2000 a ticket obviously skewed the audience.
So basically the guy who tried to be introspective and answer with some spiritual insight was not viewed as favorably as the guy who dodged all the spiritual talk and promised offshore oil drilling and more tax cuts skewed to the very wealthy.
That's kind of sad.
If McCain does win we get the President we deserve and we can have fun with more sky high deficits and more sabre rattling across the globe.
One final point: imagine of this forum had been conducted in front of a black church, and the questions centered on topics such as the morality of the Iraq war, the concept of fairness in taxes, etc...I don't think McCain would have done nearly as well.
I would add one more thing: Any marginal success that McCain has had against Obama has largely been due to waging a relentlessly negative and deceptive and sleazy campaign.
Look at McCain's ads...the one with Britney and Paris, for instance...they are a joke, avoid the issues, but they may be effective.
If I have one complaint against Obama, it's that he's been way too nice. Even his negative ads against McCain try to focus on the issues, not the person. McCain, in a stark contrast, constantly attacks Obama and his character.
If McCain wins the general election it will only be due to a triumph of negative and smearing campaigning coupled with simplistic messaging.
If that happens I will be the first one to support Hillary Clinton to defeat him in 2012, for it would then be apparent that her ruthlessness is what is needed.
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