McCain Snarls About Joe the Plumber
This debate was easy to judge, but it is certain many of the media pundits will get it wrong. They are wonky enough they can’t ignroe the issues. Oh, issues are important, but the American people want a President with a sure hand, and body language, vocal tone, politeness, composure and camera presence give this debate to Obama.
The media is all about Joe the Plumber in its reporting about tonight’s debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. Check out FoxNews, Reuters, The Baltimore Sun, the Associated Press, etc. They are saying McCain scored points with the example of Joe the Plumber, a guy who wants to buy a plumbing business but is scared he’s going to get higher taxes or healthcare mandates. As such, you’re seeing pundits tonight, like Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC, call this a win for John McCain. The real story, when we get the polls in and the dial-testing from Kansas City and all that, is that this will be a win for Barack Obama not because of the content of what John McCain said about Joe the Plumber, but because McCain snarled when he spoke about Joe the Plumber.
This debate was good on the content side. The questions about the personal attacks and about the Supreme Court were brought out specific answers. Bob Sheiffer did his job well in picking and formulating the questions, and he even rode the candidates a bit about sticking to the question, something that was desperately needed in both previous Presidential debates, and the Vice Presidential debate especially. So this was a more entertaining debate, and it got to the guts of some issues more precisely. That’s all well and good. But the bottom line here is the snarling by McCain.
The biggest contrast in the debate is not about policies anymore. It just isn’t. The contrast is between a calm and collected Obama, who speaks authoritatively and steady, vs. a McCain who speaks too fast, snarls often, huffs and puffs in the background, uses aggrssive body language, and doesn’t make eye contact with the camera. There’s the issue. this is about the camera and who it loves. No, that isn’t shallow, and that’s not some reality show way of looking at debate performance.
The American people want to be reassured, they want to have hope about the future, and they want to know the man who is to lead our country will be steady, sure and patient. Obama exudes those qualities to the camera, while McCain reduces himself with desperation, anger, jumpiness and the blinking eyes mindful of Sarah Palin. McCain’s interruprtions of Barack Obama, and I counted six of them, will also serve him poorly. Americans want a polite President with presence, not someone who is forcing himself into things. And that SMILE! The sarcasm in McCain’s smile will lose him 100,000 votes, if it hasn’t already lost him ten times than and more.
Finally, Barack Obama stuck to the questions, and if anyone was more impressed with content than with the overall impression, then they want to hear those answers. John McCain does, far too often, what I call “chasing butterflies.” All of a sudden in the middle of an answer John McCain is talking about autism, which I suppose Sarah Palin can see from her house in Wasilla. What the fuck is up with that? McCain didn’t do near as much chasing butterflies in the first debate as he followed in the next two. Did Palin’s poor performance effect him that much?
OK, there’s my reaction tonight. As Andy Reid would say, “your turn.”
Edit, 12:00 am: I just had to include this link from Beliefnet, where Rob Dreher also called the debate for Obama. The guy writes well:
McCain came off as sour, agitated and petulant. Obama — man, nothing rattles that guy. McCain was two tics away from a vein-popping “You can’t handle the truth!” Jack Nicholson moment, I felt. At one point, I thought: Which one of these men would I want in the White House when the 3 a.m. phone call comes in?
It’s strange: it’s been my sense that the one thing McCain has going for him is that as frightening as the world situation is right now, voters would want to have a solid, experienced hand at the wheel through the tempest. Watching tonight’s event, it’s undeniable that if that’s what you’re voting on, you’ll want to vote for Barack Obama.
That’s from a Christian conservative, though Dreher is nonpartisan.
My favorite part was McCain pulling out the air quotes around “mothers health” during the abortion discussion while dismissing it as a real issue to be considered.
He likely lost several 100,000 votes with that…
and the post debate polls all give Obama the win by a large margin…. while McCain did manage to increase his negatives… and he won CNN’s poll on who had the most negative attacks during the debate…
creepy, condescending and small — those are words that I’d use to describe his performance tonight.
sulabi, we need a guest column on just that. If you can’t do it, maybe I’ll ask Richard if he’ll take my wife on. That’s exactly the moment she identified.
For me, that moment should signal to anyone who is pro-choice that McCain will extinguish those rights if he can. First he says he’ll have no litmus test, then he follows it with the use of the derogatory term “pro-abortion” and the air quotes denigrating real decisions by real women. Still, how many of the people he offended in that section of the debate were already on Obama’s side? Most of them, I figure.
Breaking (kinda “local” for youse guys) Econ News:
“Thursday morning, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia released its report on manufacturing activity in the mid-Atlantic region in the month of October, showing that activity contracted at a much faster than expected pace.”
More: Philly Fed Index Plunges To -37.5 In October
@ Peter of Lone Tree:
i have no idea what that means, except that it’s 7x worse than they expected. right?
@ sukabi:
my favorite part was the reference to “the extreme aspect of the pro-abortion movement in America”. i did not know there was an extemist pro-abortion movement. if there was, i’d be in it! when obama says that no one is pro abortion, i yell at the tv, “i am, i am!”
and quit demonizing venezuela for the hoards, barrack. that scares me.
i did not know there was an extemist pro-abortion movement. if there was, i’d be in it!
Don’t know any wingnuts? The extremist pro-abortion movement is “anyone who thinks abortion should be legal under any circumstances”. McCain in that clip was speaking in wingnut - down to the air-quotes around “health” which they think is a bogus argument and that pregnancies are never a danger anymore thanks to modern medicine. Even wingnuts I know who have had children will make this argument.
Of course these folks also believe that the “abortion industry” is making money hand over fist through legal abortions. And that Planned Parenthood especially is rolling in the dough from abortions. There’s no reasoning with them - some of them are members of my family that I love dearly, but they’re kind of stupid about this stuff. I think they get it from Limbaugh or something - or maybe from the Church (Roman Catholic - sigh).
@ somegirl:
I think to find that “extreme faction” of the “pro-abortion” movement you have to look in the darkest corners of a really fractured wingnuts’ mind. Of course, that is the “argument” that the likes of Limbaugh et al have been pushing to rile up their listeners everytime some “choice” issue hits the ballot…
@ Steven Reynolds:
The things I’d have to say about McCain’s “positions” on women’s health wouldn’t be fit to print, I don’t have much respect for him as a person or a man. His whole candidacy has been a huge insult to the American public and women in particular… Especially his “choice” of Palin as his running mate…
You’d get a better, more coherent column on this subject interviewing a couple of different women and presenting their views/reactions than I would be able to write up…