A Truly Wild Prediction
It's 9:47 p.m. I tried to listen to the 2nd Great Debate between John McCain and Barack Obama. I made it through the first question, and then I turned off my car radio.
I can easily believe that Barack Obama is the Democrat's choice for the White House. I can understand why he is there; I can easily understand why he is popular. What I can't believe is that John McCain is the Republican's choice. I really can't. For the life of me, I do not know how it happened.
In 2000, when I first really started paying attention to politics, I recall watching the first debate between all the contending Republicans. I can only recall a few of those candidates now: Lamar Alexander, George W. Bush, John McCain, Alan Keyes. Maybe this list isn't even right. But I remember what I thought of both Bush and McCain: "You've got to be kidding me?" I considered both men terrible.
Here's my wild totally out-there prediction: Within this very hour, Democrats will celebrate an Obama debate victory while Republicans will declare that their man won. I could be wrong. I know I am new at all of this heady stuff. But I have recently received some very revealing evidence, and here it is: Democrats generally like their candidate and Republicans generally like their's. Pretty esoteric, I admit.
Tomorrow, the gloating and the fact-checking will confirm that the Democrats were right and the Republicans were right. In such a wondrous moment the verdict will be clear: everyone's right. Americans will finally be united around one common bond. Perhaps we'll hear Maureen Dowd or Ann Coulter proclaim the good news: Your candidate is always best.
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3 comments:
Bill,
I was struck by how hamstrung some of the conservative pundits were post debate on McCain's new program of mortgage buybacks/writedowns. Krauthammer was truly perplexed, Fred Barnes didn't know what to make of it. Kristol thought it a strategic blunder that a principle economic advisor to McCain, Mitt Romney didn't even know about it.
McCain was throwing red meat out to the "Undecideds" in an act of desperation. Unfortunately he may have kicked what base he had to the curb.
Interesting times ahead.
Peace,
Chris
PS
I'm now of the opinion that the Republicans are playing chess long term. They knew that Bush had literally destroyed any chance for a Republican victory, so they put up McCain as canon fodder, nothing more. Better not put up the one you really want long term because once you lose you get branded a loser. So Romney, the Republican's long term choice, had to step back so he wouldn't be tainted by a Republican loss. Unfortunately, the Bush legacy is so bad and may in fact preclude a Republican presidency for the next 25 years.
Just my thoughts.
Dear Chris,
I heard Fred Barnes say last night, "It was the worst debate in history."
You have described things accurately, I think: Sen. McCain is shooting for some sort of surge from the "middle", so to speak. In doing so, he is bouncing around from one idea to the next. As many others have said and are saying, he needs to stick to one message and repeat it ad infinitum. Enough of this constant attempt to look utterly non-partisan. Without partisanship voters are not given a clear choice. (And as one pundit noted, the allegedly new "mortgage buyback" plan is the sort of idea most Democrats would accept; since that's the case, Democrats (and left-leaning middle undecideds) don't see any reason to vote for him on this issue. They might as well go with one of their own. (And I've heard that this "mortgage buyback" plan was actually first proposed by Hillary Clinton, though I've not confirmed this.)
Clearly Barack Obama has won some not important part of the debates: he has been consistent. Maybe not deep, maybe not profound, maybe not impressively thoughtful. But he is consistent.
Peace.
BG
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