Thoughts about the debate

No wonder McCain wanted to bail, watching him was like watching my grandfather kvetch. No strike that. My grandfathers were essentially nice guys—McCain is so essentially not a nice guy. This fellow, McCain, who has the world by the ass, is just another angry old white-guy. The only thing missing is the white beard to hide the fat jowls and driving the beat-to-hell, faded, butterscotch-yellow, Datsun pick-up truck with a Bush/Cheney sticker. He has thirteen cars, none of which, I’ll just bet, is a faded, etc., etc.

McCain was dismissive, insulting and contemptuous of Obama and never looked his way when making snide and snarky comments about him. Even conservative commentators noted his rudeness. This may account for the fact that the internals of the debate polls indicate that women, by a significant majority, found Obama favorable and McCain unfavorable. Many more people asserted they had a more favorable impression of Obama from the debate than they had for McCain. Who wants a glowering, hunched-up, angry old white guy preaching at them—most have had enough of that when asking dad for the car keys!

Why in the world would he keep invoking the specters of Reagan and Nixon? That might play well with the angry old white-guys in their compact pick-ups, but most of us see Nixon as a perfidious bastard who escaped impeachment by resignation, and Reagan as the primary architect of the deregulation resulting in our higher monthly electric bills and substantially contributing to the current economic catastrophe. Why raise those ugly reference points in people’s minds? Good grief?

This was supposed to be McCain’s strong suit; foreign policy and national security, however it was Obama who had the facts and outlined a program for the future while McCain self-indulgently basked in Vietnam era and Cold War hot-button talking points. One wanted to shout, “John there are several generations of voting-age adults out there watching this for whom Vietnam and the Cold War are vague memories of high-school mid-term essay assignments. There are some really dangerous things going on in the here and now!”

Actually, Obama did tell him that when he mentioned a nuke in a suitcase!

Last night, I was a little disappointed that Obama did not take the opportunity to “dope-slap” McCain on his misrepresentations and lies. And, I felt he was a bit generous in acknowledging there were points of agreement between them. My personal preference is to go for the jugular and have blood spraying the walls.

But after a good night’s sleep, some reflection, and a quick review of the polls, I’ve changed my mind—and so have others. Obama came across as a decent, respectful, caring and knowledgeable man and most women do not really care for personal attack and contentious argument. If, as most pundits say, white women are the key to this election, then Obama’s presidential bearing compared to just another angry, old white guy carried the night!