Dartblog

Like the other two “debates,” this one was awfully depressing, redeemed principally by the fact that it did not preempt “The Office.” Tom Brokaw, who pronounces his own Christian name as “Chom,” was not saved even by his delightful oral paroxysms, and appeared to be casting silently but willfully for some distant land where candidates want only to be quizzed by dashing newsmen of widely known genius. Barack Obama lied wantonly about his own opinions, trusting in the fact that no one knows or cares about thomas.loc.gov. And someone ought to have told John McCain that, as between attacking Mr. Obama for the radicalism of his associations and pantomiming an inferior version of his opponent’s class warrior act, there exists the third option of pointing out, politely but assiduously, the radicalism of Barack Obama’s policies.

On Sunday I composed an item which begged to know who is the real Barack Obama; I suppose it would have been wise to make plain that the answer has nothing at all to do with Bill Ayers, but quite a lot to do with— well, read this, from the end of the first quarter of the forum:

AUTHENTIC CITIZEN INQUISITOR: Well, Senators, through this economic crisis, most of the people that I know have had a difficult time. And through this bailout package, I was wondering what it is that’s going to actually help those people out.

MCCAIN: Well, thank you, Oliver, and that’s an excellent question, because as you just described it, bailout, when I believe that it’s rescue, because — because of the greed and excess in Washington and Wall Street, Main Street was paying a very heavy price, and we know that.

I left my campaign and suspended it to go back to Washington to make sure that there were additional protections for the taxpayer in the form of good oversight, in the form of taxpayers being the first to be paid back when our economy recovers — and it will recover — and a number of other measures.

John McCain chose route number two: miming an inferior version of his opponent’s class warrior act. He could have answered more effectively if he had said something like this:

“Well, Oliver, in just a moment Senator Obama is going to stand up and tell you that all of this has something to do with some Wall Street boss who made a hundred million dollars last year. It shows how little he thinks of you. Oliver, we aren’t talking about a million- or a billion-dollar problem; this is a trillion-dollar problem. In other words, it’s the sort of problem that only the government could create. Bad policy. My opponent’s central political philosophy—and listen for this, because he’s going to use it in response to almost every question—is that by spending your money, by using more and more tax money, the government can solve your problems.

“Senator Obama has already tested this philosophy of his. He and his friends in Congress coerced private banks into making bad loans in order to increase the home ownership numbers. He said it was to help out the underprivileged. A good cause. And it did help them, I suppose. For a couple of years. Then the bubble burst. And now it has caused the worst crisis since the Great Depression. My friends, Senator Obama’s basic philosophy is the direct cause of this crisis. He thinks he can push the economy. He doesn’t realize that that’s like pushing on a string. He doesn’t realize that you pull the economy. Oliver, I get that. You pull the economy along. And you deserve the freedom to do it. And in this election, you’ll get to chose whether to let Senator Obama’s vicious cycle continue. I hope you don’t.”

Unfortunately, an effective response would have required something approximating a complete thought, which is not allowed pursuant to Commission on Presidential Debates rules.

I do judge that John McCain ultimately had the better of these ninety minutes. I thought he was generally more affable, floating around the room pleasantly, while Barack Obama was wooden, frequently blank, and had to retreat one too many times to a familiar nugget of rhetorical refrain, of which by now viewers are beginning to tire.

Unlike John Hinderaker I perceived no death’s rattle.