The First Debate

I have a hard time caring much about debates as such. For the most part, the candidates have both solidified their talking points to such an extent that there’s not much else to be said by the time the debates roll around. Debates exist mostly for those who haven’t paid attention, and I’ve always found that curious. How can they know whether or not the candidates are being truthful, are presenting themselves in an accurate way? If you haven’t paid attention up until now, what’s the point in tuning in at this point?

All that being said, having watched it from last night, I have to say I think Obama came off the better of the two. This is not surprising, as I think Obama would make a good president and John McCain is a crazy old man. It doesn’t make much difference to me how the two perform – I know where the two stand on the issues I care about. I have my problems with Obama in a lot of respects (he’s more hawkish than I would prefer), but there really isn’t a comparison with McCain – he’s wrong on pretty much all the issues, he is a dangerous personality, loves war and has little interest in or aptitude for domestic policy questions, which would leave his administration open to the hands of the extreme right wing of his party.

McCain’s performance reinforced a great deal of that last night. He was exacerbated where Obama was civil and calm, he was arrogant, dismissive and rude while Obama should him a great deal of deference, probably more than was warranted. If the primary question was, “Will McCain act like a crazy person?” and “Is Obama experienced enough?” both of them walked away with a strong performances. But while McCain didn’t hit anyone or randomly suspend the debate, Obama had a good night. Solid, competent and boring. After eight years of George W. Bush, I think Solid, competent and boring sounds just about right.

The real fireworks, of course, come next week. The vice presidential debates should be one of the more noteworthy presidential election events of the last twenty-five years. I doubt that Palin will do as spectacularly bad as many progressives (and conservatives) are expecting. If you’re predisposed towards seeing her in a positive light, she’ll do surprisingly well. If you’re inclined the other way, she’s going to choke. But right now the expectations for her are so exceedingly low that I wouldn’t be surprised if she did better than I would expect. As long as she doesn’t come out and burst into tears she’ll be on the winning side of expectations.