The Last Debate

Had I dropped down from Mars – never having heard of OBama or McCain or even George W. Bush-- I probably would have given the edge in tonight’s debate to Barack OBama. Obama spoke more fluently, he gave more specifics of what he wanted to do, and his smile didn’t look like he really wanted to bite his opponent – as McCain’s did.
I’ve been a partisan Republican since 1948, but OBama simply outtalked McCain. Unlike Kennedy in 1960, OBama didn’t seem to be bloviating. He sounded as if he had put some thought into what he was saying, and gave reasons why for each point he made.
Let’s not even go into whether OBama can actually accomplish all the wonderful and miraculous things he plans to do. As I’ve said before, Presidents propose; Congress disposes. The power of Congressional politics remains local in its orientation – that means an earmark for a crucial constituency in a given state is going to outweigh the needs of the Republic in most sane Congressional minds.
If cutting back a “wasteful” government program is going to hurt most voters in Iowa or Oregon, guess which way the delegation from either state is going to vote. If one of those Congressmen is chairman of an important committee, he’s going to have the power to influence a whole lot of other votes in the House. Ditto the Senate.
Such considerations are going to have far more impact on the next President’s domestic agenda than any campaign speech or party platform plank. Congress will work more change on his programs than any alchemist ever worked on base metal.
We haven’t even talked about the power of a lobbyist to change Congressional minds by waving campaign cash in front of their noses. But, as I said, OBama’s ideas were better articulated, and he sounded better thought out.
McCain’s basic theme seemed to be, “No more taxes”. No how, no way, by no means. Many of us remember the senior George Bush making the same pledge in 1988 – he raised taxes two years later. With an unthinkable deficit, a war to fund, an unimaginable amount of money needed to bail out our financial system, who could possibly believe such a promise?
But that’s mainly what McCain had to offer. When the moderator referred to a non-partisan study that said both the Republican and the Democratic program would add $200 billion to the budget deficit (on top of the $500 billion to a trillion currently projected—and the $700,000,000,000 bailout just voted) both candidates – both of whom promise tax cuts—just sort of stammered.
Neither had a decent answer to the moderator’s question, “What would you cut?”
Then, “Joe the Plumber” got into the act. Actually he was brought in by McCain. Joe is a guy in Ohio who accosted OBama on a campaign stop. He pointed out that if he bought the plumbing business he wants to buy, OBama’s proposed a tax on incomes over a quarter of a million would hurt him and his ability to grow the business.
McCain kept telling him, “Joe, I won’t raise your taxes.” OBama kept sniffing, “Five years ago, when you didn’t have the money to buy the business, my plan would’ve helped you.” I suspect that was small comfort to Joe. No doubt he will vote Republican in November.
But Joe kept popping up. One of the commentators after the debate suggested he was on stage for approximately two thirds of the debate. I cannot say that he really helped McCain all that much.
When they talked about education, OBama fingered parents as having at least some responsibility for underachieving students – which delighted me. But for McCain, the issue was all rewarding competent teachers and getting rid of the incompetent ones. Both liked charter schools and competition and McCain, who favors vouchers more than OBama does, called for giving parents the same choice in picking a school that he and the OBamas had.
Tonight’s debate was the best of the four. The candidates sat only a couple of feet apart at the same table like set with the moderator. It made the engage one another, which they did.
McCain’s best line was, “I am not George Bush; if you wanted to run against him, you should have run four years ago.” Nice line. But the fact that both he and President Bush are members of the same party is a weight McCain cannot rid himself of.