McCain lacked substance in second debate with Obama

By Cheri Cabot

The so-called town-hall forum, favored by John McCain, seemed more like a sporting event with all its rules and Tom Brokaw came off as a rather unpleasant referee.
 
That being said I don't think it was necessarily a bonus for McCain. He likes the town hall format because he feels he can engage the audience with “my friends” and jokes which are in essence just stalling tactics to avoid addressing the question at hand. What do hair transplants have to do with a question about health care? Nothing. It's an attempt at humor instead of substance.

Since the audience was not allowed to respond to his lame jokes, besides being inappropriate, they fell on deaf ears. So, in the format he wanted so badly, McCain lost his asset of audience engagement.

Barack Obama on the other hand seemed cool, confident and comfortable.
His body language spoke volumes. He sat in a relaxed pose, watching McCain directly and showed no exasperation or intimidation. As one commentator noted, “He appeared presidential.”
 
Obama also seemed much more engaged and forceful than the first debate, and he even forced a rebuttal on a few questions, although he was chastised by Brokaw for doing so.  

The most striking difference between the two candidates was substance. McCain did everything but wink and say maverick, while he repeated “my friends” as he danced around every question and rarely gave a concrete answer. He would continually attack Obama but would give no solutions to the problems he was supposed to be addressing. He was totally evasive.

It was on the very first question that McCain made a very telling statement. When asked, “What is the fastest solution to the economic situation?” Obama laid out a concise plan. In short he said, make sure the rescue plan is working under oversight, cut taxes for the middle class, help homeowners stay in their homes, create state and federal jobs to build roads and bridges, and fix the health and energy crisis. (at that point he was red-lighted and had to stop)

McCain said he had a “plan for America”. He said we must have energy independence, keep taxes low for all Americans and the “spending spree in Washington” must end.

He continued that we must have a “package of reforms and it's got to lead to reform prosperity and peace in the world.”

It's at this point he lost me. He began to sound like a contestant in a beauty pageant. But, he wasn't done reforming. He then said, “I would order the Secretary of the Treasury to buy up the bad home loans.”

Wait. Isn't that what is supposed to happen in the $700,000,000 “rescue” plan? And if he just said the “spending spree in Washington must end,” is he planning another spending spree on top of the current one just passed to bailout home mortgages?

I'm sure his conservative supporters were cringing at this suggestion, especially the ones who espouse no government involvement. He also bragged about it being his proposal, however, Bank of America has already begun such a program. Sorry, McCain, you have already been pre-empted with that idea.

There were several other rambling answers that McCain gave that just didn't compute.

While Obama stated that it would be necessary to prioritize health care, energy, Social Security and Medicare, McCain felt we could do it all at once. He didn't say how, except “I know how to do that.” …..my friends.

When you figure it out, please let us know.

Oh, he did say he would appoint a commission to work on Medicare and they “would have ideas and recommendations.”

He later contradicted his suggestion to buy out all the bad home mortgages when he said he would “recommend a spending freeze that -- except for defense, Veterans Affairs, and some other vital programs, we'll just have to have across-the-board freeze.”

So, how does he plan to pay for the bad mortgage bail out? Perhaps appoint another commission to come up with ideas and recommendations.

In the middle of his strange diatribe about health, energy and entitlement McCain said out of the blue, “My friends, some of this $700 billion ends up in the hands of terrorist organizations.”

It was the most bizarre comment. It was almost as if he suddenly remembered he needed to get the words “terrorist organization” in somewhere so he just tossed it out there. He didn't explain how that would happen or what it had to with the topic at hand.

One particualarly telling moment was when he told a young college aged African-American that "he probably didn't know about Freddie and Frannie."
The young man just asked him a question about economics! The chances are pretty good he did and does know about Freddie and Frannie, and don't be so patronizing! If McCan was trying to appear older and wiser, he just came off as old.

Another time McCain said, “Listen to my vision,” but I never heard what his vision was.

To me the difference was between an old man with old ideas talking about Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Regan who at times seem confused,  and a much younger man talking about the future with cool confidence.

I'll take the future with cool confidence.

Cheri Cabot, Politics Correspondent
Cheri's column, “Personal About Politics,”published every week, will reflect on how the life of a 59 year-old, middle class woman is affected by politics, policy and the current state of the nation - a look at the personal aspects of politics. The articles will be posted here at Lafayette Grapevine.

Cheri is a freelance writer, living in Southern California.  She has two grown children, one in Iowa and one at Columbia University, and is the proud grandmother of two. Cheri is also a purveyor of fine coffee, warm chatter and dry wit.

Tags: Obama McCain Debate