WASHINGTON: Presidential contender John McCain threw everything he could at Sen. Barack Obama Wednesday night. Both men had tough exchanges over taxation, abortion and the conduct of their campaigns in the liveliest and most substantive debate of the presidential contest.
McCain, who is trailing in the polls, was on the offensive for most of the 90-minute event at New York’s Hofstra University, and the Republican landed more blows in his most impressive debate performance in the last of three debates between the candidates.
With only 18 days until the presidential election, McCain took every opportunity to put Obama on the defensive and forcing him to explain himself.
Obama did not lose his cool under his opponent’s persistent criticism, deflecting time and again with measured explanations designed to take the sting out of McCain’s charges with voters who may still be deciding on where to place their vote.
Obama used the encounters to try to show that he has not only the knowledge of the issues, but also the temperament and the judgment voters are looking for in a successor to President Bush.
The GOP nominee frequently hit his paces in the debate, from tax cuts and that ubiquitous Joe-the-plumber to “I am not President Bush.”
Yesterday analysts said that what McCain suffered from most in the debates was “demeanor deficiency.”
Under the bright lights on the stage and in split-screen television coverage seen by most viewers at home, McCain looked like the quintessential exasperated older brother who couldn’t believe anyone is taking his kid brother seriously.
“The reaction shots were killing McCain,” said Democrat Paul Begala on CNN. “He looked like Grumpy McNasty again.”
Post-debate pundits largely agree that McCain started out strongly but then settled back into old patterns and repetitious rhetoric that probably did nothing to persuade those elusive and undecided voters to cast their ballots for McCain instead of Obama.
Obama brought no new tricks to the table, either, relying instead on old arguments.
But two quick polls after the debate, by CBS News and CNN, judged Obama the winner. He was also considered the winner of the first two presidential debates. Washington Post’s TV critic, Tom Shales, noted that “McCain may deserve kudos for the cheekiest trick of the campaign when he twice tried to ridicule Obama for being ‘eloquent.’ This seemed a new tactic: Cast doubt on a candidate who seems suspiciously articulate, as if misusing words, fracturing syntax and bumbling through sentences were sign of honor.”
Without mentioning GOP Sarah Palin by name, Obama referred to McCain’s “running mate” and the raucous rallies at which she has spoken, where rally rowdies have shouted out “terrorist” when Obama’s name was mentioned and even the unnerving and obscene “Kill him!”
McCain said he was “proud of the people who come to our rallies.” Obama said it was incumbent on the candidates to “disagree without being disagreeable” and to avoid characterizing each other “as bad people.”
Another of the sharpest exchanges came when, in response to Obama’s statement that McCain had repeatedly supported President Bush’s economic policies, McCain shot back: “Sen. Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.”
Obama then replied, “If I occasionally mistake your policies for George Bush’s policies, it’s because on the core economic issues that matter to the American people — on tax policy, on energy policy, on spending priorities — you have been a vigorous supporter of President Bush.”
A surprise star of the evening was Joe Wurzelbacher aka Joe the plumber, an Ohio small businessman who had asked Obama on the campaign trail this week if the Illinois senator’s tax proposal would hurt his plan to own a small business. Introduced by McCain, Joe the plumber was mentioned over 24 times in the night’s debate and became the everyman symbol of the divide between the candidates on how best to address the economy.
Wurzelbacher said he was thinking of buying his plumbing business but that he was concerned that if it made more than $250,000 a year, Obama would increase his taxes.
McCain referred to the plumber repeatedly during the debate, accusing Obama of seeking to strangle the American dream by redistributing wealth.
After McCain’s attack, Obama said: “... what I essentially said to him was, five years ago, when you were in the position to buy your business, you needed a tax cut then. And what I want to do is make sure that the plumber, the nurse, the firefighter, the teacher, the young entrepreneur who doesn’t yet have money; I want to give them a tax break now.”
So are there “millions more like Joe the plumber,” as McCain contended? According to the Small Business Administration, Obama may well have been correct when he said that “98 percent of small businesses make less than $250,000,” the figure at which he would raise taxes.
Obama and McCain immediately hit the campaign trail yesterday. McCain was holding a rally in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, while Obama was heading to New Hampshire, a Democratic-leaning state where McCain won primaries in 2000 and 2008. McCain is also visiting Maine.
