WASHINGTON: Less than two weeks after their first debate on Sept. 26, America is a different, more unsettled place. And by Inauguration Day in January it may well be an even more anxious place.
The financial crisis, and the widespread sense of fear that has come with it, provided the backdrop for the 90-minute, town-hall-style question-and-answer debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.
As Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama strode across the red carpet fielding questions Tuesday night, both men projected authority that sought to reassure Americans of their futures.
The town hall format is McCain’s favorite, and one he had requested because it allows him to engage in a back and forth with voters. But the strict time constraints in Tuesday’s event prevented any sort of freewheeling debate. Ultimately, the two candidates went back and forth without any knockout punches or gaffes.
McCain appeared the most anxious of the two candidates as he stood upright, leaned against his stool, or circled in the background as Obama spoke. He was fidgety and unsmiling and made no eye contact with his adversary.
The Nashville debate, two-thirds of which focused on the economy, again proved the mess on Wall Street would continue to drive the campaign discourse in the final weeks of the presidential race.
McCain and Obama clashed repeatedly over the causes of the economic meltdown that has shaken the country and offered sharply contrasting prescription of how to restore stability.
It took just eight minutes into the presidential debate for Republican McCain to land the first blow, blaming Obama and Democrats for the collapse of mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
“They’re the ones that, with the encouragement of Sen. Obama and his cronies and his friends in Washington, that went out and made all these risky loans, gave them to people that could never afford to pay back,” McCain said.
Obama responded: “I’ve got to correct a little bit of Sen. McCain’s history, not surprisingly. ... In fact, Sen. McCain’s campaign chairman’s firm was a lobbyist on behalf of Fannie Mae, not me.”
McCain campaign manager Rick Davis has a stake in a Washington lobbying firm that received $15,000 a month from Freddie Mac until recently. Obama has, on the other hand, been a major recipient of campaign contributions from the mortgage giants.
McCain dismissively called rival Barack Obama “that one,” Obama mocked McCain’s “Straight Talk Express.” And just when it looked like the two would get bogged down in often-petty bickering, Obama deftly pre-empted more potential McCain attacks by reminding the audience, “Look, you’re not interested in hearing politicians pointing fingers.”
Tuesday’s best exchange may well have been over foreign intervention. McCain said: “My hero is a guy named Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt used to say ... talk softly, but carry a big stick. Sen. Obama likes to talk loudly. In fact, he said he wants to announce that he’s going to attack Pakistan. Remarkable. ... When you announce that you’re going to launch an attack into another country, it’s pretty obvious that you have the effect that it had in Pakistan: It turns public opinion against us.”
Obama responded: “Now, Sen. McCain suggests that somehow, you know, I’m green behind the ears and ... I’m just spouting off, and he’s somber and responsible. Sen. McCain, this is the guy who sang, ‘Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran,’ who called for the annihilation of North Korea. That I don’t think is an example of ‘speaking softly.’ This is the person who, after we had — we hadn’t even finished Afghanistan, where he said, ‘Next up, Baghdad.’”
NBC’s Tom Brokaw, who moderated the evening, had to struggle to keep the two men in line. He repeatedly had to chastise both candidates for talking beyond the two-minute limit for questions and one-minute limit for follow-ups before giving up and saying, “I’m just the hired help here.”
The candidates clashing repeatedly on Pakistan and on their overall approaches to the use of US military forces. McCain criticized Obama’s opposition to the troop surge in Iraq and his response to Russian aggression in Georgia, as he sought to sow doubts about his challenger’s capacity to handle the commander-in-chief functions.
“In his short career, he does not understand our national security challenges,” McCain said. “We don’t have time for on-the-job training.”
Obama bristled at the statement and McCain’s suggestion, as he put it, that “I don’t understand” element of foreign policy. The Democrat used his response to reframe his critique of the Iraq war as a diversion from vital US security interests. “It’s true, there are some things I don’t understand,” Obama said sarcastically. “I don’t understand how we ended up invading a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 while Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda are setting up base camps and safe havens to train terrorists to attack us. That was Sen. McCain’s judgment, and it was the wrong judgment.”
The two men then launched into an extensive joust over the worsening situation on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, where violence has flared in recent months; they sparred over Obama’s pledge to send in troops after Osama Bin Laden and into Al-Qaeda havens in Pakistan if necessary. Parts of Tuesday night’s exchange rang familiar: McCain’s extensive experience in foreign and military affairs was evident, as was Obama’s commitment to multilateral diplomacy.
