2008 in Review - The Last Debate (October)

A few brief thoughts born of wishing we could have had a real discussion of what was going to be important.  Sadly, the last debate didn't deliver any more than the previous ones.

The first two debates have followed a depressingly similar pattern - a question is asked and the candidates then quickly pivot away from the question to spout a piece of their stump speech, leaving us all tugging at our hair and shouting at the television - “answer the damn question!”  The “town hall” debate had the potential to be more entertaining, with questions from left field, but either the folks in the audience were selected for their ennui or Tom Brokaw took all the juice out of the questions himself.   In either event, the town hall was not stylistically different.

The high point of the second debate was when Barack Obama actually answered a question.  It was the ultimate softball:  prioritize health care, energy and entitlement spending.  Somehow, though, John McCain had managed to spend about two minutes “answering” the question without even repeating the three subjects.  And then Obama actually ticked off one, two, three before sprinting back to the safety of his prepared remarks.

The other too-regular feature from the first debates have been the pointless moments when each takes a swipe at the other.  In that ninety-minute span, each candidate manages to get every negative message from their whole campaign into their answers.  And the audience surveys clearly show that nobody wants to hear that.  Every time a candidate went to attack mode, we would wince slightly and think “don’t do that.”

Which brings us to the third debate.  With all the polls pointing to an Obama victory, McCain needs a clear win.  Obama can use the debate to finish the growing consensus that he can be president.  

The “winner” of the last debate is the one who reverses the depressing trend from the first two debates.  Answer the questions that are asked even if it requires a departure from your prepared text.  After all, the job requires a certain ability to adapt to conditions, and we’d actually like to see these boy think on their feet.

More importantly, the ad hominen attacks need to stop.  We know that McCain supporting going to Iraq in 2002; we know that Obama opposed the surge.  We know you don’t like each other’s tax policies.  Let’s spend ninety minutes talking about what you’re going to do.