This shouldn't matter, but it does. This sort of thing drives narratives. McCain refers to Obama disparagingly as "that one," and the world concludes he's a dismissive jerk. I thought it was innocuous, and indeed I've used that reference myself affectionately. But the term was viewed as negative.
Then Obama went to shake McCain's hand, and McCain left him hanging:
Ooookay. This totally shouldn't matter. But when you combine this with the debate-one "won't even look at Obama" meme, it really drives the inevitable conclusion that McCain is just being a dick.
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Also, I hate hate hate the fact that our electoral process means that candidates may never give real answers to certain questions. Both were asked about social security, medicare, and the deficit. There's only two possible answers to those questions, either you will cut benefits or raise taxes. It is a fair point of debate. But if you give a real answer in the pre-election phase, you have committed a terrible gaffe and you get to be the next Walter Mondale. So they both evade, obfuscate, talk vaguely, and lie. It sucks.
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Also, this was not the sort of Town Hall that McCain does well in. It was not a friendly audience, as most of his are, there was not back and forth or conversation developing between candidates and audience, and all his jokes fell flat. Though it was supposed to be "his" format, it turned out not to be quite so much.
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More saliently, when Obama took McCain's Teddy Roosevelt riff (speak softly) and turned it back on him with McCain's own bellicose verbiage was pretty devastating.
3 comments:
I didn't read the handshake thing this way at all. They clearly shook hands right after the debate when they got in the way of Brokaw's prompter (can't they afford monitor on his desk, for god's sake?). In the clip you included, it looks like McCain comes up to Obama, puts his had on his shoulder and directs Obama into an introduction of Cindy. I think it's at least as likely that McCain just missed the proffered hand in favor of his desire to have Cindy and Barack shake hands.
And whatever. I don't mind my President being kind of a dick, it certainly won't hurt his job performance.
More saliently, when Obama took McCain's Teddy Roosevelt riff (speak softly) and turned it back on him with McCain's own bellicose verbiage was pretty devastating.
This is why I think Obama won on style. This was clearly something he prepped for, but it sounded natural. Obama definitely helped himself by keeping it steady.
Yeah, I don't know whether McCain is a dick or not. Also, like Matt, I'm fine with my President being a dick (or a bitch, cuz bitches get things done-luv! Tina Fey). But neither one of these suggeted to me that McCain was being a dick. He's on the mat, and there will be some piling on.
Ah, the perils of drunk-blogging!
My *intent* did not come across clearly here. I was reading the post-debate reactions and the "no handshake" and "that one" things were dominating discussion even on legit news sites. What I meant was this: The post-debate perception is that McCain was a dick, and it's superficial and is not a valid reason to select a president, but a narrative is coalescing which will not help McCain.
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