McCain finds another gear
James Forsyth 12:53pm
Last night, both John McCain and Barack Obama took questions from Rick Warren, the evangelical preacher, in a televised forum. The two candidates appeared separately with Obama going first.
Obama’s performance was fine. He was, as Chuck Todd notes, a little rusty. At times his answers were rather ponderous and he was perhaps a touch too causal, it still seems odd to hear a presidential candidate using the phrase ‘screw-up’. He also, surprisingly, lacked a crisp answer to the question of why he wanted to be president.
McCain, though, turned in one of the best performances I have seen him give. His answers were clear and he hit his political message effectively in nearly every one of them. (His one flub came when he suggested that only those earning $5 million or more a year are rich.) But, perhaps, most importantly he spoke with convincing passion about domestic issues; something he does all too rarely but will have to do regularly to win.
The other gain for McCain from the night was that he showed a greater comfort with evangelicals than he has previously. He dealt with the issue of the end of his first marriage, describing it as his greatest personal moral failing, before Warren raised it and skilfully used his biography and adoption of his daughter to emphasise points of agreement.
Obama is still the favourite to win this election, he leads in the polls and has both an organisational and fundraising advantage over McCain who is running in the worst political climate for Republicans in a presidential election since 1976. But McCain’s performance last night where he comfortably exceeded expectations showed that he is going to be a formidable candidate. He presented himself as an attractive alternative to those swing voters who worry that Obama is just not yet ready for the job which is what he has to do to win.
PS There was a fascinating moment when McCain was asked who the three wisest people were he would rely on heavily in his administration. McCain named General Petraeus, John Lewis—a civil rights icon and Democratic Congressman from Georgia, and Meg Whitman the former eBay CEO. What makes the mention of Whitman so interesting is that she is frequently touted as a possible McCain VP pick.
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Craig Strachan
August 17th, 2008 3:50pm Report this commentYes, Obama is a great platform speaker. In TV interviews he comes across like a law professor - careful and dry.
The presidential debates will be more like TV interviews than platform speeches, and on last night's showing McCain must be favored to win them handily.
One caveat - the evangelical crowd at Saddleback were a much tougher crowd for Obama, especially after McCain won them over early with absolutist language on abortion.
(I can also imagine an SNL skit in the offing in which McCain begins every answer to any question with "When I was a POW in 'nam....")
I watched it in HD, by the way, which was pretty unforgiving to the candidates faces - especially Obama, oddly enough, who seemed to have on way too much makeup.
Doug
August 17th, 2008 5:01pm Report this commentI think most of your analysis is wrong. This was a McCain crowd based on religious background and denomination, expectations were very low. McCain treated it as a standard political event and rolled out his bromides to suit. In fact McCain was eminently uncomfortable talking about his personal faith. Obama was far more personal, conversational and contemplative about what his faith means to his life and subsequent politics. McCain also gave a strong pro-life statement which will cost him because many independents and moderate Republicans who support him are under the false impression that he is pro-choice. The fundraising isn't quite as you state either - Obama raises more money of his own back than McCain but the RNC has a load more money than the DNC so in reality McCain actually has access to more money than Obama does, for the moment.
Cogito Ergosum
August 17th, 2008 7:57pm Report this commentAs a diversion, The Onion recently published a superb satire of "Ol' Jelly Legs", aka Obama. I hope they will do something as entertaining about McCain.
Larry
August 18th, 2008 3:55am Report this commentI believe that Obama is too vague and far too relaxed to trust. he has a lot of politically-correct white self-loathing race-whipped liberals hanging on because they are frightened that there could be somwe more riots in the US if we don't hand over the keys to America to Obama. I think many of these white lambs wake up or not vote.
The Happy Carbon Footprint
August 18th, 2008 4:22pm Report this commentCogito Ergo Sum - I went to that piece in The Onion and it's hilarious. Thanks.
Doug
August 18th, 2008 6:06pm Report this commentAnd today we find out that McCain wasn't in the "cone of silence" that Pastor Rick Warren assured the viewers he was so as to avoid hearing the questions to Obama. For most of Obama's questioning he wasn't even in the building and had the perfect opportunity to learn the questions before his turn. So much for all this honourable, clean campaigning crap. McSame old GOP crap.
Josh Kim
August 18th, 2008 7:42pm Report this commentWow, Doug, way to be cynical.
There's an old saying that those who accuse others of lying are usually themselves dishonest and immoral scoundrels.
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