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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