No Debating it – McCain Lost
Last night, John McCain needed the equivalent of a Hail Mary touchdown toss to get back into the presidential race. He did well – but on the key play, there were no open receivers downfield.
McCain was supposed to be at home in the “town hall” style forum, yet last night he looked more like a troubled soul, almost pleading for the presidency as he asked Americans to “let me serve” one last time. Fortunately for the electorate, the presidency isn’t a volunteer organization – charity begins at home, not the White House.
As McCain wandered around stage, squinting in the overly bright lights and tossing up his odd, awkward “two hand salute”, one wonders why he ran. Having ordered his running mate, Sarah Pal
in, to attack Obama’s character, McCain missed several chances to level the same or similar charges (namely, that Obama can’t be trusted because he “pals around” with terrorists). Taking the high road (while millions of Americans watching CNN repeat McCain talking about conducting an ethical campaign and saying those who sling mud “are bereft of ideas”), McCain demurred, skipping the ethics talk entirely while trying to focus on his own economic record. So one has to ask – who is running McCain’s strategy – McCain, or his advisors? Apparently, cognitive dissonance runs rampant in the strategy room, and it’s clear from McCain’s performance that he either doesn’t believe in the strategy, thinks the strategy is immoral or unethical, or can’t stomach taking the fight to Obama himself (as if he can appear above the fray on such an incendiary set of talking points). Either way, he’s in a box now – not “man enough” to bring it up during the debate, leaving it to Sarah Palin to handle, or he really doesn’t believe in the strategy. I’d like to believe it’s the latter.
Obama didn’t have to do much but be himself, and in that effort he succeeded. McCain however needed to be twice the man and three times the politician he is, and did not succeed. In debate (and possibly, election) terms, not winning equates to losing. McCain’s road to the White House just got steeper.
