Obamacain: Postmortem

First of all kudos to Armin, CML, and Meghan for a very enjoyable liveblog.  I didn’t read it in real time, but it holds up well after the fact.

Last nights proceedings went much as predicted by both Armin and me.  It wasn’t that McCain and Obama were overtly political because they weren’t.  The problem was that the two candidates did the very opposite.  There were moments in which each actually fawned over the other’s service record.  To anyone who has not been catatonic over the last several weeks, such a display was the most saccharine and galling part of a thoroughly unimpressive evening.

A problem that continually arose for both candidates was how to make a topic such as “service” remain fresh for a full hour.  That’s how we ended up hearing about clean energy as service, and the Russia-Georgia conflict as it relates to service.  These were significant stretches at best.

Another interesting subplot was the candidates’ respective efforts to reign themselves in–to tame the political beast inside them.  On several occasions, the candidates found themselves discussing their philosophies on a variety of political issues.  Then, rather abruptly, they would be forced to completely redirect their comments away from the political and toward the non-partisan.  This again highlighted the problem with getting head-to-head political competitors to drop their dukes, even for one evening.

I also think that it was a troubling night for Obama.  His lead has disintegrated, he doesn’t play well with white lower/middle class voters in swing states, and the electoral map is shaping up a lot like it did in the last two elections–haunting as that reality may be.  Obama’s problem throughout this campaign has been an inability to translate rhetorical flourish into a clear, detailed vision of what exactly he wants to do if elected president.  The convention speech broke that mold, and for me, it was a moderate success.  He laid out an economic plan for the nation.  What he did not do was say anything meaningful about foreign policy.  Last night, he regressed.  He went back to buzz words like “mobilize” and “inspire.”  Those sound great, but I’m not sure what they mean.  They don’t tell me how we are going to accomplish what Obama says we are going to accomplish.

Meanwhile, McCain, warts and all, came out on top last night.  Despite that ghoulish smile that undoubtedly gives kids nightmares, and despite a general inability to speak intelligently, McCain laid out a clearer approach to the role of service in America than did Obama.  If Obama loses this election, nights like tonight will serve as microcosmic reminders of what went wrong.  If only Obama could hop on the Straight Talk Express, people would realize what a colossal error it would be to turn the reigns of this country over to John McCain.  I don’t see Obama figuring that out in the next seven and a half weeks.  That’s why we’re headed for yet another dog fight in November.