Last Night's Sorta Tedious Debate

Not that I expected to learn anything new last night, but I was hoping to learn just a little bit of newness from either McCain or Obama. I didn't. Which, I suppose, is better than learning something bad about Obama from Obama. Or McCain.

I did have a few thoughts, though, during the debate. I was a bit concerned that Obama would use the town hall setting to over-reach in the empathy department. He tends to use black church language and tones when he speaks casually to an audience, and I was afraid that if he did employ that kind of vocal music he would play into the McCain campaign's strategy of portraying him as alien. But, as soon as Obama stood up to speak, he slipped on the professorial robe and used those cadences instead. As he spoke, I couldn't help but envision his early lectures to an admiring audience of college students.

Obama once again sounded, if not Palin-esque, then uncomfortable discussing foreign policy, especially compared to McCain. I was dazzled during the previous debate when McCain rattled off the names of every country and every leader in the entire world in 5.8 seconds. And again last night, McCain's foreign policy segment sounded like he was speaking in his first language, while Obama was speaking in his second.

They went after each other from the beginning. They re-framed Tom Brokaw's questions. They tried to set the record straight. More of the same, really. I'm still not completely sure what McCain meant when he pointed a thumb at Obama and said, "You know who voted for it? You might never know. That one." Was it dehumanizing? Was it racist? It might have been, and given the nastiness that has gone on lately during Palin's speeches, it probably was. I was startled when he first said, "That one." But, thinking about it, his words reminded me a little bit of when Hillary Clinton referred to white voters and got hammered and branded a racist. Comments like McCain's don't lend themselves especially well to another interpretation, but if we're going to accuse someone of being racist we need to be sure that his words cannot be explained another way through context.

I don't think the town hall setting benefited either of them, or, if it did, it benefited them both equally. It was a mild win for Obama. But that's all we need.