Barack Obama narrowly won the first presidential debate of the election by
holding his own against his veteran opponent — and John McCain may have lost
just by showing up.
The Republican nominee had insisted he would not take part unless Congress had
resolved the impasse over the proposed $700 billion bail-out of Wall Street
banks. Yet with the politicians still bickering, McCain flew to Oxford,
Mississippi, to give Obama a piece of his mind.
“I’m afraid Senator Obama doesn’t understand,” McCain said tartly, wearing a
striped tie that, disconcertingly, vibrated on screen. He never once looked
his opponent in the eye and his body language bordered on contempt.
“He doesn’t understand,” said McCain, for the umpteenth time. “I honestly
don’t believe Senator Obama has the knowledge or experience” to make a good
president.
More often than not Obama understood all too well, displaying too much of a
cool, cerebral approach to politics instead of going for a knockout blow on
his opponent. He wore an American flag pin as a mark of patriotism and said
“John is right” so often that the Republicans assembled a YouTube video of
the Illinois senator, 47, deferring to his 72-year-old rival.
Lest there be any doubt about the generation gap, Obama talked about “a Google
for government” when describing his plans for open government, while McCain
reached back in history to Alexander the Great to explain the tribal area on
the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Neither candidate seemed to have a clue about the economy, the issue uppermost
in voters’ minds. “At this very moment tonight, where do you stand on the
financial recovery plan?” asked Jim Lehrer, the debate moderator. They ummed
and ahhed, afraid of taking an unpopular position.
Would they sacrifice spending plans? Yes, Obama would in principle but, no, he
couldn’t think of any specific examples. Reform of health and education were
too important. McCain in contrast came up with a spending freeze.
His economic policies may have less effect on voters than his perceived
posturing during the past week. He seemed to be using the financial crisis
to score points off Obama, by first suggesting a bipartisan approach and
then backing Republican opponents of the deal, as well as by casting doubts
over his attendance at the debate.
Obama did his best to link McCain to the crisis, saying: “This is a final
verdict on eight years of failed economic policies promoted by George Bush,
supported by Senator McCain — a theory that basically says we can shred
regulations and consumer protections and give more and more to the most, and
somehow prosperity will trickle down.”
McCain launched a tirade against “the evils” of congressional “earmarks”,
which oblige taxpayers to fork out for politicians’ pet projects. “Look at
them. You’ll be appalled,” he said. It was a fine subject for a senator, but
not especially presidential amid a financial meltdown.
Obama and McCain had prepared intensively for the 90-minute debate. An aide to
McCain confided that his candidate had spent two hours a day for the past
three months batting answers to and fro with staff. Was it all for this?
Before the debate, each candidate had been hailed by his rival’s camp as a
virtual Cicero as part of the game of lowering expectations. In private,
McCain’s people thought their man would be a better debater. “Obama has been
famously bad at debates,” said a McCain insider. “Hillary Clinton took him
to the woodshed every time.”
Whether rattled by his U-turn on the economy or simply off his game, McCain
did not land the punches his side had hoped for, while Obama took few risks
in the hope of avoiding gaffes. Shortly after the final whistle, the first
verdict was in.
A CBS poll of uncommitted voters found 39% thought Obama won, compared with
24% for McCain. More than a third, 37%, called it a draw, but 66% thought
Obama would make the right decisions on the economy. Only 42% said the same
about McCain.
On Iraq, McCain won by 56% to 48%, reflecting divisions over the war and
lingering doubts about Obama’s readiness to be commander-in-chief.
Nearly half, 46%, said their opinion of Obama had improved; only 32% said the
same about McCain — and 21% said their view of the Republican had worsened,
compared with 8% for Obama.
Another poll, for CNN, found that 51% of the estimated 80m Americans who saw
the debate thought Obama had won, compared with 38% for McCain.
These numbers are a victory for Obama, but hardly a cause for wild
celebration. Plenty of voters remain undecided and the Democrat has had
almost as much difficulty as McCain at consistently passing the psychologically
important 50% mark in national polls.
None of the laugh lines worked. Obama got in an obscure dig at McCain’s lack
of knowledge of the prime minister of Spain, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero,
whom the Republican recently appeared to mistake for a Latin American
leader, and chided him for singing songs about bombing Iran.
McCain poked fun at Obama for speaking at a lectern with a mock presidential
seal — which appeared once on the campaign trail before being banished — by
saying: “I’m not going to set the White House visitors’ schedule before I’m
president. I don’t even have a seal yet.” He said it so quickly, though,
that his point was lost.
When McCain said he had a bracelet from the mother of a soldier who had lost
his life in Iraq, Obama said he had one too — but had to check his notes
surreptitiously to make sure he got the name right.
McCain stumbled over the pronunciation of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian
president, and called Asif Ali Zardari, the new president of Pakistan,
“Kardari”.
There were a few well-aimed zingers. Obama hit back at McCain’s charge that he
had the most liberal voting record in the Senate, saying: “Mostly that’s
just me opposing George Bush’s wrong-headed policies.”
Foreign policy — the original subject for the debate until the economy forced
its way on to the stage — was supposed to be McCain’s strongest suit and so
it proved. But Obama showed he was as knowledgeable, if not as experienced,
as his opponent.
When McCain attacked his rival for saying the troop surge in Iraq would not
work, Obama hit back. “John, you like to pretend the war started in
2007,” he said. “The war started in 2003. You said we knew where the weapons
of mass destruction were. You were wrong. You said we were going to be
greeted as liberators. You were wrong. You said there was no history of
violence between Shia and Sunni. And you were wrong.”
McCain fired on Obama for wanting to talk without preconditions to the
president of Iran. “So let me get this right,” he fumed. “We sit down with
Ahmadinejad and he says, ‘We’re going to wipe Israel off the
face of the earth,’ and we say, ‘No, you’re not’?Oh
please.”
Each side claimed with a certain plausibility that its candidate had performed
best. If McCain does not dig his campaign out of a hole soon, Obama could
win by default. But if Obama continues to inspire lukewarm confidence,
voters could swing back to the old warhorse at the last minute.
This Thursday’s debate between Sarah Palin, the young governor from Alaska,
and Joe Biden, the foreign policy old hand, promises to be much more
exciting. Could it provide the turning point that Friday’s debate lacked?
REMAINING DEBATES
Thursday
Sarah Palin v Joe Biden, vice-presidential candidates, St Louis, Missouri
October 7
McCain v Obama, questions from audience, Nashville, Tennessee
October 15
McCain v Obama, domestic and economic policy, Hempstead, New York
Winning lines: the great debates
- The first televised presidential debate was in 1960 between John F Kennedy
and Richard Nixon, above, and attracted 66m viewers. Nixon suffered from
stubble, a grey suit which blended into the furniture and a pained
expression caused by a knee injury. He was outshone, he said later, by a
“rich kid wearing make-up”
- After Nixon’s defeat, candidates refused to debate until 1976 when Gerald
Ford, the Republican president, took on the little-known peanut farmer Jimmy
Carter. Ford won the first debate, but in the second he blustered: “There is
no Soviet domination of eastern Europe”
- In 1980, Carter blundered by saying he consulted his 12-year-old daughter
Amy on nuclear policy. Then, when he tersely attacked his challenger Ronald
Reagan over health issues, Reagan just smiled and said: “There you go again”
- and won the election
- Arguably the best line in presidential debates came from Reagan, right, aka
the Great Communicator. In his second encounter with Walter Mondale in 1984
the 73-year-old neutralised his rival, 56, by saying: “I will not make age
an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political
purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience”
- In 2000, George W Bush overcame his debating limitations against Al Gore
with an unscripted moment. When asked who was his favourite philosopher, he
proclaimed: “Christ - because I have him in my heart”
Quotes from the press:
‘McCain sounded most often like a trumpet, Obama more like a violin. Who was
more effective depended on the ear of the listener’
- Politico website
‘[McCain’s] language and demeanor offered a reminder of just how much he was a
creature of the Senate’
- New York Times
‘Obama seemed sharper than in some past debates, seemingly unintimidated by
his rival’s greater number of years on the world stage’
- Wall Street Journal
‘Each rose to the challenge, forcefully scoring points on one another,
sparkling at times, but neither emerged as the obvious winner’
- Washington Post
