(AP Photo)
If John McCain goes on to win this election, I believe pundits will point to tonight’s town-hall style debate as the starting point of his come-from-behind drive. McCain made from a huge jump up from the first debate in that he was more personable and human, serious when he needed to be, but he ably worked in some humor at several points. McCain also knew when to break the debate rules for a good cause, such as when he interrupted Tom Brokaw to quickly point out that Barack Obama had failed to address McCain’s earlier challenge of spelling out the financial penalties for failing to buy insurance under Obama’s health care plan.
On the other hand, Obama seemed to repeatedly break the rules simply to ramble on past the time limits, even after being indirectly admonished by Brokaw. Now, I will say Obama was more impressive tonight than I expected. He was generally comfortable in this format and eloquent. When Brokaw wouldn’t let Obama get in follow-up response during a discussion on tax policies, he effectively worked his thoughts in anyway as part of his answer to the next question about Social Security and Medicare.
But Obama spent much of the 90 minutes repeating the same phrases and attacks on McCain that Obama used in the last debate and in recent weeks on the campaign trail. McCain stood out a little more because he had several fresh things to say. He probably gave heart attacks to more than a few conservative Republicans when he opened with a commitment for the federal government to buy up every individual bad home mortgage in the country. But at least it was something different from the previous debate for viewers to chew on.
I thought McCain generally improved his performance on the economic crisis and other domestic matters. He sounded more thoughtful, instead of constantly repeating talking points. And he was darn impressive during the 20 or so minutes on foreign policy issues (Although, I would urge him to come up with new material when he talks about Russia’s Vladamir Putin).
Obama didn’t make any mistakes, so tonight’s debate might not make any difference in the election. But McCain gave undecided voters a slightly improved view than they’ve seen before, while Obama looked pretty much the same. That could make a difference if the election turns out to be close.
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