Obama vs. McCain: the Second Head-to-Head

McCain is confused and without ideas; Obama is safe, but no surprises

The debate between Obama and McCain was broadcasted live in many venues

JOHN MCCAIN 5

He plays at home in his preferred format of “meet with the people”, in which he must therefore do better, to meet the expectations that were raised when he chose his running mate, Sarah Palin. On Sunday, he looked in vain for the blow that would level the field and announce his recovery, but he did not get his chance. His indistinct, stammering at times, program of politics and government can be summarized in four words: “Don’t vote for Obama”. Sorry. I implore you. His is an apple of predictable actions, not that the attacks he launches change what his restless fans are asking for.

The obvious hatred that he nurtures for Obama, expressed with the short-tempered appearance of an old man who cannot believe that an impertinent young man who dares deprive him of his presumed throne and to whom he referred as “him there”, will rob him of the ability to hit his target. He has nothing to say, apart from senseless promises of buying back the homes of those who cannot afford to pay for their loans (at the cost of 300 billion dollars to the taxpayers who instead can pay ) and when he asks people not to vote for the other, he stresses that the other is evil.

The stopwatch, in this calendar event, did not tick on his side and every day that we approach the final whistle of November 4th is one day fewer to convince America not to vote for Obama. The remaining 28 days are to bombard the opponent with negative spots and a debate, and on the 17th, to frighten the voters, since it is now obvious that McCain cannot win with a positive vote for himself and for his running mate. He deserves a 5 only for the awful hit on the “hair transplant that perhaps I will not have the time to do myself” – as if we had needed to remind ourselves that he was born when Franklyn Delano Roosevelt was president and Benito Mussolini governed Italy. His problem is that he does not look like a president.

BARACK OBAMA 6

He does better because he does not do worse. It is the usual Obama version 2.0 that we know from the thinly victorious campaign against the tiger Hillary, the reprogrammed and “upgraded” candidate who took off the boots of the prophet to put on the toga of the possible emperor. His campaign decided that he could win by simply reassuring the undecided voters who are worried about his inexperience (to be read: Because of the Color of His Skin) by reminding them about the need for change that an old 72 year old and his running mate fished up from the competition for Miss Cotonella, cannot seriously fulfill.

The violent wind of recession that is now sweeping America and promises gloomy economic news in the weeks that remain before November 4th, is pushing Obama toward a victory that only he himself can lose. Judging by his ability to avoid blows, to fight his opponent with equal power, to resist without apparent damage even in front of the insolence of the irritable old man and pre-rehearsed wisecracks of Palin, it will be difficult for him to lose ground. In the surveys immediately after the debate, he is 20 percent (58 to 38) in front of McCain on the issue of the financial and economic catastrophe over which the finale will be played. Everything else – the skeletons of the past that every politician has in the wardrobe, the errors, Iraq, Osama Bin Laden or Georgia, even after they both lied about the taxes conjured to stop the fire devastating Wall Street, taxes that would relentlessly increase the public’s loss – matters as much as candles in a tornado.

It remains only a matter of skin color between Obama and the White House – and at this, through metaphors, allusions, symbolism and winks of the eye – his opponents are compelled to aim. However, with every day that passes, “him there” seems ever more like a president.

TOM BROKAW 5-

Imprisoned by a prepackaged format and cemented in tears of boredom, the old man, grand alumna of NBC, cannot break his chains. In trying to appear objective in the eyes of the dogs who charge from the right accusing the big media of being Obama’s choirboys, (forgetting that until some months ago, McCain was adored and actually protected from the big traditional media, many of whom were friends of Brokaw, before transforming himself into the sour old man that today we see at work,) he actually ends up as the laughing stock of the debate. This television “format”, 48 years after the mythical Nixon-Kennedy debate was being aired, today disappoints the enormous expectations that it has created.