Posted by
Bob Siegel on Friday, October 17, 2008 2:08:52 PM
I keep hearing from many, that Obama won the debate. Even those who feel
McCain did better than usual, are only willing to call it a draw. Excuse me,
but...Um...How shall I put this? Say, McFly...Were we actually watching
the SAME DEBATE? Never mind who looked older. Never mind who smiled
more. Never mind who came across as calm. Never mind who "looked
presidential." Never mind who sounded diplomatic. If even one of those
traits concerns you, then you would not have been a big fan of Winston
Churchill. He was known for many things but smoothness and diplomacy
were not on the list.
I defy anybody to look at the written transcript of Wednesday's debate, and show me
even one time where Obama had the upper hand. Name one point in which
McCain asked Obama a challenging question and Obama gave an even remotely, adequate
answer, instead of dancing in circles, hoping people would be too stupid to notice. Dodging the questions in a clever way may look impressive when we
see a person's calm countenance, but it comes up rather short on the written
page.
McCain (almost) did everything he needed to do. He had
Obama on the defensive, from Bill Ayers, to ACORN, to his best line of
the evening and indeed, the best line in the campaign so far: "I am not
George Bush. If you wanted to run against George Bush, you should have
run four years ago."
Why was this such a terrific moment? Because it destroyed Obama's only
message. He lies through his teeth when he compares McCain to Bush.
Indeed, he knows only too well that McCain was almost refused the
nomination for not being conservative enough. He also knows that countless
Conservatives were originally planning to abandon McCain on Election Day, and that
McCain picked Palin as a running mate to shore up the conservative
base, so that he himself could then go after the independents. Obama
also knows how popular McCain has been with independents. Finally, he
knows how many major bills McCain pushed through Congress against the wishes of George
Bush. And so, Obama's biggest lie was taken off the table.
But if a Bush comparison was the lie most frequently repeated, it was not
the most dangerous lie. I refer now to that shallow defense about Bill Ayers.
We know, Obama, we know. You were only six years old when Ayers bombed
the Pentagon and the Capital Building. We've become abundantly familiar with that deflective talking point. We know your campaign advisers wrote you that one-liner because frankly, it's the only one they could come up with. McCain
asked you to explain your history with Ayers as an adult, as a
candidate. You dodged the question with another tired refrain about how
the American people only want to hear about the issues. Honestly, that slogan is so old, it can be dated with Carbon 14. Obama, try to understand: Terrorist ties, ARE the issues! If you were really concerned about "the American
people" you would realize that "the American people" are entitled to an
explanation from a would be president who worked with a terrorist as an
adult, not as a six year old kid, but as an adult. In the interest of
objectivity, I'll admit that McCain should have gone even farther on this subject. How's this for a question? "What
were you doing raising funds for Ayers' agenda driven, revolutionary
training, college seminars? Were you concerned that this man was not really an ex-terrorist, but rather an openly unrepentant terrorist who brags
about what he did and displays regret only for not accomplishing more?" "If you were aware, does it not say something about your moral compass? If you were not aware, does it not say something about your judgment?"
Here's another one, a question everybody should ask. Honestly, it's the big elephant
in the room that nobody will point to. "Why did Bill Ayers help kick off
Obama's campaign in his own home? Exactly what did an unrepentant
terrorist, who hates his own country, find appealing about Obama? Isn't
that a fair question? Don't "the American people" have a right to know?"
So yes, McCain could have done more, but at least he finally confronted Obama
about Ayers and other shady figures from the past. The response from
many pollsters is that McCain was too negative in these attacks. Let me tell you something: That may be a sad commentary on the Politically Correct state of our country but
it is not an indictment of John McCain. Let's follow the logic: People
are more concerned that McCain confronted Obama's association with a
terrorist, than they are concerned with the association itself. What
some call "negative campaigning," I call concern over evil. But that, too,
is behind the times. We have raised a generation less concerned about
evil and more concerned about those who point out evil. In theory, evil does not
exist. Morality is relative. Associations of the past are to be
overlooked, unless, of course, we are talking about McCain's association
with that "evil liar, George Bush." Oh wait! I almost forgot! The
Left also sees evil at a Sarah Palin rally where supposedly somebody
shouted "Off with his head!" (referring to Obama) and Palin did not stop
to rebuke the man. First of all, this incident has been disproved by the secret service men who attended the event. Second of all, McCain has, on many occasions, rebuked those
who said unfair things about Obama, (something he also reminded Obmama
of in the debate). But let's cut some slack. Let's assume, just for the sake of argument that this
actually happened at the Palin pep talk. At a rally with thousands of people, who can control every
random comment from an audience member?
Are you catching the irony here? Are you following the "utter
brilliance" coming from the Left? Sarah Palin is a responsible for a
random comment shouted from a man she had never met before. But Barack
Obama is not responsible for working closely with an unrepentant
terrorist.
Some say neither McCain nor Obama won the debate, that instead, a man
dubbed, "Joe the Plumber" is the true winner. They are mistaken. McCain
is the winner because he was the one who brought up Joe the Plumber, referring to a conversation Obama hoped people had forgotten.
This strategy was an act of genius on McCain's part and it worked beautifully. By
pointing to a question asked of Obama by "one of the middle class" and
by "one of the American people," McCain shifted the premise of the debate
and rewrote the national dialogue for the remaining two weeks. He also accomplished something he has been unable to do before: He found a
sound bite! Please understand: Personally, I hate sound bites. I'd
rather see people follow the context of issues but a wise man knows the age he lives in. Today's generation was first raised on Sesame Street, a TV show based
on the assumption that children have short attention spans. Actually, the assumption is false. I'll prove it to you: How often were your children bored while watching
Mary Poppins on DVD? Mary Poppins is two hours and thirty minutes long,
yet kids sit mesmerized in front of the television set. Why? Because younglings lose
interest when they are bored, not when the story is too long. And even though this Disney classic was produced before the age of shorter kid's movies, today's children do see the film and do love the film, throwing attention span theories to the wind.
In any event, Sesame Street assumed that children have a short
attention span. For that reason, they made sure every segment was
brief, not longer than a minute or two, often less than a minute. As a
result, it became a self fulfilled prophecy. Children developed a short attention span and this
characteristic was further nurtured when, as teenagers, their supervision was taken over by a new nanny, MTV with music video that flashed multiple images per
second throughout only one two minute song! As Mary Poppins proves, an attention span can be challenged, but a person's initial reaction will reflect the way he or she was brought up.
All this, just to say, that Obama has done quite well with sound bites and
McCain (unfortunately) needed one too. He found it: Joe the Plumber, a
man who confronted Obama, not only on the campaign trail, but also on
the air where people can watch it on You Tube as often as they like. Joe is middle class. Obama keeps claiming that the middle
class will not only be spared a tax hike, they will also get a tax
cut! What he keeps hoping you will forget, and what Good Ol' Joe
reminded him of, is that businesses get taxed too. If one makes more than
250 thousand a year as an individual, that does seem to be a tad bit on the
wealthy side. But 250 thousand brought in from a business is quite another matter. Businesses use their income to pay employees. If a business is taxed too much, it must cut employees.
If it doesn't cut employees, it raises its rates on the consumer. It makes up that tax
burden one way or the other. Either that, or it goes out of business altogether.
Now, Joe didn't bring all this up. He didn't need to. McCain seized the
moment and supplied the missing details. The best two commercials
McCain could now produce, are the following:
1) Joe confronting Obama
2) A snippet
from Fred Thompson's ability to explain the economy in a way that a
Third Grader can understand.
"They won't tax you, only businesses. So unless you buy something from
a business or are employed by a business, you don't need to worry. They
won't take water out of your side of the bucket, only the other side of
the bucket."
The economy is a mess right now. That's the understatement of the century.
But one good thing is coming out of all this. People are finally
starting to understand how our economy works and this helps them grasp the difference between Republican and Democratic financial philosophy. Panic can be a fast
educator. Thanks, McCain, for figuring out (finally) how to channel this
concern and explain that business is not the enemy of those who
struggle, but rather the friend and booster shot for a feeble
economy. Higher taxes, on the other hand, are the wrong booster shot,
the one that injects a lethal disease into our bloodstream.
In summary: I do not care what the coveted polls said the day after the
election. In the long term, McCain will go down in history for having
rewritten the dialogue at the eleventh hour. And this "over the hill,
out of touch senator" did it with just three magic words: Joe the
Plumber! Now, America has a real choice once again; a candidate who
relates to racist pastors and unrepentant terrorists, or a candidate who
relates to Joe the Plumber! Obama tried to make the middle class his
own. McCain stole the subject away from him, just as he stole the word
change when Palin was elected. Say what you want about McCain, the man
has his head set squarely on his shoulders. Those who would like to see
a head removed from its shoulder, terrorist organizations, like, Hamas,
are publicly rooting for Obama to win. But that takes us back to
foreign policy where McCain was already the stronger candidate. Now, McCain owns
domestic policy as well.
This is Bob Siegel, making the obvious, obvious.
Also by Bob Siegel:
Why Do We Keep Courting These Independents?