There were no gaffes. Both Sen. McCain and Sen. Barack Obama held their ground -- which is to say, they stuck to positions and messages they've staked out over the last 18 months.
In the end, we didn't learn anything of substance. Yawn.Foreign policy, advertised as the focus of this debate, naturally took a back seat to economic issues for the first segment. Neither candidate would commit to supporting or opposing the bailout currently being wrangled on Capitol Hill -- which was smart, considering that there's no consensus proposal.
When moderator Jim Lehrer's questions turned specifically to international affairs, Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama basically took turns lobbing chestnuts at each other -- neither broke new ground. We could've scripted the whole thing beforehand.
Sen. McCain, who showed no ill effects of three days of "shuttle diplomacy," was expected to demonstrate his advantage over Sen. Obama on foreign-policy matters and leave this debate with a decisive win, but I don't think he got it done. His approach was to cast his opponent as naive ("Sen. Obama doesn't seem to understand..."), drop the names of foreign leaders and spin yarns from a generation's service in Congress -- a thin strategy, and it showed.
Because Sen. Obama can't match Sen. McCain's tenure, recall and Rolodex, he did what he could -- articulate his grasp of the issues, convey confidence and refuse to let allegations go unchallenged. For the most part, he pulled it off, perhaps battling Sen. McCain to a draw.
The fact that Sen. McCain didn't emerge with a clear victory from a debate on foreign policy, his strong suit, should unsettle Republicans.
Both candidates were prone to mis-characterizing their opponent's record and positions, and that's to be expected in the political arena. Over the course of the campaign, however, Sen. McCain has been especially predisposed to disinformation and outright false information, even after his claims have been debunked. It's this disturbing intellectual bankruptcy that drove me from my reluctant support of McCain-Palin and into the ranks of the undecided. Sen. McCain's performance in last night's debate did nothing to restore the honor of his campaign.
A few final observations.
Jim Lehrer remains one of my favorite newsmen, and he did his best to get the candidates to address each other (rather than the moderator or the cameras). As I recall, that happened only once, when Sen. Obama's pointed challenge briefly triggered Sen. McCain's famous and very un-presidential temper. Otherwise, Mr. Lehrer let the candidates unwind themselves without interfering -- which is exactly what a moderator should do.
During the 90-minute debate I flipped among the networks. The CNN 'cast featured one of those real-time voter-reaction graphs, and at first I found the colorful scrolling lines annoying, kind of a political "laugh track." After I learned to ignore the partisans and focus on independents' reactions, I must say that they didn't bode well for Sen. McCain.
One of these guys will be the next President of the United States -- either way, that's a scary proposition. The more conservative of the two may have a better resume, but I trust neither his judgment nor his temperament, and the conduct of his campaign calls into question his integrity. The Democratic alternative may be better suited to hold the office, but I can count on him to take many of our country's policies in a dangerous direction.
In short, I don't trust Sen. McCain to do the right thing, and I'm absolutely confident that Sen. Obama will do the wrong thing. This first debate didn't change my view.
