The Blog @ Spolitics

McCain Finishes Strong

by Heywood U. Reedmore -- October 16, 2008 at 12:05 am | In 2008 Election | No Comments

McCain did a good job getting his shots in tonight and he was a lot more spirited than in the last debate. He started strong, pummeling Obama on taxes. He also boldly opposed ethanol subsidies and advocated for removing tariffs on ethanol from Brazil.

But McCain lost momentum when he started complaining about Rep. Lewis’s scurrilous comments about him and Sarah Palin. Victimhood doesn’t wear well on a man running his campaign on strength and experience and McCain appeared weak, almost childlike during the exchange. Luckily for him, he was able to salvage the moment when he pivoted into a defense of his supporters.

Still, despite McCain’s strong performance, I was disappointed that he didn’t hit Obama on his record as Chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Obama brought it up himself, giving McCain a solid opportunity to use Obama’s record against him.

Perhaps an even better opening, though, came when the candidates were talking about Education. In my dreams, McCain’s response went a little something like this: “We know throwing money at the problem doesn’t solve anything. Senator Obama proved that when he Chaired the Chicago Annenberg Challenge and doled out $100 million in grants to no effect. Of course, the problem there was how he chose to spend the money, opting to fund programs that rewarded his cronies and promoted a radical leftist ideology instead of basic reading and math skills. Senator Obama has already demonstrated that it’s not about the money, it’s about reform.”

I also would have liked to see McCain bombard Obama with a litany of his broken campaign promises and then ask why should we believe anything he’s promising us now. Here’s how it played out in my dreams:

“I understand Senator Obama is promising to cut taxes for certain Americans. But he also promised to take public financing and then broke that promise. He promised to oppose FISA reform and then voted for it. He promised to unilaterally renegotiate NAFTA and then dismissed his promise as “overheated rhetoric.” The problem with Senator Obama’s campaign promises is they come with expiration dates. And we can expect his current promises to expire on November 5th. That’s why it’s so important for voters to look at what we’ve actually done.”

Oh well. A blogger can dream.

Another thought: McCain mishandled the mention of Ayers. After saying he has no use for a washed-up terrorist he should have said the problem was that when Senator Obama was asked about it during the Democratic debates, he wasn’t straight with the American people. So of course, questions will persist until he gives a full and honest accounting of their relationship. Instead he punted the issue to the press by saying we needed to know more. I don’t expect the press to oblige.