Leadership Vacuum

Robotic "town hall" questioners set the tone for a tedious presidential debate that Barack Obama won by default. Age and a soul-killing political marriage to George W. Bush have made John McCain a shell of his old warrior-self. His stage presence, particularly at the start of the debate, was awkward. His attacks on his opponent’s character fell flat. And his best moment on policy came when he stole an idea from his erstwhile drinking buddy Hillary Clinton, the Banquo’s Ghost of this dismal campaign.


We can forgive the audience for still exhibiting numbness from the Wall Street meltdown, but presidents are supposed to be made of sterner stuff. It’s been nearly two weeks since their last debate, and neither candidate has elevated his game. Surely Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan would have found a way by now to tie their policy prescriptions to an overarching positive theme, but last night all we heard was a nearly rote repetition of what was said in Mississippi. I have often taken a dim view of Obama’s "hope" rhetoric, but now we might actually need some of it–or at least the markets do. But caution is Obama’s watchword: The economy is tanking under Republican rule . . . John McCain is a Republican . . . Don’t take chances!


(A final note on moderators: Is there some law saying that during every debate they must raise the spectre of an entitlement apocalypse? Is it due to the temporal proximity of Halloween? Do they always have to lump Social Security in with Medicare as if they were one program? Brokaw did it twice.)