A View of the Debate--and a Prediction

I watched the debate last night from beginning to end. In a campaign sense, I didn't really see a clear winner, especially because Obama gave up a couple of chances to nail McCain on the economy. I thought Obama carried off the foreign policy questions very well and should have satisfied people who were worried about his abilities there. I imagine most people came off thinking that McCain demonstrated his experience in that area very well, although if he really spent as much time visiting foreign countries and talking to their leaders (all his very good friends) as he said he did, I'm not sure how he managed to spend any time in the US at all. 

However, the two things that bothered me most (and surprised me least) were first, when McCain almost lost it when Obama reminded him of his "muddling through" comment about Afghanistan--on the split screen you could see that he really clinched up and looked like he wanted to punch someone. This aspect of McCain's temperament really scares me. Second, McCain showed a complete absence of flexibility with respect to foreign policy. There are our friends and there are our enemies--no shades of gray. I don't think he's moved very far into this century in a lot of his thinking. His message to everyone with whom we have a disagreement seems to be "our way or the highway."

And here's my prediction: When Bush started doing poorly in the polls after the first two debates, that's when the Republican strategists really moved almost all their ads to the low road. I think (even though I really hope I'm wrong) that we are soon going to see a real change in the Republican strategy--stuff even worse than the "sex ed for kindergartners" nonsense.