Nothing But Words

Most of the things I wanted to say about the debate have already been said by James Fallows. Some points I’ll add:

• Except for the stock market, on every issue that came up relating to economics – taxes, health care, education, international trade – McCain again and again sang the praises of unobstructed free markets. In good times, the underlying message people would hear in this is “opportunity.” But with the markets in chaos and a severe recession looming, this kind of laissez faire message instead communicates “risk.” Leaving aside for the moment the pros and cons of his particular proposals, it’s the wrong message in a time of economic anxiety.
• McCain didn’t do himself any favors by letting his inner Grandpa Simpson shine again this debate. The split screen used on the major networks didn’t work in McCain’s favor:
  

  In politics it is generally not considered a good sign when voters are laughing at you, not with you. And by the end of the third and last presidential debate, the undecided voters who had gathered in Denver for Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg’s focus group were “audibly snickering” at John McCain’s grimaces, eye-bulging, and repeated references to “Joe the Plumber.”

  I watched the debate on PBS, which did not have a split screen, so I missed most of McCain’s scowls and tongue juts. This morning I saw clips online with the split screen, and it leaves a very different impression of several key exchanges.

• I’m generally not a fan of David Brooks, but he had the best observation I’ve heard so far summing up the overall tone of the debate: McCain had some good attacks, but it was like watching someone lob cannonballs into a redwood forest. Obama is amazingly unflappable. Aside from McCain’s “get government off our backs” message, there was no coherent theme tying together any of the points he tried to make. His overall approach was scattershot (Fallows has another good piece from a few weeks ago that relates to this, as it typifies McCain’s campaign in general: On strategy and tactics).
• This YouTube video – a debate between Batman and the Penguin from the old Batman TV show – pretty much sums up last night’s debate: who is Batman, really? And why do we always see him around criminals? The Penguin even says “my friends.”