Wake me for the debates

Saturday brought us yet another rousing, back and forth war of radio ads, this time featuring the voices of both Barack Obama and John McCain themselves. Both, of course, were yet more disappointing examples of the tones of the campaigns trending downward. McCain took to the wireless with yet another tired, no-sale tirade about how Obama is a celebrity.

“Taking in my opponent’s performances is a little like watching a big summer blockbuster, and an hour in realizing that all the best scenes were in the trailer you saw last fall. In the way of running mates, Senator Obama should consider someone with a knack for brevity and directness, to balance the ticket”

He then went on to talk about the important but decreasingly divisive issue of energy policy. Obama, by contrast, spent his golden moments using Marconi’s gift to talk about those greedy Iraqis.

“We learned this week was that the Iraqi government now has a $79 billion budget surplus thanks to their windfall oil profits. And while this Iraqi money sits in American banks, American taxpayers continue to spend $10 billion a month to defend and rebuild Iraq. That’s right. America faces a huge budget deficit. Iraq has a surplus”

At least until the conventions, the majority of the juice may have already been sucked out of the fruit. I would first offer a reminder to Senator Obama: we already won that fight. You and John McCain are both going to get us out of Iraq, though it will be years after the horses have fled the barn. McCain was late to the party and did so only reluctantly, but after Maliki hogtied him, he went so far as to say that your sixteen month timeline was a “pretty good” schedule. We get it. It’s all over but the crying, of which there shall be plenty in generations to come.

And for Senator McCain, Obama has equally reluctantly admitted that domestic drilling and use of fossil fuels will have to be part of the short and medium term energy solution we need until we can move fully to alternative energy sources. The two of you are slowly spinning toward each other, like two neutron stars in a decaying orbit, heading for the ultimate consumption of one by the other. Continuing your efforts to compare the Illinois Senator to a pop star isn’t doing you any credit.

Yes, there will be differences remaining. Obama will have to take care not to propose actual tax increases (as opposed to the fake ones he’s not proposing, but being accused of by McCain) which will cripple the country while attempting to pay for all of his changes. And McCain will need to face up to the fact that he can’t, as President, magically stop Congress from spending like drunken sailors. (This would be required to make the continuation of Bush’s destructive tax cuts viable.) A compromise may be required.

But in the end, the campaigns are reading the tea leaves and approaching some viable proposals. Aside from the mostly insignificant selection of VP candidates, I somehow doubt there will be a lot of big news coming until the conventions and – far more importantly – the debates. But fear not! We’ll still find campaign minutia to consume our time here!