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McCain & Obama Visit Saddleback

Posted by HOLLY IN CINCINNATI, Copy Editor in Politics.
Aug 16th, 2008 | Comments

Here’s a report by The Caucus Blog of the New York Times:

It was the handshake shown around the country.

At about 9 p.m. Eastern time, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain briefly crossed paths in a rare moment in the presidential campaign (the Senate floor doesn’t count, and besides, neither of them has been there much lately). They shared the stage for 36 seconds at Saddleback Church, an evangelical mega-church here, where they briefly hugged each other and smiled, belying a nastier campaign between them that has taken place long-distance and over the airwaves. (The full transcript of the debate is here.)

Tonight’s encounter, marked the unofficial opening of the general election and serve as a prequel to the fall debates as the two candidates discussed, although not simultaneously, a range of faith-related, character, leadership and humanitarian issues.

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JSpencer

"The candidate (Obama) then said that under his tax plans all American families making less than $150,000 a year are considered middle class or poor and would receive a tax break."

$149,999 a year would be considered middle class or poor??? That's ridiculous. Someone needs to reconnect with the real world.

superdestroyer

Even thought I did not watch, if you look at Democratic Party leaning blogs versus Republican leaning blogs, it appears that Senator McCain did better. When Senator Obama does something and none of the elite, white progressive blogs bother to write about it, you know the senator's performance was lacking.

Davebo

When Senator Obama does something and none of the elite, white progressive blogs

Once again SD put's on the sheets.

superdestroyer

Davebo,

How else shoud I describe someone like Matthew Yglesias. Dalton School, Harvard, and used to work for Atlantic Monthly. After reading such blogs for a while I have realized that the reason many things run by the government are screwed up is that prep school educated, Ivy leaguers who are in the top 1% in wealth and academic achievement are setting education, transportation, and zoning policies.

elrod

JSpencer,
The point of "or less" is that one making $14,000 makes less than $150,000 and is considered poor. McCain, by contrast, said that one isn't rich until you hit $5 million.

Where I live (East TN), a $150,000 per year salary is rich. But in suburban NY or Orange County, CA (where the debate was held), $150,000 per year is the high end of middle class. Think about housing costs.

ChrisWWW

I think Obama treated the event as more of a conversation. You could actually seem him thinking about most of his answers. McCain treated it more like a normal speaking event. McCain often avoided the question and went into stories we've heard him repeat 100s of times. They're good stories, and they invite applause, but I think it betrayed the spirit of the event itself.

So from a substantive point of view, I would say Obama won. But if we're going by who delighted the crowd more, McCain won.

JSpencer

Good point Elrod. I'm in the rural midwest, 150K a yr. would be considered rich by many folks here. I also believe we are a society (at the risk of generalization) which has learned to take for granted many things our parents and grandparents would have considered luxuries. That said, here's an interesting observation:

"If you do surveys, 95% of people think they are middle class," said Len Burman, director of the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan group that has analyzed the candidates' tax proposals. "This is including people who are objectively quite poor and people who are objectively quite rich."

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