McCain’s Final and “Littlest” Impression
October 15th, 2008
By DORIAN DE WIND
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I’ll be frank. I am not an expert when it comes to in-depth, nuanced, quintessential analyses of political utterances and performances by our various candidates—I gladly leave that to others.
However, I do believe that I can pick up on sometimes subtle, sometimes not-so-subtle, aspects of their performances (I call them “little impressions”) that often turn out to be big “turn-offs” to Americans.
In my “A Whole Lot of McCain-Palin ‘Little Impressions’—Not Good,” I summarized such impressions from previous debates, “little” things that in fact became big turn-offs to most Americans:
The fact that John McCain did not have the common decency to look at his campaign opponent, his fellow Senator, his fellow American not even once during the entire 90-minute, first presidential debate.
The fact that his running mate, Governor Sarah Palin, during her one and only vice-presidential debate did not miss a (heart)beat getting back to idolizing John McCain’s “maverickness,” without a single word or gesture of sympathy, after Joe Biden choked recalling the loss of his wife and child in a horrible car accident.
The fact that last night, during his second presidential debate, McCain disdainfully and condescendingly referred to his opponent as “That One” when McCain was discussing his opposition to the 2005 Bush energy legislation. McCain, gesticulating towards Senator Obama, said, “You know who voted for it? You might never know. That one.”
During that second presidential debate, there was something else, something that was not said or done, that, in my opinion, also qualified as a candidate for that list of “little impressions.”
In “Joe Biden on McCain’s ‘Bashfulness’,” I wrote:
After all the muckraking—uncomfortably close to inflammatory incitement—by his pit-bull running mate, I was amazed that McCain did not get into the gutter tonight, even though he had plenty of opportunity, regardless of the debate format.
On this “little impression,” Joe Biden, at a rally in St. Joseph, Missouri, in response to Palin’s and McCain’s renewed “guilt by association” muckraking, had the following to say:
All of the things they said about Barack Obama in the TV, on the TV, at their rallies, and now on YouTube … John McCain could not bring himself to look Barack Obama in the eye and say the same things to him. In my neighborhood, when you’ve got something to say to a guy, you look him in the eye and you say it to him.
Tonight, during the third and last presidential debate, the debate where McCain promised to “whip his you-know-what,” it was, again, one of those “little things” that did not help McCain beat his “you-know-what,” but rather diminished McCain himself.
I am talking about McCain’s pitiable facial expressions, the anger, the incessant rolling of his furtive eyes, the incessant grimacing, mugging, smirking, and his contemptuous and condescending looks, and words, for his opponent.
Even, if everything else about the debate itself were to be judged equal—which I doubt—McCain’s incredible facial gymnastics did not help him. But, we will see what the real experts will say tomorrow.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 11:15 pm and is filed under Debates, Newsweek Blogitics, Joe Biden, John McCain, Barack Obama, 2008 Elections. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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