With Barack Obama finally breaking 50 percent in national public-opinion polls and John McCain sinking like a stone, the town hall face-off in Nashville last night was the Democrat’s to lose, but the feeling persisted throughout the 90 minutes (which felt more like 900) that both men understand that fixing what ails the economy is bigger than either of them.
With financial markets having a nervous breakdown, the Crew Without a Clue madly rearranging deck checks in Washington and a largely untested upstart (rudely referred to as “That One” by McCain) likely to be the next occupant of the Oval Office, we have entered seriously frightening territory.
Anyhow, Obama gets points for channeling taxpayer outrage. McCain gets points for floating a new/old plan to buy up and renegotiate mortgages, but that doesn’t jive with his recommendation that there be a spending freeze to stabilize the economy. Classic McCain: Having diametrically opposite views on the same thing.
Overall, the night has to be considered advantage Obama, but not the Obama blowout that the insta-polls indicated because unlike McCain, Obama understands the roots of the financial crisis even if he’s pretty much clueless about how to deal with it.
Oh, and the debate format sucked, although it did effectively prevent McCain from “taking the gloves off,” as had been promised, while moderator Tom Brokaw made Gwen Ifill look brilliant.