The Debate

I perched in front of the TV last night, bag of microwave popcorn in hand, and settled in to watch the debate.  Right away, though, I encountered a problem -- turns out John McCain's voice and speaking style irritate me every bit as much as George Bush's do.  McCain has two modes of electioneering speech:  saccharine condescension and a shrill, angry bleat.  Consequently I spent much of the evening hitting the mute button, so I missed a lot of the debate.  I know this makes me partisan and unfair to McCain, but really, the man irritates me more than I can bear.  I really should have recorded it so I could watch it when I had more stamina.  

So now I'm forced to rely on accounts of others for McCain's half of the debate.  There are lots and lots of analyses out there.   And there's YouTube -- thank goodnes for YouTube.  

Rhetorically speaking, it seems McCain did have some good moments, but detracted from his perfomrance by behaving in a rude and boorish manner.  Perhaps he thought he was enacting the role of alpha dog and would thus command respect.  If so, many in the audience didn't seem to catch on.  I can see where such a tactic would appeal to the white supremacists, but I don't know how big their voting bloc is.  I do know that many of us have unacknowledged prejudices -- perhaps it was that vein McCain was trying to tap into.

On the other hand, McCain did have a world-class awful week, what with having his little "suspend the campaign" stunt blow up in his face, so maybe he was just feeling cranky.  He must have started the debate in a really awful mood, and in the face of Obama's cool, unflappable demeanor, perhaps he just couldn't summon up the will to respond appropriately.