McCain-Obama III: The Legend of McCain’s Gold

The final presidential debate between senators Barack Obama and John McCain concluded with a combination of body blows by Mr McCain that connected, but failed to knock out Mr Obama.

While both sides made strong and weak arguments, It’s assumed that because neither man broke into tears and conceded the presidency, both campaigns will claim victory.

For months, Barack Obama has been the grand marshal of an extravagant parade of a presidential campaign, decorated with promises of change, new ideologies and record smashing fundraising totals. By comparison, John McCain has been chugging along in a Dodge Stratus of a campaign; simple, albeit unremarkable, calmly trying to steer his way around Obama’s sweeping rhetoric.

Mr McCain has been unable to steal the spotlight from Obama for any extended period of time, and last night, he embraced the reality that only an aggressive offensive would be the most effective way of letting the air out of Obama’s tires. He offered retorts on the claim that his policies overlap with George W. Bush’s, criticizing Obama’s predilection towards a federalized health plan, and tried to pin his opponent on specifics regarding the junior senator from Illinois’ affiliation with ACORN.

Unfortunately for McCain, once he had the debate focused on Obama’s affiliation with ACORN, he allowed his opponent to wiggle free, leading to Obama landing a solid 30 seconds to calmly address his affiliation with ACORN and his relationship with William Ayers. This injection of at least partial truth was a catastrophic backfire for McCain, whose honor and general respect for the common man has clouded his ability to be a ruthless fear monger, a tactic that worked three separate times for the Bush family.

After following this campaign season closely, I sometimes wonder if I’m the only spectator who believes that either candidate would make a far better president that George W. Bush, let alone John Kerry. But in a way, the process of running a presidential election is like Andy Dufresne escaping in the “Shawshank Redemption”. You have to climb through 300 yards of narrow sewage pipe to make it to the other side, and afterward, you and your opponent will never look or smell the same.

So unless Barack Obama falls victim to a horrifyingly high amount of closet racists, most polls point to him winning this election over McCain. So since this debate did little to change the polls, it’s assumed that the last few weeks of both campaigns will be largely ceremonial.