Posted by
Boomer911 on Tuesday, August 19, 2008 2:17:52 AM
The debate this past Saturday night at the Saddleback Church in California, pastored by Rick Warren, best selling author of "The Purpose Driven Life" , was an eye opening experience for many on both sides of the isle. For one, it showed McCain is clearly more comfortable in an un-scripted environment and Obama is not. It is now clear why the Obama camp has kept the senator out of un-scripted situations and far away from the townhall meetings McCain has sought for the two candidates. This is a huge advantage for McCain going into the fall stretch of the campaign. Obama, who is out-spending his republican rival 2 to 1, has yet to pull away from McCain and open up any kind of substantial lead in the polls. The fall debates will be the pinnacle events of the campaign season as they will send one of the two to the White House. If your John McCain or one of his supporters, you really have to like his chances now that the American people have seen the mighty Obama stumble and fail miserably to convey and defend his views through his own words and not a script.
I am not the only one who has noticed the problem with Obama and his recent showing in the Saddleback debates. David Gergen, writing on Anderson Cooper's blog, also realized the potential trouble with the democratic star's inability to say anything of importance and depth. Pay special attention to how he describes Obama and McCain going into the Saddleback debate.
"Heading into the candidates’ appearances on Saturday night at Saddleback Church, the conventional wisdom in politics was Barack Obama should have a clear upper hand in any joint appearance with John McCain — one the young, eloquent, cool, charismatic dude who can charm birds from the trees, the other the meandering, sometimes bumbling, old fellow who can barely distinguish Sunnis from Shiias."
What Gergen fails to admit in the above quote was that the view of McCain he describes is that of the elitist left and the media who abhor anything "conservative" and not the view of the average American. In fact, I think the average American would have more respect for an American hero who has served his country proudly since he was 17 years old and was viciously tortured for doing just that. But what Gergen admits next is what I have been saying for awhile.
"But the point is that McCain showed that he can be a much more formidable and effective campaigner in a joint appearance than hardly anyone imagined. The debates this fall are going to be pivotal to the final outcome of the election, and McCain gave a clear wake-up call to the Obama team that he may be much tougher to beat than expected."
Don't you just love the forgone conclusion in the above implication that Obama will still win, it just won't be by as much as before? Let me be clear about what I see happening in the coming months of the election season. The American people will begin to see the Illinois senator for just who he is; a man of little experience and accomplishment with far left visions for America and her role in the world, who is long on ideas and words but says nothing of substance and cannot make his point unless it has been handed to him to read. John McCain will beat Obama this fall, and it will be of great delight when I sit back and light up the victory cigar and say....I told you so.