Writing about last night’s debate on newsweek.com, Richard Wolffe focused on John McCain‘s physical presentation: “He paced up and down in fits and starts as he spoke. He leapt from subject to subject, sound byte to sound byte. Between answers, he sat down and scribbled page after page of notes, then jumped up and paced around silently. Early on, he seemed ill at ease in engaging with his questioners; how close should he stand? And how much should he look at them? . . . .There was no questioning the GOP nominee’s energy level; he seemed to have enough pent-up force to power a sub-station.” Barack Obama, by contrast, “moved easily about the stage, and seemed far more comfortable.” And why not?
McCain was like the angry sea pounding onto Obama’s heedless rock, and with all the same effect. America has turned the page on this election. We want a new president, we want change, we ‘ve decided Obama is the guy. Almost no one is passionately pro-McCain, and almost no one is passionately anti-Obama. Dick Morris says in the New York Post that Obama has peaked too soon, that his big lead will attract increased focus and that because some people won’t like what they see, the race will narrow, Well, you can’t discount that, but McCain is doing nothing to help himself; he is even being outshone by his running mate. At this point, if people don’t like what they see about Obama, they’re going to stay home. America mostly wants to move on. The sooner we can end the Petraeus-Paulson Regency and let a duly-elected president get to work, the “far more comfortable” we’ll all be.