Well, in enough ways, I’m pleased. Moreseo than the first Presidential debate, in which I thought for sure that McCain had won “on points” and delighted to find, in the coming days, that the public apparently didn’t see it that way, but “scored” Obama higher and pronounced him “the winner.” Tonight, I couldn’t help feeling that Biden “hit it out of the park” and that nothing essentially changed the trajectory of the race at this point.

I have no doubt that Palin’s supporters will be thrilled with her.  To say she exceeded expectations would be a gross understatement.  Anything above spontaneous combustion or fleeing from the stage in tears would have to be considered a personal victory for the Governor, after the debacle of her recent network news interviews.  Tonight she got into the same “suit” she wore at the Republican Convention, marched onto that stage, and gosh darnit, wowed her fans, I am sure, with her spunky, feisty, folksy, “Joe Sixpack”, “hockey mom” fresh style.  She seemed to be marching, manic even, constantly jabbing and punching Biden and Obama wherever and however she could, even if her answers had nothing to do with the questions and even if, at times, they sounded nonsensical, confusing, circuitous and puzzling.  I was struck by  a couple of things watching and listening to her:  1) she is an extremely attractive woman with an ingratiating smile and manner, and I thought of the study-proven results of “good looking” people doing better in school, getting higher pay at their jobs, reaching higher on the career ladder, and so on; and 2) there seemed to be a clear, strong, focused automotonic quality, serving up talking points and memorized sound bites that would be sure to please, and would tick off the “must have” items on the base’s checklist.  Broad, theatrical, in-your-face and animated in a controlled-like-frenetic manner, she attracted and repulsed at the same time–you had to watch as you wanted to pull away.  I thought of politics as performance, hardly a new thought, but it saddened me to see the depths to which the two have crossed intertwining paths, as the “state” of our politics has seemingly slid downhill so far.  I was just a child when Kennedy debated Nixon and the “theater” of televised presentation clear then.  It just saddens me to see the degree to which style and rhythym and coded language and talking points and sound bites have superceded the importance of fact and reality and honest, transparent discussion of the nuts and bolts of the issues we must look at.

Biden, I thought, was wonderful, and so often did tonight what Obama did so rarely last week.  I think of his “best moments” in the debate and how his style often reflected the words:  when he talked of facts mattering, and cited time and again McCain’s record (and when did citing the record stop being important?); how he called McCain on the bullshit notion of his being a “maverick” and said, c’mon, on anything important or substantive, there’s no maverick there; on the wasteland and failure of Bush and the last eight years, and how McCain has not shown or presented any real plan or idea or framework as to what or how he would be different; on the forgotten middle-class, and how Bush and McCain have catered to the rich and the corporate and it’s time to take back the reins; on the authenticity of his concern for “real people” and the “middle class”; a thoughtful guy, a thinking guy, someone with a command of the facts and issues.  Juxtapose that with Palin’s theatrical mask, a smoke-and-mirrors pony show; and to me, there wasn’t any contest.

And yes, yes, yes, people have been saying it for years, but it wasn’t really a debate, was it? Strangely structured intervals of fragmented questions from Gwen Ifill without any real follow-up and no admonishment to answer the questions, no interface between the candidates, just two people behind podiums–that might as well have been split-screen TV with the two in different countries–having so many minutes to try to say something meaningful, or to offer sound bites to manufacture sound into scintillating tidbits for the consumption of their audiences.  More theater than honest discussion, so, as has come to be, another Rorschach test for the viewer.  They both “won” but where does that leave us?

I truly don’t understand, particularly after the last eight years, particularly with the economy seemingly falling into the abyss, how anyone could consider voting for McCain, but then I’ve had similar thoughts the last two election cycles.

Zach Newman is a writer and political junkie. His “day job”, though, is as an experienced, reliable and trusted Realtor in the Portland area. He is a longtime member of PABA - Portland’s GLBT Chamber of Commerce. Call Zach at 503.287.8989 or visit his website at: http://www.equitygroup.com/zach.

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