OBAMA WINS THIS ROUND
By Steven Barnes
Friday, September 26, 2008.
I’ll go out on a limb here, but I think McCain just lost the election. When he asked to suspend the debates – and a I believe Fox poll had 90% of Americans believing the debates should continue – that puts him on the defensive, seriously. If Obama has any game at all, he will keep McCain on his heels until he runs those polls up until they get ugly. McCain loves the unexpected move, the game-changer.
One could take the position that he saw postponing the debates as a non-political act, but I doubt it. If so, he would have worked it out with Obama in private, rather than making a challenging public announcement–and if he doesn’t understand the difference, he’s a lousy judge of human psychology, and I don’t believe that.
Does he want to postpone the election? No? Then the American people need to get to know their prospective leaders. Hell! A tangible percentage have already cast their votes, more and more of them every day.
It feels like a desperate stall – that, and keeping Sarah Palin away from media at the very time we need to be drilling her, figuring her out, either being impressed or dismissing her as a lightweight.
My very strong sense is that they consider her of very limited use: photo ops and highly structured environments only. If that isn’t true, then why not let us see her brilliance? I smell flop sweat, and it isn’t coming from Obama.
I’m hearing conservative commentators saying that McCain isn’t behaving in a Presidential fashion, and that Obama is being the adult here. That’s not good for the Senator from Arizona.
So I add it up, and think that this is the turning point, the point where McCain shoots himself in the foot. The debate will go on tonight. If McCain doesn’t show up, it’s a one-man Town Hall, and unless Obama blows it completely , McCain loses points. If he does show up, he looks like a “Flip Flopper” . An asinine term. I think McCain has hoisted himself by his own petard.
Steven Barnes is a best-selling novelist, television writer and art critic. His latest book, Great Sky Woman, is now on sale at Amazon. He blogs as Darkush.
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