Obama: Three for Three in Presidential Debates

While I was emceeing the opening night event of the Atlanta Queer Literary Festival (an amazing evening with Mark Doty, who found out he was a finalist for the National Book Award after he arrived in Atlanta, Kate Evans and Blair -- more on this in another post), Obama and McCain were having their third and final presidential debate at Hofstra University on Long Island.

After Kate and I came back to my place, we sat up until 1:30 a.m. watching the replay on CNN. We'd already heard from a few folks that Obama had started out flat, but about 30 minutes in, Angry Johnny started losing his cool and Obama calmly countered every point. This seemed to make McSame even hotter under the collar. On CNN, they showed the debate in split-screen and watching McShame's eye-rolling, death rattle sighs and barely contained contempt was hilarious and a game-killer for his campaign. 

McPalin's best line of the night was "I am not George Bush," which is obvious, but his voting record and policies are Dubya's twin. Johnny seemed so pleased with himself that he managed to get that line out, but it fell flat. Then McLame started in on Obama's connection to William Ayers, which Obama succinctly squashed. "John, you've made this issue about Mr. Ayers the center of your campaign, and I think people want to hear about the issues that matter," Obama said, and then dismissed Johnny's claims, hopefully once and for all. McSenile tried to start in on ACORN, but it didn't get very far and if I were on his campaign team, I'd tell him to keep his trap shut now that the video is circulating of McCain's keynote speech at an ACORN event in Miami two years ago. Doh!

Obama killed McSnore when it came to healthcare, abortion, appointments to the Supreme Court and free trade. Johnny sorta morphed into Gollum from Lord of the Rings, his eyes blinking rapidly and that shit-eating, disdainful grin on his face. And is it my imagination or is that goiter/lump on the side of his neck getting bigger? 

Here's the thing...McCain needed to win last night. A clear cut, decisive victory and it didn't happen. Every poll shows Obama beat the shit out of him again and even the talking heads said McCain looked like he was heading for victory, but then lost it in the final hour. Some of his answers were muddled and unfocused; his anger and impatience as he realized the moment was slipping away yet again was palpable. 

Oh, and I never want to hear the words "Joe the plumber" out of anyone's mouth again. Ever.