More "Horserace" Reporting From The Old Gray Lady

The New York Times tells us here today that…

Senator Barack Obama has shown himself at times to be a great orator. His debating skills, however, have been uneven.

Some of his chief strengths — his facility with words, his wry detachment, his reasoning skills, his youthful cool — have not always served him well and may pose significant vulnerabilities in the series of presidential debates that begins Friday, according to political analysts and a review of his earlier debate performances.

Mr. Obama has a tendency to overintellectualize and to lecture, befitting his training as a lawyer and law professor. He exudes disdain for the quips and sound bites that some deride as trivializing political debates but that have become a central part of scoring them. He tends to the earnest and humorless when audiences seem to crave passion and personality. He frequently rises above the mire of political combat when the battle calls for engagement.

As you can tell, much of this article by John Broder pertains to the method in which Obama presents himself typically during a debate, based on the earlier forums with former Democratic candidates. And yes, I’ve noticed moments where he could have been more forceful (as Broder notes, and also in a recent interview with Keith Olbermann, for example, where K.O. set him up with a question about the Repugs’ perpetual exploitation of 9/11 but Obama chose to pass on clobbering the opposition – probably a wise choice, IMHO; why belabor the obvious?).

But call me crazy, but I tend to focus on the content of the answers of the candidates as opposed to how clever they may sound when they’re giving those answers (the standard I go by is the Carter-Reagan presidential debate in 1980; the incumbent gave taciturn responses and presented himself sternly, though he was correct, whereas Reagan was jovial and familiar but almost completely wrong, with our media failing to call him out for it).

This, however, goes against the narrative being reinforced that Obama is somehow too airy and intellectual but John W. McBush knows how to provide pithy sound bites in his answers; again I care about the facts here.

And given that, I think it’s noteworthy that, in prior debates, McBush denigrated mayors and governors who served “for a short period of time” here, though he ended up choosing just such a governor as his running mate. He also uttered the “lipstick on a pig” reference about Hillary Clinton’s health care initiatives here also in a prior Repug debate long before Barack Obama made that comparison to which “Governor Hottie” took such offense.

Also, McBush blamed “special interests” for “hogging radio frequencies” that our first responders should be allowed to use; the fact is that they will be allowed to use those frequencies next year, as noted here. And McBush helped one of his own “special interests,” specifically Motorola, by allowing them to use those frequencies for their analog TV sets before they retooled for digital transmission, holding up that transition in the process (God, did the 109th Congress actually do something right for a change?).

And just for the record, here are 10 debate questions McBush will never be asked. Also, here is a reminder of debate perceptions between Al Gore and Dubya in 2000; though the audience tended to side with Clinton’s former veep, the observation that His Fraudulency “appeal(ed) to a level that most voters reside in” should be a cautionary lesson to anyone shortchanging an examination of facts from the candidates for the purposes of airy musings about style (with the assorted calamities we currently face, we cannot afford the luxury of sacrificing the former for the latter – I cannot tell you how much I wish to see a president again who can articulate an interesting thought in a manner that respects our intelligence).

(By the way, posting will continue to be questionable for the next few days - also, if anyone is disposed to leave a comment, I can reply once more as long as Blogger cooperates; I don't know if I mentioned that already or not.)

Update: More posts are here - just an FYI.