What Don't You Know?: McCain's Lost Debate Opportunity

I was a bit disappointed last night in the Presidential debate. The debate was the worst town hall format style I think ever. I was expecting the style like the one held here in Richmond some years back during if I recall correctly Bush/Clinton. Maybe it was the questions chosen, but it felt like it was simply talking point central with a few new twists, but mostly a rendition of the same old lines.

The opportunity that was lost came at the end of the debate.

A question was posed via the internet about pointing to one thing "You Don't Know" and given Sen. McCain would have the closing remarks of the night he failed to capitalize on the platitudes and rhetoric of Barack Obama by simply stating:

And these would be my words for McCain:

"What I do know is the American people will elect one of us to the Presidency, but what I do not know is exactly which Senator Barack Obama would go to Washington if he were elected.
What I do not know today is exactly who is Senator Barack Obama. There are still many many questions. My fellow Americans, you know me and I have been a servant of this nation my entire adult life and in me our nation knows exactly who and what they will be getting in a leader.
We have heard alot in the last few weeks about the plans Barack Obama would implement as President, but none of these plans coincide with the record of Obama. Baracks has time and time again gone back on his word my fellow Amercians, whether campaign finance or toen hall meetings. He has attempted to wipe away his entire Primary campaign from the record as if his pledges during the Primary no longer matter. His own fellow Democrats have questioned his ability to lead and his grasp of national security issues and now once again before the American people he projects himself as something he truly is not.
My fellow Americans, here stands a man who as continually put politics before country and only rejects those individuals within his past that can be associated with ideology not aligned with mainstream America or Main Street only when politically forced to do so. Now, tonight here at Belmont University Senator Obama would like you to believe he is for offshore drilling and for nuclear energy when he spent nineteen months aligning himself with the liberal environmental wing of his Party to earn huis Parties nomination stressing he did not support these principles nor did he support clean coal technology. Look at the records folks. There is nothing in the record of Barack Obama that provides any level of confidence that he will deliver on what he promises. He promises a middle class tax cut and yet in the end has never supported a tax cut in the U.S. Senate.
What I do know is Washington is broken. What I do know is we need reform and we need change. What Americans must endeavor to know is who they can feel confident in leading our great nation back on course and who will keep his word. Americans are looking for someone to reignite the bond of trust in Washington and we just do not know which Barack Obama will be going to Washington. Thank you and God Bless America."

And folks thats all I would have said.

Response to just a move would have been left solely to the pundits as Barack Obama would not have been afforded the opportunity to respond in the debate. This would have been the last thing for voters to take away and in my opinion would have been a gamechanger.

Instead we were left with little to take away from either candidate, except the same talking points.

I still think McCain, as in the first debate, lost on style and fluidity but won on substance backed by a record to point to. Obama chose not to respond to challenges, either out of tactic or frankly because he has no response to the facts that he has not reached across the aisle and has never worked with Republicans on any matter of controversy.

I think McCain lost an opportunity to plant the seed in voters that would get undecideds to truly ask themselves:

"Just who is this Barack Obama?"

Such a conclusion to the debate that I illustrate above would have allowed the McCain campaign to open the door to tie Obama to his associations, his Primary pledges and statements, the Clinton and Biden Primary opinions of Obama, and ultimately character and judgement.

You cannot simply cram Bill Ayers and Wright done the throat of America without setting the stage for such matters and McCain lost the opportunity not to bring those issues up in the debate but provide a door in which undecideds will walk themselves through in the journey of learning just who Senator Obama truly is.

Frankly, I would have liked the media to behave a bit more objectively and do not understand why it is all that Primary debate footage has somehow managed to either get lost or forgotten in terms of a point of reference. But then it appears as though they do not want us asking ourselves just who Obama really is.

There is hours of fottage of Barack Obama taking positions in the Primary that are simply just completely different than where he stands today. Is this not a matter for the media? Is this not something that should be addressed? If not the media then by who? What was the point of the drawn out Primary season if the eventual nominee is allowed to openly change virtually half of his positions on issues?

There is some serious objectivity issues when the media allows Obama to say he did not state that he would meet with Iran without preconditions. Why when this comes up do they not "go to the tape" as they say.

In my view the media has gotten exactly what thye wanted. They got (handed) Barack Obama the nomination and then worked to undermine Mitt Romney, who would have been better suited to address this financial crisis/economic downturn than either McCain or Obama, by constantly playing the Morman crad against whereever he went. Fact is, the media help deliver these two men to the nominations and we bought it hook, line and sinker. They (the media)talk of freedoms in this country, but at every turn have sought to bring in religion and social values as a divisive tactic, they brought the race card in in the Clinton/Obama fight and allowed a previous President to be smeared without rebuke.

Folks, it looks as if the media will play up Barack Obama as they have for two years now and will not hold him accountable with his own Primary statements or his record and it certainly may be left to others to do so before election day.

I know that something within our nation has been lost in all of this over the last year or so. Whether it be trust or respect I leave to each person to decide.

But unlike my liberal friends, regardless of the vote on November 4, 2008 we will have a new President and regardless of whom that President WILL BE MY President. I am an American first and believe that the Office of the Presidency deserves each and every Americans respect regardless of Party. We should be holding the office up not tearing it down. What are we teaching our children by not doing so if not simply to reject authority or reject the majority or reject our system.This is certainly something the left has forgotten in the last eight years.

You Salute the Rank not the Man.

Semper Fi.