There was a revealing exchange about midway through the debate. When asked whether Americans other than our men and women in uniform should be asked to sacrifice for the country, McCain spoke almost entirely about cutting or freezing government programs. It was a strange answer from a man whose military career was characterized by years of punishing patriotic sacrifice.
Obama caught the idealism behind the query, criticizing President Bush’s call for Americans to shop after the Sept. 11 attacks. He spoke of the need for individual energy conservation; called for expansion of service programs, including the Peace Corps; and described the hunger among young people to serve their country. McCain sounded like a legislator, Obama like a president.
A few days ago, McCain, pressing his effort to paint Obama as a strange and mysterious figure, asked: "Who is the real Barack Obama?"
Last night’s debate raised a different question: Who is the real John McCain? Is he the man who used to tout himself as a problem-solver, or is he the desperate candidate who lurches from attack to attack?
The first McCain showed up last night, insisting that our "situation today cries out for bipartisanship." But is that the McCain who would govern? Is that the McCain who is authorizing all those attack ads? Is that the McCain we’ll see tomorrow, and the day after?
Who would want to be the the President now, walking into the cave of a Dragon – a beast from a former time? But, for whatever his reasons, I kind of think Barack Obama wants the job. But I’m not sure John McCain really wants to do what needs to be done right now. He may want to be elevated to Commander-in-Chief, to outrank his father and grandfather. He may want to undo his feelings about having served and suffered in the lost cause of Viet Nam – the come-home-with-honor thing. He might want to put the Keating Five behind him for good. At one point last night, I even found myself comparing John McCain to William Ayers, both unwilling to completely shake off the baggage from those dark days of our collective youth. I think there may be any number of things that John McCain might want personally out of the experience, but this isn’t a rehab program. And one cannot undo the past, only learn from it. He didn’t sound very learn-ed last night.
And "Who is the real Barack Obama?" He’s a Community Organizer. That means that he’s a person who goes into a distressed community and tries to overcome the torpor of such places by finding areas that can change, and putting things into action. Community Organizers know that you can’t ride in on a White Horse and make things different. What you can do is find pieces that can be moved upwards, and that if you get some movement in any area, you can change attitudes. The end of such a process can be like kindling in a fireplace that ignites the potential of all the separate logs into a blaze that’s self sustaining. And often, any success in one small place is the way to turn the larger disconnected group of people into something called a Community.
I agree. Despite McPalin’s scurrilous innuendos asking “who is Obama?” in order to fire up the racial hatred in their rally crowds, it’s pretty clear who Obama is. Read his autobiography and you’ll know. It’s genuine, searching, identifying.
But McCain doesn’t even know himself who he is. Is he the asshole profiled in the Rolling Stones article? Is he the war hero? The marerick? Or is he the mix of all those, who is now trying to be something else dictated by his campaign strategists?
He couldn’t bring himself to say to Obama in person, in front of national TV, all those lies and innuendos he’s been spouting at his campaign rallies. But his attitude of dislike came through loud and clear anyway, and it did not make him look like a hero or a president.