Heilemann: Obama Nails the Debate Trifecta

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/10/heilemann_obama_nails_the_deba.html

Heilemann: Obama Nails the Debate Trifecta
10/16/08


Photo: Getty Images


Maybe the most annoying aspect of the coverage of presidential debates is the ceaseless, relentless application of sports metaphors to the proceedings. You’ve got your Hail Mary passes, your slam dunks, your knockout punches, your thrust and parry. But last night, as John McCain and Barack Obama concluded their third and final forensic engagement at around the same moment that the Philadelphia Phillies were putting away the L.A. Dodgers to advance to the World Series, I found it impossible, when asked my opinion of McCain’s performance, to resist a piece of baseball lingo: three strikes and you’re out.

Republican partisans will no doubt howl in protest at this judgment. They insist that last night was McCain’s best performance, that he was aggressive and on offense, that he scored solid hits on Obama (on taxes, in particular), that despite the hokeyness of the Joe-the-plumber trope, it was the kind of rhetorical gambit that would translate into a raft of second-day stories favorable to McCain. They further argue that Obama seemed flat and hypercautious, that he failed to drive a consistent message, that he appeared to be sitting on his lead, attempting to stall out the clock.

And all of that is true, as far it goes — which isn’t very far. For, once again, by every available objective measure, Obama thumped McCain. The post-debate insta-polls could hardly have been any clearer on the matter. The CBS survey of undecided voters found Obama coming out on top by a margin of 53–22; CNN’s effort put the spread at 58–31.

snip//

It’s interesting to contemplate whether Obama would have fared as well against a different kind of opponent: a younger, sunnier, highly composed, pretty-boy egghead — Mitt Romney, say. Maybe someone like that would have made it harder for Obama to stay in his zone and set up such a clear contrast of image and temperament. Instead, in McCain, he was blessed with his perfect foil. He walks away from the debates having nailed the trifecta — and quite possibly, the election.