Posted by
Andrews on Wednesday, October 15, 2008 8:34:27 PM
I have already said that I think the upcoming debate is likely to be a bore, but I am hoping to be proved wrong. Not that I expect anyone to take a swing, or either candidate to break down in tears. I also seriously doubt there will be any musical numbers, though there is the remote chance someone will deliver a few minutes of free verse. But even that seems unlikely now that I write it, so I fully expect that the debate will have all the charm of reading eighteen month old Us magazine while waiting for your car at Jiffy Lube.
But I did promise Townhall I would post some of my thoughts as I watched the two contenders spar, so I am bound to report.
There is one change which promises to make the debate a bit more interesting, McCain has finally started to point out a few of the more obvious shortcomings in Obama's wall of rhetoric, mocking his promise to "spread the wealth around" and so on. Which raises the possibility that McCain may actually ask Obama something unexpected, for which there is no scripted answer. And, if McCain is smart, he won't allow the Windy City Messiah wriggle off point and drift into campaign boilerplate. If McCain really wants this election, he will keep probing, hitting unexpected topics, looking for that sudden flash of terror that means Obama is not prepared, and he will then hammer that until Obama is reduced to his usual response when caught unprepared, sputtering, mumbling, spouting a bit of nonsense, and then turning surly.
If he can do that, McCain stands a chance of not only "winning" the debate, but keeping me awake until the end.
His only other hope McCain has to keep me awake through the whole thing is for him to take a swing at Obama, and I just don't see that happening.