McCain Talk Pretty One Day

There is a proposition made by the McCain campaign, and considered by the Obama campaign, that a string of town-hall debates should be had across the country.  Very a la Stephen A. Douglas v. Abraham Lincoln.  This is a nice idea.  The traditional town hall give and take is a nice show to check out.  It keeps the candidates on their toes, the voters involved, and the media in full attention waiting for a faux-pas.  What strikes me as specially cute is the Douglas v. Lincoln comparison.  Lincoln, the tall, lanky, oratorical genius hailing from Illinois, against the short, stout candidate of a splintered party, who was well known for as a political tactician, the "Little Giant" of politics.  How fitting!

McCain is not Douglas in a traditional way.  Douglas had a bit more hair and had a meaner mug.  But he does share something with the racist dead man: going against a Lincoln.  I am not comparing Obama with Lincoln, although a solid case could be easily made.  The likeness is in their rhetorical wizard.  Obama can galvanize thousands in an arena with only a few sentences.  McCain has trouble uttering a few sentences correctly to a few dozen supporters waiting for the free donuts and coffee.

As this New York Times article points out, McCain is getting better.  But don't get crazy now, he is still mad at the teleprompter:

In a town meeting in Cincinnati the next day, Mr. McCain would again slip up on the name of the Massachusetts town, where, he noted, “Americans asserted their independence once before.” He called it “the Lexiggdon Project” and twice tried to fix his error before flipping the name (“Project Lexington”) in subsequent references.

 

 It can be a tricky thing, you know, reading.  Is this a character flaw? Not at all.  Bill Clinton was a poor public speaker before he became a great one.  In the 1988 Democratic National Convention, a then Governor of Arkansas Clinton gave a boring, booed-at 32 minute schpeel that almost destroyed his political career.  So, things can get better. 

What is inopportune for McCain is the circumstance.  He is not Bill Clinton in 1988, going against only himself and bored to death party faithful, but against Barack Obama, one of the greatest orators American politics has ever witnessed.  The stout, grinchy McCain is absolutely going against the tall, galvanizing Obama.  This is not a character flaw, but a political one.  This a campaign of change, no matter who takes up the slogan (both have).  If you present yourself as an inept, uninspiring, dull candidate, how does that translate to sense of dynamic change? 

Unfortunately for Sen. McCain, it doesn't.  That is unfortunately, Un-four-choo-nat-lee.

lhp