How is McCain going to keep from looking at Obama tonight?

[Erin Elizabeth]

In a town hall format?

From the Washington Post http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/07/a_debate_about_mccain.html

What are his options? Even his running mate, offering encouragement from her perch, says it's time to take off the gloves and go after Obama. Through advertising and in campaign trail rhetoric, that's the direction McCain has charted. But the other piece of wisdom that must be rolling around in McCain's head is the warning that town hall audiences don't like confrontation, attacks or anything particularly nasty.

So calibrating his performance Tuesday becomes especially difficult. In the first debate, McCain wouldn't even look at his younger rival. That's not really possible when the two will be less tethered to specific spots on the stage at Belmont. Can he be engaging and still engage?

**************

The other challenge for McCain is finding ways to raise the questions he wants to raise about Obama during a debate in which the all-enveloping economic crisis demands serious attention and discussion by the candidates. Obama mocked McCain's campaign advisers on Monday for suggesting they wanted to turn the page on the economic crisis and move to character issues.

**************
Only a few debates ever rise to the category of game-changers.

[Lex]

1. He's going to end up GLARING at him.

imho

[CTyankee]

2. I was wondering the same thing. My guess is that he knows he MUST look at him

and when he does, he will paste a big fake smile on his face.

I'm just waiting for one of those snakes in his head to pop out, alien-like...

[phleshdef]

3. I don't think McCain can look at him and attack him at the same time.

Despite what I think of John McCain overall, I get the feeling that he doesn't enjoy dealing out nasty character attacks. I think he knows he is either lying or distorting the truth when he does so and I think he isn't proud of it. I think the reason he reacted to Obama the way that he did in the last debate was not hate or anger or arrogance or any of that. I believe he geniunely does not like being a dickhead when he knows that its totally unwarranted.

[Erin Elizabeth]

8. I think the lack of eye contact is not out of a sense of conscience

but a sense of fear. McCain knows on some deep primal level that he is inferior to Obama and thus won't look him in the eyes.

[MissMarple]

That may be quite true, and is a fairer assessment than most around here would give him..

[phleshdef]

11. Heh, well, sometimes we get so caught up in being against someone as a candidate...

...we fail to acknowledge that said candidate is still a human being.

[MissMarple]

12. I found this on DU's front page. I think it helps make your point.

It refers to Palin's comments on "paling around" with terrorists. I feel so much better after reading your post. I know John McCain is no angel, by any means, but he has decent qualities, and isn't as evil as we sometimes think. He is just a man.

"Some people might refer to that as both guilty by association and stretching the truth.

I wonder if it will lead the Obama camp to point out McCain's friendship with the 1960s radical David Ifshin.

In 1970, Ifshin was president of the National Student Association. That year he actually traveled to Hanoi and urged American troops to rebel against the Vietnam War. Radio Hanoi broadcast his remarks. He even made the cover of Life magazine, standing behind Jane Fonda. People called him a traitor. They said that he may have cost American lives.

And yet, McCain was the guy's pal.

A clever advertising man could point out that when Ifshin died of cancer a few years back, McCain attended the funeral and spoke of how Ifshin "always felt passionate about his country." Adding, ''I learned a lot about courage from David."

It's all true. And a campaign operative could end it there.

What it DOESN'T tell you is that Ifshin changed, becoming much more respectable in later life. (Sort of like Ayers.) And that he and McCain reconciled about Vietnam.

McCain said that their relationship proved how futile it was to look back in anger.

Unless, it turns out, you have an opportunity to use such an association, no matter how tenuous, against a political opponent."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7337386

[LiberalAndProud]

13. You have a higher opinion of McCain than I do.

It seems to me that McCain seriously detests Obama. Would hate be too strong a word? I think not.

[phleshdef]

21. Its not necessarily a higher opinion... I think he is a total sell-out and its pathetic

[msallied]

16. He won't look at him because he's a nasty coward.

He has no conscience.

[UnrepentantUnitarian]

4. Maybe Obama should walk over and stand in front of him.

...just to see if it's possible for McK5 to look at him.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

5. Sunglasses?

[Demobrat]

6. It will be easier than ever with this format

to make sure he never has to look directly at Obama. In fact I think we'll see McCain not just look away, but turn his back to Obama and remain that way. He won't be able to help himself. He's repulsed by Obama and can't hide it.

[Erin Elizabeth]

9. And that is EXACTLY what I hope he does

because he will look like an even BIGGER asshole than he did in the first debate. It will be obvious even to the blind that McCain is refusing to even look in Obama's direction.

[goodgd_yall]

14. I think you're right

Also, even though it hasn't been mentioned by the pundits---at least that I know of---I think McCain's behavior has something to do with Obama's numbers in the polls rising. I don't think it's just all about the economy. It's like the reaction of voters in the Kennedy and Nixon debate.

[Bozita]

7. Blinders. After all, it IS Belmont.

[liberal renegade]

10. He's going to wear a paper bag over his head

and kindly ask Obama to wear one as well, just in case McCains falls off.

[VoodooGuru]

17. Brilliant, he should do that every day.

[ellie]

15. He is going

to continuously be walking away from him on stage.

[liberal renegade]

20. he doesn't really walk

he shuffles like an old man, afraid of falling down.

[rucky]

18. Like this...

[TexasObserver]

19. Tonight, McCain will do the opposite. He'll over-eyeball Obama.

And that will look weird, too.

He will try to prove that he's the bigger man, even though he's tiny compared to Obama.

McCain will talk big, try to act big, and try to stare down Obama.

Obama will be Obama, and his cool, intelligent, measured manner will win the night. He'll look presidential. McCain will look like a rapidly deteriorating, senile old crank, which he is.