John McCain is not George W. Bush. We know that because he told us so.
“I am not George Bush.” McCain said last night in the last of the presidential debates. “If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.”
And Barack Obama is not John Kerry.
We know that because this year’s Democratic presidential nominee fired back with just the right retort at just the right moment: “If I occasionally mistaken your policies for George Bush’s policies, it’s because on the core economic policies that matter to the American people, on tax policy, on energy policy, on spending priorities, you have been a vigorous supporter of President Bush.”
"Although the Arizona senator had promised to “whip Obama’s ass” in last night’s debate, he failed to deliver. By the time the 90-minutes were over, it was obvious that McCain was suffering from a bad case of whupped ass."
And that’s pretty much how it went for much of the presidential smackdown at Hofstra University with an angry, aggressive McCain attacking and a cool, calm and collected Obama deflecting his rabbit punches.
Although the Arizona senator had promised to “whip Obama’s ass” in last night’s debate, he failed to deliver. By the time the 90-minutes were over, it was obvious that McCain was suffering from a bad case of whupped ass.
A CNN snap poll reported that among undecided likely voters, Obama won by 58 to 31 percent.
That was despite McCain’s desperate attempt to turn his last best chance to his advantage by questioning the content of Obama’s character.
The 72-year-old presidential candidate weaved back and forth between scowling and smiling as he faithfully repeated the tired old right-wing bromides that have played well for Republicans in election after election past.
We know them when we hear them if not by heart: Obama is planning on raising taxes and that would cripple the economy. Obama is a tax and spend liberal who is waging class warfare with his health insurance plan because he wants “to spread the wealth around.”
And Obama was hit with that predictable Republican ruse of guilt by association with McCain trotting out the right-wing’s trumped up claims that Obama and 1960s anti-war radical Bill Ayers were in the habit of hanging out together.
Looking presidential, while carefully protecting his double-digit lead in the national opinion polls by not saying the anything that would make today’s headlines, Obama counterpunched McCain’s charges: As president, he would only raise taxes on those Americans who make $250,000 a year or more. If McCain becomes president, for the first time ever Americans would have to pay taxes on their insurance benefits. "Mr. Ayers is not involved in my campaign, he has never been involved in this campaign, and he will not advise me in the White House,” Obama explained before listing the brand name, highly respected Americans would advise him.
Obama’s presidential performance was not an easy thing for McCain to take. You could hear the Arizona senator grunting off camera as the Democrat laid out his program cuts. You could see the former war hero fighting to control his temper as Obama confidently explained his health insurance plan in detail. And, you could see—as McCain finally looked at Obama in the final debate—steely eyes shooting nothing but contempt.
So while he told us he wasn’t George Bush early in the debate, McCain never got around to explaining how his financial policies would be different.
And that, for all of us who don’t make a quarter mil a year or more, was the greatest guilt by association of all.
(You can watch the final presidential debate on the C-Span video below.)
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