This evening I watched the debate between Barack Obama and John McCain. All in all the debate seem to be a wash for me. I don’t think either person won the debate, and I think the people that actually lost with the news media that were standing by a score pad in hand hoping to see a fight and then rule a winner.
There do not seem to be much of a fight between either candidate. They definitely didn’t seem to like each other, and barely could seem to stomach the thought of looking at each other on stage. The lack of civility between both candidates actually struck me as a turnoff for both candidates.
Where I come from, even when you engage in a debate with a person, you can at least remain civil with them, and respect your adversary during the debate. Now I actually grew up in Illinois and didn’t just adopt the state. I grew up reading biographies about Abraham Lincoln who practiced law in my hometown of Metamora Illinois.
When I compare those stories and that history with two candidates I saw this evening, I realized that as a country we are in pretty rough shape. It’s true that we have traveled far and survived a great deal over the last couple hundred years. But if our evolution can be measured by the quality of the presidential candidates that we can generate, it would seem that we are regressing backwards not forwards.
There are things about both candidates that I like, but there are many things about both candidates that I do not like. This evening, I learned of a new dislike that I have for both of them, when they exhibited an inability to be diplomatic with each other on stage. When I say that, I don’t mean the barbs and insults that they tossed each other’s way.
Instead, I refer to the body language, and the fact that neither of them could look at each other and engage in a dialogue with each other face-to-face. I think this hurt their presidential appearance, and made both men look small. Furthermore, in this modern age of TV, neither candidate did very well at looking into the camera. I grew up in Metamora, just across the river from Peoria Illinois. Ronald Reagan went to college in Eureka Illinois, which happens to be in the same county as Metamora.
It’s 2008 in its 28 years since Ronald Reagan set the bar for presidential demeanor during a debate. I do not suggest that you have to agree with Ronald Reagan’s politics, however his communication skills were indeed excellent and as Americans we should demand that our candidates exhibit that same level of communication skill.
Whether Barack Obama or even John McCain who purports to consider Ronald Reagan one of his political heroes, learn that valuable lesson taught to the nation 28 years ago, the lesson that stage presence matters when you’re communicating not just to a moderator and not just to the debate opponent and not just to an audience in a university, but when you’re communicating to the entire nation of the United States and indeed the entire world watching on TV.
In this regard both candidates fail the test tonight, and this is one of the first clear signals that I’ve seen that neither candidate is prepared to be president of the United States.