Opinion: Analysis of the First Presidential Debate

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The setting served as a historic frame, due to the symbolism of Mississippi. The first Black man elected to the U.S. Senate, Hiram Revels, represented the State, and many chapters in the struggle for Blacks’ civil rights in the 1960’s involved the Magnolia State. Last night the Ford Center for the Performing Arts on the Campus of "'Ole Miss" welcomed the presence of the first Black nominee for President of the United States.

From the outset the picture of the two candidates told a story. The senior, white male war veteran and the young, Black male, intellectual; an image some would say of the nation’s past and its future. Whether that future is November 4th or some point in the years to come, remains unclear. What was clear when both candidates took the stage last night is more than else the 2008 election is about generational change.

The two candidates faced each other after three days of back room presidential politics. Earlier in the week Senator McCain announced he would forgo the first debate to focus on the economic crisis. Senator Obama maintained the two of them keep their appointment to square off at the University of Mississippi. In the midst of the chaos over the economic meltdown and the uncertainty of the debate occurring, President Bush summoned both candidates to an emergency meeting at the White House with other congressional leaders on Thursday. When it became apparent that there would be no deal on President Bush’s mortgage bailout proposal, Senator McCain, left with apparently with no card to play, agreed nearing th so-called 11th hour Friday, to be at the debate.

The debate was originally to focus on foreign policy and national security. However, the moderator, PBS’ Jim Lehrer, made clear that the topic included the global financial crisis. It was on that early point that McCain and Obama attempted to draw contrasts between each other.

John McCain invoked a familiar theme that has been core to the message of conservatives for forty years; cut federal spending as way to get the government’s fiscal house in order. The Arizona senator railed on Congressional earmarks, the practice of Members designating funds for preferred projects, and accused Senator Obama of being supportive of so-called “pork” spending. McCain asked rhetorically of himself:

“Who fought against wasteful and earmark spending? Who has been the person who has tried to keep spending under control? “

Senator Obama took aim at the inequities in the tax system and reiterated his call for a tax cut that would relieve the burden on middle class taxpayers and shift it to higher income Americans in a reversal of the Bush cuts. He suggested that as President he would close corporate tax loopholes. After Senator McCain suggested that American businesses were already paying high taxes relative to other developed nations, Obama took aim at McCain's defense of tying the Republican candidate to the policies of the Bush administration. Senator Obama charged:

“Here's the problem: There are so many loopholes that have been written into the tax code, oftentimes with support of Senator McCain, that we actually see our businesses pay effectively one of the lowest tax rates in the world.”

Responding to his McCain's criticism of his support for earmarks, Senator Obama indicated that while he thought wasteful spending should be eliminated he took aim at projects pushed by corporate lobbyists.

Both candidates delicately danced around moderator Jim Lehrer’s question on whether they would support President Bush’s bailout proposal. At one point Senator McCain blurted out “sure,” while also suggesting his support would be conditional unless certain steps are taken first. Senator Obama detailed several steps he would take to stem the nation’s economic crisis if elected.

Obama called for energy independence and investment in alternative energy sources such as wind, solar and biodiesel commenting:

“We have to have energy independence, so I've put forward a plan to make sure that, in 10 years' time, we have freed ourselves from dependence on Middle Eastern oil by increasing production at home, but most importantly by starting to invest in alternative energy.”

Obama also stressed the need to fix the health care system, better science and technology education, and an investment in the nation’s infrastructure as ways to resuscitate the economy.

Senator McCain, responding to a question by Leher, returned to his position that government spending must be cut but then took one step further and said he would freeze all spending except on defense, entitlement programs and veterans’ affairs.

"How about a spending freeze on everything but defense, veteran affairs and entitlement programs?"

When asked to Clarify by Leher he responded:

"I think we ought to seriously consider (it) with the exceptions the caring of veterans national defense and several other vital issues."

McCain also criticized Senator Obama’s health care proposal and cast doubt on the federal government’s ability to deliver quality health care, a Republican talking point meant to paint Democrats as supportive of a bloated federal bureaucracy.

"Well, I want to make sure we're not handing the health care system over to the federal government which is basically what would ultimately happen with Senator Obama's health care plan. I want the families to make decisions between themselves and their doctors. Not the federal government. Look. We have to obviously cut spending. I have fought to cut spending. Senator Obama has $800 billion in new spending programs. I would suggest he start by canceling some of those new spending program that he has."

Senator Obama responded by noted Senator McCain,has supported over the last eight years, the Bush administration’s budgetary policies that have bloated the government deficit offering:

"I just want to make this point, Jim. John, it's been your president who you said you agreed with 90 percent of the time who presided over this increase in spending. This orgy of spending and enormous deficits you voted for almost all of his budgets. So to stand here and after eight years and say that you're going to lead on controlling spending and, you know, balancing our tax cuts so that they help middle class families when over the last eight years that hasn't happened I think just is, you know, kind of hard to swallow."

Senator Obama added:

“We right now give $15 billion every year as subsidies to private insurers under the Medicare system. Doesn't work any better through the private insurers. They just skim off $15 billion. That was a give away and part of the reason is because lobbyists are able to shape how Medicare works.”

It was on the question of the nation’s role in the Middle East that drew sharp distinctions between the two candidates. Senator McCain took the first question on the subject, and he sought to take credit for the troop surge in Iraq that he claimed has stabilized the country. He did not back away from his support of the Iraq War but instead sought to blame the Bush administration for a faulty strategy and take credit for pushing the administration in a different direction. The Arizona Republican declared:

“Our initial military success, we went in to Baghdad and everybody celebrated. And then the war was very badly mishandled. I went to Iraq in 2003 and came back and said, we've got to change this strategy. This strategy requires additional troops, it requires a fundamental change in strategy and I fought for it. And finally, we came up with a great general and a strategy that has succeeded.”

Senator Obama referenced his early opposition to the war and questioned not the strategy but the legitimacy of the war itself, a decision he opposed from its outset. He stated:

“Well, this is an area where Senator McCain and I have a fundamental difference because I think the first question is whether we should have gone into the war in the first place.”

Obama painted Iraq as a distraction and insisted that the Bush administration took its eyes off of Afghanistan, the place where the Democratic nominee insisted the focus should be in the war on terrorism. Senator Obama added:

“We've spent over $600 billion so far, soon to be $1 trillion. We have lost over 4,000 lives. We have seen 30,000 wounded, and most importantly, from a strategic national security perspective, al Qaeda is resurgent, stronger now than at any time since 2001. We took our eye off the ball. And not to mention that we are still spending $10 billion a month, when they have a $79 billion surplus, at a time when we are in great distress here at home, and we just talked about the fact that our budget is way overstretched and we are borrowing money from overseas to try to finance just some of the basic functions of our government.”

In one of the testier exchanges, Senator McCain repeated a charge that was made against Senator Obama during the primary election season; that Obama had failed to fulfill his oversight responsibility as chairman of a Senate subcommittee. McCain charged:

“Senator Obama is the chairperson of a committee that oversights NATO that's in Afghanistan. To this day, he has never had a hearing.”

As he did in the primary campaign, Senator Obama responded quickly to that point that was meant to paint him as irresponsible by replying:

“Look, I'm very proud of my vice presidential selection, Joe Biden, who is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and as he explains, and as John well knows, the issues of Afghanistan, the issues of Iraq, critical issues like that, don't go through my subcommittee because they're done as a committee as a whole.”

It was also clear that the two candidates differed sharply on Afghanistan and Iraq, and how they would go about fighting terrorism in the former and the development of nuclear weapons in the latter. Obama did not shy away from earlier statements on Pakistan and that country’s role in hunting down al Qaeda:

"So here's what we have to do comprehensively, though. It's not just more troops. We have to press the Afghan government to make certain that they are actually working for their people. And I've said this to President Karzai.

Number two, we've got to deal with a growing poppy trade that has exploded over the last several years.

Number three, we've got to deal with Pakistan, because al Qaeda and the Taliban have safe havens in Pakistan, across the border in the northwest regions, and although, you know, under George Bush, with the support of Senator McCain, we've been giving them $10 billion over the last seven years, they have not done what needs to be done to get rid of those safe havens. And until we do, Americans here at home are not going to be safe."

Senator McCain commented on the Afghanistan issue but not to each point made by Senator Obama:

"And, yes, Senator Obama calls for more troops, but what he doesn't understand, it's got to be a new strategy, the same strategy that he condemned in Iraq. It's going to have to be employed in Afghanistan."

He added:

"So we've got a lot of work to do in Afghanistan. But I'm confident, now that General Petraeus is in the new position of command, that we will employ a strategy which not only means additional troops -- and, by the way, there have been 20,000 additional troops, from 32,000 to 53,000, and there needs to be more."

The classic moment in the debate, showed the differences in the candidates position on the military engagements and the families of the soldiers who are fighting in them for America.

Senator McCain proudly boasted:

"And I'll tell you, I had a town hall meeting in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, and a woman stood up and she said, 'Senator McCain, I want you to do me the honor of wearing a bracelet with my son's name on it.'

He was 22 years old and he was killed in combat outside of Baghdad, Matthew Stanley, before Christmas last year. This was last August, a year ago. And I said, 'I will -- I will wear his bracelet with honor.'

And this was August, a year ago. And then she said, 'But, Senator McCain, I want you to do everything -- promise me one thing, that you'll do everything in your power to make sure that my son's death was not in vain.'

That means that that mission succeeds, just like those young people who re-enlisted in Baghdad, just like the mother I met at the airport the other day whose son was killed. And they all say to me that we don't want defeat."

Barack Obama exclaimed afterwards:

"Jim, let me just make a point. I've got a bracelet, too, from Sergeant - from the mother of Sergeant Ryan David Jopeck, given to me Green Bay. She asked me, 'can you please make sure another mother is not going through what I'm going through.'

No U.S. soldier ever dies in vain because they're carrying out the missions of their commander in chief. And we honor all the service that they've provided. Our troops have performed brilliantly. The question is for the next president, are we making good judgments about how to keep America safe precisely because sending our military into battle is such an enormous step."

You can read many of the pundits' articles today and find many differing opinions on how the candidates performed. In my opinion it was a wash. John McCain stronger on the economy than most would have predicted, and Barack Obama more than held his own on foreign policy.

A full transcript of the debate can be found here.

The next debate between the candidates for president will be held on Tuesday, October 7, from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.