Jay Nordlinger makes a point with which I agree: Obama is clearly the better debater.
This point came home to me when Obama used the phrase, "you can't just talk the talk you have to walk the walk." it struck me at the time there was an unfortunate phrase for Obama to use in the context of foreign-policy, particularly when the discussion is about defending your friends from aggressive enemies. Surely, in that context, "walking the walk" can only mean willingness to use military force -- a matter which can hardly make Obama comfortable.
But it seems to me that the point is larger than that. In thinking about Obama, his whole life seems to be a case of not living up to That motto. indeed his whole life can be seen as a mockery of it, a mockery of his own motto. He talks about the sacredness of public financing and then becomes the first candidate to abandon the system, he talks about integrity and openness and rack up $1 million in earmarks for every one of the relatively few days he spent in the Senate. But even more than that, his whole life is based on talk; the question of accomplishment brings embarrassed mumbles even from his most passionate supporters. he has ridden on words to the heights of power with barely in accomplishment to his name.
And most of what little he has done in his life is declared out of bounds for discussion by our political class. We are not allowed to talk about his time with the Annenberg foundation as its chair since that would associate him with Roger Ayres, the unrepentant terrorist. We cannot talk about how the foundations spent its money under his direction for the same reason. Nor are we allowed to discuss the public-private partnership (Fannie and Freddie Chicago style) he initiated with his property developing friends Tony Rezko & Co. (with whose help he also bought his Hyde Park mansion) because that would associate him with a known felon. "Obama is not a felon. He disapproves of felonies. You are practicing McCarthyism." Substitute for "felon," "terrorist," "slumlord," and you have the verbal magic wand which wipes away the anointed one's past. he has done little worth talking about and less you are allowed to. When it comes to "walking the walk," Obama Let's his mouth to the running.
McCain, on the other hand, is uncomfortable in the world words. He is a stranger there. His life has been almost totally lived in the world of action. As he asks nothing of words but that they reflect his deeds, he has little skill in manipulating them. They do not do his bidding. Confronted with the words of a man who uses them to avoid actions, to hide from making decisions, he is at a loss. He smiles nervously and looks around, as if to say "it just me, or am I really hearing this?" when McCain makes mistakes it is painful to him. He admits them and apologize for them. He even tries to atone for them period witnessed his -- in my opinion misguided -- crusade for public financing of elections. Some Democrats have tried to make a point of the fact that 25 years earlier at the beginning of his Senate career McCain was caught up in the Keating five scandal. They say, "McCain paints himself as a crusader for campaign finance reform, but he was in that scandal. This misses the point. it is precisely because of that mistake 25 years ago that McCain has devoted his career to the cause of public finance. With Obama the order of action is reversed. He spends years talking about how important campaign finance reform is, and in his first major act, strikes a major blow against the system.
Obama has always "traveled on his tongue." words have got him everywhere, accounted for his every advance. Words got him his first job in politics. Pledging loyalty to his mentor as she prepared to make a bid for Congress, he was given his first office. When she, relying on his words asked for the office back, his actions betrayed her. When she ran against him he used words again. Not the soaring rhetoric we are used to hearing, but the cold language of law. He put his legal training to good use and got her and three other opponents disqualified. That was his first act of service to his constituents, saving them and the possibility of confusion on election Day -- his was the only name on the ballot. Public interest lawyering meets Chicago politics.
"... Slippery vocables, they beckon like a path of stepping stones. But lift them up and watch what writhes or scurries."
When Obama makes mistake he takes it not as a chance to apologize, much less atone, but as a challenge to his verbal virtuosity. The one occasion where McCain was able to deconstruct one of Obama's verbal smokescreens in real time, was when the Obama tried to pass off his pledge to meet a roster of the world's worst dictators "without preconditions" as merely referring to "preparations." But by and large, most of the contradictions between Obama's words and deeds or, what is even more important, his words and his interests, are passed off as a confusion in the part of the listener. he didn't just do the exact opposite of what he has been saying for years, you just misunderstood him. "Just words?" Precisely.
McCain's life is a list of actions. He has said little that is memorable, done much that is. Obama... Does one even need to finish this sentence?
This point came home to me when Obama used the phrase, "you can't just talk the talk you have to walk the walk." it struck me at the time there was an unfortunate phrase for Obama to use in the context of foreign-policy, particularly when the discussion is about defending your friends from aggressive enemies. Surely, in that context, "walking the walk" can only mean willingness to use military force -- a matter which can hardly make Obama comfortable.
But it seems to me that the point is larger than that. In thinking about Obama, his whole life seems to be a case of not living up to That motto. indeed his whole life can be seen as a mockery of it, a mockery of his own motto. He talks about the sacredness of public financing and then becomes the first candidate to abandon the system, he talks about integrity and openness and rack up $1 million in earmarks for every one of the relatively few days he spent in the Senate. But even more than that, his whole life is based on talk; the question of accomplishment brings embarrassed mumbles even from his most passionate supporters. he has ridden on words to the heights of power with barely in accomplishment to his name.
And most of what little he has done in his life is declared out of bounds for discussion by our political class. We are not allowed to talk about his time with the Annenberg foundation as its chair since that would associate him with Roger Ayres, the unrepentant terrorist. We cannot talk about how the foundations spent its money under his direction for the same reason. Nor are we allowed to discuss the public-private partnership (Fannie and Freddie Chicago style) he initiated with his property developing friends Tony Rezko & Co. (with whose help he also bought his Hyde Park mansion) because that would associate him with a known felon. "Obama is not a felon. He disapproves of felonies. You are practicing McCarthyism." Substitute for "felon," "terrorist," "slumlord," and you have the verbal magic wand which wipes away the anointed one's past. he has done little worth talking about and less you are allowed to. When it comes to "walking the walk," Obama Let's his mouth to the running.
McCain, on the other hand, is uncomfortable in the world words. He is a stranger there. His life has been almost totally lived in the world of action. As he asks nothing of words but that they reflect his deeds, he has little skill in manipulating them. They do not do his bidding. Confronted with the words of a man who uses them to avoid actions, to hide from making decisions, he is at a loss. He smiles nervously and looks around, as if to say "it just me, or am I really hearing this?" when McCain makes mistakes it is painful to him. He admits them and apologize for them. He even tries to atone for them period witnessed his -- in my opinion misguided -- crusade for public financing of elections. Some Democrats have tried to make a point of the fact that 25 years earlier at the beginning of his Senate career McCain was caught up in the Keating five scandal. They say, "McCain paints himself as a crusader for campaign finance reform, but he was in that scandal. This misses the point. it is precisely because of that mistake 25 years ago that McCain has devoted his career to the cause of public finance. With Obama the order of action is reversed. He spends years talking about how important campaign finance reform is, and in his first major act, strikes a major blow against the system.
Obama has always "traveled on his tongue." words have got him everywhere, accounted for his every advance. Words got him his first job in politics. Pledging loyalty to his mentor as she prepared to make a bid for Congress, he was given his first office. When she, relying on his words asked for the office back, his actions betrayed her. When she ran against him he used words again. Not the soaring rhetoric we are used to hearing, but the cold language of law. He put his legal training to good use and got her and three other opponents disqualified. That was his first act of service to his constituents, saving them and the possibility of confusion on election Day -- his was the only name on the ballot. Public interest lawyering meets Chicago politics.
"... Slippery vocables, they beckon like a path of stepping stones. But lift them up and watch what writhes or scurries."
When Obama makes mistake he takes it not as a chance to apologize, much less atone, but as a challenge to his verbal virtuosity. The one occasion where McCain was able to deconstruct one of Obama's verbal smokescreens in real time, was when the Obama tried to pass off his pledge to meet a roster of the world's worst dictators "without preconditions" as merely referring to "preparations." But by and large, most of the contradictions between Obama's words and deeds or, what is even more important, his words and his interests, are passed off as a confusion in the part of the listener. he didn't just do the exact opposite of what he has been saying for years, you just misunderstood him. "Just words?" Precisely.
McCain's life is a list of actions. He has said little that is memorable, done much that is. Obama... Does one even need to finish this sentence?
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