Vision vs. Retrospect--The Second Presidential Debate

I did not watch the debate live. I intended to catch CNN's replay at 5:00pm (+8 GMT) but it got preempted for not exactly breaking news. So there I was at midnight, brain starting to shut down, watching the debate. I can't claim to have caught everything, but there were some things that left a definite impression. And the longest lasting impression? Tones of voice.

The contrast was startling. One voice was calm and confident. The other voice? Insistent, attempted chummy, but mostly condescending. As a child, I never liked it when adults used that talking-to-a-child voice. I find it irritates me even more as an adult. It makes me feel like my intelligence is being called into question. Or that someone is trying to soften me up to ask for a loan or favor. Anyway, as far as I was concerned things did not bode well for McCain.

But on to content.

McCain wants to buy up the bad mortgages from the lenders and then renegotiate the terms with the homeowners. So he was hitting me up for a loan!

But seriously, other than talking about himself and bashing Obama, that was about as specific as McCain got. When he was talking about what he would do as president, it was mostly in generalities. Energy independence. Fix the economy. Solve Social Security. Broad sweeps of the brush. Trouble is, I'm interested in the details and once again I didn't get them from McCain. He still seems to think that it's enough to talk about his record. He keeps pointing us to the past. But I don't live in the past.

Obama talked about investing in clean energy technology, which would not only benefit the environment but would also create jobs. He explained why the bailout was needed by the average American and not just by Wall Street. Oh, he did his share of not quite answering the question. And he did his share of bashing McCain. But he didn't stick to campaign rhetoric. Obama talked about his plans for our country in a tangible way. When he talked about the economy, he clearly was not simply reacting to the current crisis. Rather, he presented a plan with both short term and long term implications. I kind of like the idea of a president who's looking forward.

In light of what we've seen from him the past month, I found McCain's closing words devastatingly ironic. "Times are tough. We need a steady hand at the tiller." And I agree. Obama has my vote.