The Eye-Rolling Debate

When it comes to presidential debates, I'm normally not a big fan of body-language analysis. You know, that staple of cable television news, when "experts" in the field slice and dice each cough or sigh for symbolic import. Most of the time, you see, our presidential candidates act well within the bounds of commonly acceptable physical comportment, so what we end up with are a bunch of hack pseudo-psychologists telling us why a flip of the hair or a pursing of the lips belied a deep-seated anxiety in candidate x or y. There have been a few notable exceptions along the way: Nixon Vs. Kennedy, when cameras caught Nixon dabbing sweat from his brown as Kennedy spoke. Or Gore Vs. Bush, when Al's superior sighs signaled a condescension unbecoming in a president. Of course, to this list, we must now add Obama Vs. McCain, Pt. 3.

The viral video now circling the globe shows McCain in full metal incredulity. He rolls his eyes. He interrupts. He snorts. He snickers. He is angry and agitated. All the while, the guy on the left of the split-screen stays cool and calm. The restlessness of McCain's demeanor was the single greatest reason he "lost" what began as his strongest debate. McCain quite simply exuded frustration. It is an emotion that many of his supporters have seconded. How can they be losing to Obama? They've had enough of this Effrontery of Hope business. Attack! Attack!


The turning point in the debate came when Bob Schieffer asked each man to comment on the negative direction the race had taken. McCain blamed all the mudslinging on Obama. If only the Illinois senator had agreed to town halls, he argued like a bank robber whose plan goes awry, then nobody would have gotten hurt. Obama responded that America didn't care about their bickering, and wanted solutions to the economic problems facing us. Then, in a brilliant segue, Scheiffer followed up by asking McCain directly about William Ayers and ACORN, the twin pillars of outrage currently fueling the NoBama masses. It was a pretty obvious set-up, and a hapless McCain walked right into it. As he let loose with his flurry of innuendo, his insistence that we don't know the extent of the relationships (even though we do) therefore we have no choice but to assume the worst of Obama, you could see McCain's audience approval graphics flat-lining faster than a man who'd suffered cardiac arrest.

From that point on in the debate, Obama picked up steam and McCain faltered. McCain decided to make "Joe the Plumber" a Costner-esque star even though Joe despises social security, hates paying taxes to the point of not paying them, and isn't up to date on such governmental trivialities as licensing. I guess Joe, who had long made up his mind who he'd vote for, sides with Sarah Palin--tax evasion is patriotic.

But the real eye-rollers for me came at the lengths McCain went to paint Obama as an extremist. To wit, you're now extreme if you don't want another nuclear plant meltdown, a la Chernobyl. Ditto if you actually care about the health of the mother on the operating table. McCain also pressed a Representation Without Taxation ideology when he spoke of bailing out banks with a new $300 billion federal government feast of bad mortgages, while at the same time urging that government not tax "anybody," corporations included. Why don't we get rid of sales taxes, property taxes, gasoline taxes, and cigarette taxes, too. Think of all the things we won't be able to do without that money! It's a small government dream come true, except that McCain simultaneously wants to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bail out Wall Street and the banking sector, continue paying for Medicare and Social Security (sorry, Joe), and presumably doesn't want our roads and infrastructure to go to hell, either.

It's a good thing those body language experts can't see me right now. They'd have a field day with all the eye-rolling.