AND THE WINNER WAS...

By Edwin Cooney

Last Friday night, history was made at Oxford, Mississippi when the Democratic and Republican nominees for the office of President of the United States of America met for the 24^th time to debate their individual perceptions of America’s past, present, and future.

On Monday night, September 26^th, 1960, John F. Kennedy, looking young and tanned following a Florida holiday, and Richard M. Nixon, looking thin and haggard following time in the hospital for a dangerously infected knee, met in a Chicago, Illinois television studio for the first televised presidential debate in American history.  All four of the 1960 debates would last an hour.  The third debate would find the two candidates in separate studios on opposite coasts, Kennedy in New York and Nixon in Los Angeles.  In 1960, the first debate would be regarded as the crucial one with the remaining three regarded as mere aftermaths.

Now, forty-eight September 26ths later, Democratic Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona were meeting in another historic spot for another historic debate.  The site was the University of Mississippi, the same place where, forty-six years earlier, President John F. Kennedy ordered the admission of Mr. James Meredith to the University of Mississippi (affectionately known as “Ole Miss”) to be backed up by federal troops.

Thus, Friday night, September 26^th was not only the forty-eighth anniversary of that first televised presidential debate, it was also just four days short of the forty-sixth anniversary of a black man’s violent admittance to “Ole Miss” on September 30^th, 1962.  Even more incredible, the black man most prominent this night wasn’t a minority candidate for admittance to a southern university in America, but a candidate for the highest office in the land: the office of President of the United States of America.

Presidential debates now last ninety minutes rather than sixty.  Winners and losers are often perceived rather than measured.  How well a candidate does often depends on whether the observer is listening or watching the debates.

Radio listeners to the historic first Kennedy-Nixon debate generally thought that Nixon was the winner. He had to defend the Eisenhower administration while at the same time suggesting that he could do considerably better.  However, television watchers clearly gave the advantage to the handsome and vigorous Jack Kennedy.  The question last Friday night was whether the seasoned McCain could effectively demonstrate that his experience in the area of national security issues is sufficiently superior to Senator Obama’s knowledge and dynamic intelligence.

I was convinced at the close of the debate that while Senator Obama had come across as both knowledgeable and capable in Senator McCain’s area of greater expertise, he seemed to have been forced by McCain to agree much of the time with his perceptions of foreign policy matters.  That, it seemed to me, had given McCain control of the debate and a narrow win.

There were, however, many perceptions other than mine.  This first debate on national security issues, which seemed to favor Senator McCain, turned out to encompass domestic issues as well.  Recent economic disasters on Wall Street were making a lot of Americans feel insecure indeed. These insecurities played very well into Senator Obama’s contention that people’s personal security depends on a lot more than their personal safety.  Whether Americans can continue to afford to own a home, feed their families, enjoy high quality health care and adequately educate their children are vital questions threatening our American way of life in 2008.

Additionally, Senator Obama came across as perceptive and likeable, whereas Senator McCain, who had already indicated that he had other more important things to do last Friday night than debating Senator Obama, appeared angry and condescending for much of the time.  It appears that Americans, especially independent voters, came away from last Friday night’s encounter believing that Barack Obama was more genuinely concerned for their welfare than John McCain.

As a partisan for Senator Obama, I feel precisely the same way.  It isn’t as though Senator McCain and his fellow Republicans are indifferent about the welfare of the American people. Rather it is because too often the Republicans’ insistence on private profits exceeds their sense of service to the public.

It appears that most of those who watched the debate at “Ole Miss” last Friday night, especially those crucial independent voters, saw two different phenomena.  Behind Senator McCain’s occasional anecdote there was anger.  Behind Senator Obama’s professorial manner there was warmth and commitment.

Thus with all due respect to those who genuinely prefer Senator McCain, I proclaim, as might the carnival barker:

“AND THE WINNER IS—SENATOR BARACK OBAMA OF ILLINOIS!” 

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY