http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/10/this_nice_guy_may_just_finish.htmlThis Nice Guy May Just Finish First
By Clarence Page
John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, have been doing so much to help Barack Obama's presidential campaign lately. I wondered, as I watched Obama's debate performance, why he was doing so little to give them a hand.
His dry, defensive and nearly humorless performance seemed to be quietly urging viewers to tune out and switch to another channel.
Where, I wondered, was the vision, the poetry, the rich metaphors and imagery that flow from Obama when he's on top of his oratorical game?
Then it dawned on me: Maybe Obama was pulling his punches. Maybe he was trying to pull off a debate team version of rope-a-dope, a boxing strategy made famous by Muhammad Ali in which you can win by appearing at first to be losing.
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It is true that Obama cannot afford to be perceived as an "angry black man," as numerous commentators have observed. But such commentary misses a larger point. Swing voters, in particular, think there already is too much anger in politics and not enough action. Congress' bumpy response to the credit crisis this week, causing more public anxiety than they calmed, bears them out.
So when the McCain campaign criticized Obama for allegedly agreeing with McCain too much, they may have been playing into Obama's hands. Voters would like to see a bit more agreement these days, if it gets something done that helps them. It beats endless arguments.
So Team McCain might actually have helped Obama by mounting obviously misleading post-debate attack ads. They showed Obama appearing to agree with McCain on point after point. In fact, each of Obama's alleged concessions was a setup for a sharp rebuke of McCain's position. But Obama's rebukes were edited out.
Viewers of Stephen Colbert's "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central should be familiar with this technique of distorting someone's remarks through digital editing. But Colbert does it as a joke. The McCain campaign is trying to be serious. Their desperation is showing.
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