I watched the debate twice. And as it struck many others, I was stunned by the inability of John McCain to look at his opponent and his sneering, contemptuous looks while he spoke. And then I remembered that John McCain feels this way towards all enemies- including the enemies of our nation. He will show this same disrespect when speaking about or to leaders of Cuba, Russian, North Korea, China, Iran, Venezuela... and he will infuriate them and ruin all chance of peaceful co-existance. He could not peacefully co-exist with Obama for 90 minutes on a stage. Why would we give this man the world stage?
And then I contrasted that with Obama. And thought a bit about senatorial traditions. There is a time honored tradition of civility in the Senate where even bitter partisans will speak with a gentility that allows debate to keep moving even where there may currently be no agreement. Joe Biden is a model of this practice after so long in the Senate. Obama seems to come by it genetically.
But, McCain is know for being the "maverick" - a word he encourages because it covers up for the fact that he is always disrespectful and coarse in his dialogue with all but the most obsequious sycophants. This inability to be anything other than combative is why his legislative record is so thin (devoid of major triumphs like a Biden or Kennedy -or a Lugar or Hagel on the other side). On the other hand Barack Obama was able to get the hang of the Senate mileau so quickly that he was able to tackle the prickly subject of ethics in a bipartisan way and find success in passing legislation. His other huge triumph was working on nuclear proliferation. Obama wants to prevent nuclear proliferation, McCain just goes nuclear on a regular basis.
The conventional wisdom is that it is hard for Senators to become president, but this time we have three running (and the governor in the race is pathetically incompetent). Why did senators rise to the top this time? Because the nation is in a crisis of division where we need two people who have that gloss of civility, ability to show respect through debate, need to find consensus before moving forward. After 8 years of rule by brute force the nation is more scared of another Bush/Cheney type than they are of Al Quaeda. And why not? One could cogently argue that Bush/Cheney did more damage to America than was done on 9/11.