Not that my voice is needed on DK to show David Broder to be the clueless dean of Beltway wisdom, but his Sunday column takes the cake.
In a column entitled McCain as the Alpha Male, Broder argues that:
It was a small thing, but I counted six times that Obama said that McCain was "absolutely right" about a point he had made. No McCain sentences began with a similar acknowledgment of his opponent's wisdom, even though the two agreed on Iran, Russia and the U.S. financial crisis far more than they disagreed.
That suggests an imbalance in the deference quotient between the younger man and the veteran senator -- an impression reinforced by Obama's frequent glances in McCain's direction and McCain's studied indifference to his rival.
Whether viewers caught the verbal and body-language signs that Obama seemed to accept McCain as the alpha male on the stage in Mississippi, I do not know.
The wisdom of Obama's "John is right" refrain notwithstanding, Broder argues that McCain showed he is the alpha male because he would not look at Obama. I don't know what animal behavior references Broder and the crack team of editors they have over at the Post read before publication, but McCain's body language did not demonstrate alpha male. McCain's refusal to look at Obama showed submission. Eye contact is a way that the alpha keeps control of the pack. Looking away is a sign of submission.
Others have diaried the theory that Obama is "inside McCain's head" in the parlance of our times. Others have theorized that McCain's temper doesn't let him acknowledge Obama's presence or that McCain is simply a major jerk. It's probably a combination of things, but one thing it is not is establishing personal superiority over Obama.