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McCain's Clarity Trumps Obama's Dexterity
By Colleen Carroll Campbell
Posted: Tuesday, August 26, 2008

ARTICLE
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Publication Date: August 21, 2008

Republican Sen. John McCain has been itching to debate Democratic Sen. Barack Obama all summer. Last weekend, viewers of the nationally televised Saddleback Civil Forum found out why.

Hosted by bestselling author and evangelical pastor Rick Warren, the forum featured separate, hour-long interviews with the two presidential candidates. It was not a debate, but it gave voters a good idea of what to expect from this fall's general election debates.

Saturday's contest left little doubt about why Obama had reneged on his earlier agreement to participate in 10 town-hall-style debates with McCain this summer, which would have given voters more chances to query the two candidates together. As the Obama campaign implicitly acknowledged with its sour-grapes speculation that McCain must have known the questions beforehand, McCain emerged the victor at Saddleback.

Calling both candidates "friends" and "patriots," Warren used the same questions to guide his interviews of the two men. And the disparity of their answers spoke volumes.

Although Warren repeatedly asked for concise, concrete answers, Obama's replies were ponderous, abstract and vacillating. He drew on his lawyerly dexterity to elucidate endless shades of gray in response to simple queries about such issues as merit pay for teachers, his definition of "rich" and whether he has ever voted to limit or reduce abortions. Perhaps Obama's equivocation was wise, given that more direct answers would repel voters who do not share his lockstep loyalty to teachers unions and abortion-rights groups or his affinity for tax hikes.

A relaxed and confident-looking McCain seemed much more willing to make the case for his ideas. He supplied short, meaty answers and shared compelling personal stories about lessons he learned as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and as an adoptive father. While Obama hesitated to delineate his liberal views on controversial questions, McCain seized opportunities to articulate a conservative philosophy of limited government, a strong national defense and traditional values.

The contrast was starkest on abortion. Asked at what point a baby is entitled to human rights, Obama responded: "Well, I think that whether you are looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade." McCain's reply was considerably clearer: "at the moment of conception."

The Democratic National Convention that begins Monday will allow Obama to regain ground by reprising the soaring, light-on-specifics speeches that have made him famous. His acceptance speech at Denver's Invesco Field promises to be a grand bit of political theater that will swing momentum his way, at least for a time.

But Obama's real test will come when he and McCain face off in a series of three debates, the first of which is scheduled for Sept. 26. If moderators do their job, those contests will consist of concrete, fast-paced, rough-and-tumble exchanges that give voters a clear sense of the candidates' differences.

Such exchanges rarely favor blank-slate candidates like Obama, whose dreamy mysteriousness and chameleon-like ability to be all things to all people look less attractive under the harsh light of cross-examination. Obama's weaknesses were evident in some primary campaign debates with Sen. Hillary Clinton, although the pair's policy similarities left little ground for substantive disagreement.

It will be different with McCain. Facing an opponent who vigorously defends a worldview and record that contrasts sharply with his own, Obama's gauzy rhetoric and platitudes about "hope" and "change" may not do him much good.

Such platitudes don't do much good in the Oval Office, either. That is another reason to be grateful that even in our politically correct age of stage-managed campaign appearances, presidential hopefuls still must meet each other face-to-face every once in awhile to prove that they have what it takes not just to win, but also to lead.

-- Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television and radio host and St. Louis-based fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her website is www.colleen-campbell.com.