Debate (able)

We gathered around the kitchen iMac with Nancy, Barak and Miriam (4 days old) to watch the debate last night. All of us were distressed with Obama's performance-- thought he was waffly, overly intellectual and vague in his replies and not hard enough hitting, while McCain was very direct and cogent (if, as the papers point out today, substantively wrong on many of his facts). The Stranger had exactly the same reaction, and was, like us, pleasantly surprised and relieved that the population at large, and the press, thought otherwise. I think that McCain's repeated condescending "What Senator Obama does not understand" remarks played out negatively for him. This trope is playing to a meme that is huge in the lowbrow conservative milieu: that Obama is "ignorant". This I learned from a 2 hour cab drive in Massachusetts with a rabid Republican driver and his preferred talk radio show (Jay someone-- I stayed in stealth mode as "an Australian" in order to interject some thoughts on Iran, Israel, Fannie Mae, etc, without being dropped off by the highway roadside in the middle of the night). I think it is simply racism, and is now being dispelled by seeing the man in action.