John McCain generally received better reviews than Barack Obama for his appearance at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California. At the event, Obama and then McCain sat for an hour with the Rev. Rick Warren, who posed identical questions to the White House hopefuls. The Wall Street Journal reports there were “several moments when Sen. McCain’s reply was sharp and to the point. Sen. Obama, by contrast, took longer pauses after many of his questions, and his answers often came together slowly.” In his New York Times column, William Kristol says it “was McCain’s night. Obama made no big mistakes. But his tendency to somewhat windy generalities meant he wasn’t particularly compelling. McCain, who went second, was crisp by contrast, and his anecdotes colorful.”
On the CBS Evening News, Josh Kraushaar of Politico.com said, “I think Barack Obama did well for himself, but I think the clear winner in the forum was John McCain. He is someone who does not wear religion on his sleeve. He does not talk about his personal life and he felt very much at ease with this type of forum.” McClatchy reports Obama “impressed people with his ease talking the language of faith, no small feat for a Democrat. But McCain may have shored up support from this critical group.”
“Winner”? “McCain was sharp and to the point”? I don’t get it. I’m still an undecided voter, so it’s not as if I wanted to see a particular winner declared after this forum.
I had hoped to see a side of McCain that we hadn’t seen before. Obama’s Christian beliefs and church membership have been under the microscope, and he’s had an opportunity to air his insights into faith and politics in general. Meanwhile as far as I know we’d heard next to nothing from McCain on these subjects.
I doubt many presidential candidates in US history, recent history at least, have experienced anything like what he experienced as a POW, and I appreciate the fact that he tied that in with his faith. I would expect that to have been formative, but he left it to the audience to wonder how it was so. I believe he’s mentally sharp and, from his years of experience in politics, I’m sure he knows way more about a lot of policy issues than I ever will, and probably more than Obama does. But his answers to every question seemed like bumper sticker statements, calculated to draw applause, with a few anecdotes thrown in that sounded rehearsed– at least to me. I thought he came across as superficial.
Obama, on the other hand, took issues that our political culture has reduced to bumper-sticker sayings and acknowledged the complexities behind them. He seemed at several points to be saying, “You might not agree with me, but let me at least let me show you the rationale behind my position.”
Pax Christi!
Chuck Bradshaw