[mukto-mona] Was there a winner in the first presidential debate at Ole Miss?

Was there a winner in the first presidential debate?

 

A.H. Jaffor Ullah

 

There were nagging doubts whether there would be a debate in the campus of Ole Miss (University of Mississippi at Oxford) in the evening of September 26, 2008.  Senator Obama was ready to join the debate with Senator McCain but the latter was unwilling to participate on the ground that America was facing a crisis due to massive bank failure and financial meltdown brought on by liquidity crisis and near bankruptcy of financial giants such as Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, AIG Insurance, and Washington Mutual.  The Bush Administration wanted to infuse nearly $ 700 billion ($ 700,000,000,000) of public money to keep the liquidity and bailout a few ailing Wall Street giants the like of which was never seen before.

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Senator McCain headed for Washington on September 24, 2008 to quell a rebellion brought on by 100 or so Republican lawmakers who promised not to support the government-led bailout.  Before heading to the capital Senator McCain said that he won't participate in the debate unless there is a finality to Bush's plan to infuse the massive sum of money to bring a semblance of normality to the financial market.  However, the Bush Administration's plan to bailout the fallen giants of the Wall Street ran into problem and for a moment we all thought that the first presidential debate won't go through tonight.  But in the morning of Friday (September 26) news organizations such as CNN, Reuters, AP, etc., were posting in the Internet the news that McCain, the capricious candidate, had a change of heart and by midday heading for Mississippi.

 

The debate that was moderated by PBS anchorperson Jim Lehrer started in time, which lasted 90 minutes.  The topics of the debate was set for foreign policy but because of the enormity of the financial meltdown that made everyone in the U.S. jittery and nervous the moderator included one domestic issue – financial meltdown in the Wall Street as one of the topics.  The debaters spent nearly 40 minutes on this issue alone.  Therefore, 50 minutes were allotted to foreign policy matters. 

 

Both the candidates were sharp and none made any serious mistakes in the debate.  Both held their ground but on financial crisis Senator Obama made home runs when he repeatedly mentioned that the failed Republican policies of the last 8 years have led to this debacle.  The Republican Party which favors deregulation of the Wall Street let the financial giants made mistakes due to lack of oversight.  Senator McCain is a champion of banking deregulation for a long time.  Therefore, Obama had easier time assailing his adversary.  Most political analysts had opined that on the first segment Senator Obama had scored a victory. 

 

The first question was "Where do you stand on the $ 700 billion bailout?"  Obama pointed out that years of deregulation and lax in oversight had let to this situation.  He also said that Republican Party's mantra of "trickledown" theory did not bring prosperity to millions of ordinary citizens.  Senator McCain on the other hand had blamed the greed and lack of accountability of the Wall Street executives for creating this mess in the financial market.  The follow up question was – "Are there any fundamental differences between the two candidates to solve the economic problem?"  McCain blamed the earmarks (lawmakers' pet projects for their home state) for the problem but Obama correctly pointed out that earmarks amount to only $ 18 billion in a $ 3.1 trillion budget.  This is a drop in the bucket!  The real culprit is the tax cut for the super rich.  An estimated $ 300 billion tax cut for the rich and wealthy Americans will cease to exist under President Obama.

 

The third question was – What each of you has to give up for the final rescue?  McCain said government spending needs to be cut and subsidies vis-à-vis Medicare will have to go.  Obama said he won't go for the spending freeze all across the board.  He will promote alternative energy source such as biofuels, develop fuel efficient automobiles, and fix ailing healthcare system to save money.  Obama pointed out that McCain voted 90% of the time the proposals made by George Bush. 

 

Senator McCain fared well in the second part of the debate which dealt with foreign policy matters.  The moderator asked "What are the lessons of the Iraq War?"  McCain replied that the war was mismanaged in 2003.  He then recommended increasing the number of troops, which was done in 2007.  McCain thinks the surge in troops has worked.  Obama shot back to McCain by saying that "We should not have gone to Iraq, which cost $ 600 billion. 4000 soldiers have died and al-Qaeda was made more powerful." 

 

Come to think of it, the Iraq War is costing America about $ 10 billion each month.  Obama thinks we should be fighting the war in Afghanistan instead to crush Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and Talibans.  Obama wants to send 2 brigades of soldiers to Afghanistan and also attack the Northwestern part of Pakistan to get rid of the safe haven where al-Qaeda and Talibans take refuge.  McCain took issue with this approach; he said Pakistan is America's friend and we should never attack a friendly nation.  Obama countered by saying that if Pakistan is harboring Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda terrorists and Talibans, then we should do something.  Obama mentioned that America has already spent $ 10 billion in Pakistan without any result.  And he said, "That is going to change when I become the president."  Incidentally, McCain mispronounced Zardari's name quite a few times during the debate.  Name dropping is a smart thing to do during the presidential debate.  But poor McCain did not know that he was butchering Asif Ali Zardari's name.  Incidentally, Zardari was mesmerized by the beauty of McCain's running mate, Ms. Palin.    

 

The two candidates spar over Iranian threats against Israel and Russia's recent aggression against Georgia.  McCain showed his grasp of foreign policy but Obama also held his ground.  Quite a few times McCain tried to belittle Obama by saying that Senator Obama does not understand the international issues.  However, the political pundits who did the postmortem of the debate had opined that McCain had overdone belittling his opponent, which will go against him among independent voters.

 

In summary, against all odds the first debate took place in the deep south of America in a quaint college town.  McCain was supposed to score high in the debate because foreign policy is his forte.  But Barack Obama who is now riding high in opinion poll held his ground rather well.  Most political experts and talking heads in CNN think that Obama outscored McCain in economic matters but both did well in foreign policy topics.  We have wait a day or two to see if any of the two candidates would receive a bump in the opinion poll.  As of this writing Obama is favored to win the election by 5 percentage points.  The catastrophic events that unfolded in the Wall Street had certainly helped the Democratic contender.  If Obama could maintain the lead for the next 38 days, he may come out victorious.  However, anything could happen between now and November 4, 2008.  Lest we forget, there would be 2 more presidential debates and one VP debates between Senator Biden and Governor Palin.  Therefore, stay tuned.  There is no big circus then American presidential election.

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Dr. A.H. Jaffor Ullah, a researcher and columnist, writes from New Orleans, USA

 

                

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