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Senior editor at The Daily Beast.
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What McCain Was Really Saying
Psychiatrists deconstruct the hidden conversation during last night’s debate. 
by Lizzie Stark
After last night’s debate, it’s clear that McCain wants to be Sarah Palin, Obama feels guilty about winning, and neither candidate really wants to be president.
At least that’s the interpretation of a panel of psychiatrists who were scanning for subconscious messages during the debate.
Most insta-polls reported Obama the winner, but viewers may have missed his subtle gestures of dominance. “Whoever walks over to shake hands first, that’s a very powerful move. That’s kind of a dominant thing,” said The Daily Beast’s Dr. Stephen Josephson, a cognitive behavioral therapist from New York City. Obama won the first hand duel, extending his palm a few precious seconds before McCain did.
McCain is essentially shorting the presidency. If he loses, he brings down the Republican Party, and validates his unconscious desire to blow up his own party.
T. Byram Karasu, Psychiatrist-in-Chief at Montefiore Medical Center, was struck by both candidates seeming lack of interest in winning the presidency. “Obama has no interest in fighting,” Karasu said. “He would like basically to be thought of as a smart person…he wants to compete for the prize, but not to win.
“He’d be happy to have this discussion go for years…he does not know how to bring this to closure, he doesn’t know how to knock out the other person,” Karasu said. Most likely, “he doesn’t think he deserves it,” and feels “a certain guiltiness about winning,” adds Karasu.
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an interesting perspective... Z
I don't think John McCain subconsciously wants to lose the race, but I do think he is genuinely baffled as to how to manage the economic crisis and that creates ambivalence. Obama struck me as aware of McCain's feelings of inadequacy and struggling between the necessity of besting him to win the debate, and ultimately the Presidency, and a gentlemanly desire to be gracious in victory. I've never liked him more.
How ridiculous.
On another web-site (TPM) after the first debate, there was a posting by by a primate evolutionary biologist who argued that primates do not make eye-contact unless they are alpha-males, looking away is the way for underlings.
John McCain was showing his insecurity.
The analysis of McCain made more sense to me than the analysis of Obama. I think it is ridiculous to say that Obama doesn't want to win. He wouldn't be going through the stress of the race and the 2-year separation from his growing children just to conduct a conversation. More likely, as Concordian suggests, he has some ambivalence about having to conduct a mini-war for the Presidency rather than a gentlemanly contest of intellects. The problem with Democratic candidates like Dukakis and Kerry was that they tried to remain above the fray. Obama knows that he can't do that and win.
Maybe this explains why Obama kept saying "When I'm president of the United States_ -" something like that five times while McCain didn't utter the incantation. In his case because he knows it's now hopeless and in Obama's case but he realises is going to have to meet all those promises. Hope he'l lthen cut down on the demagogy.
Surely it is still the choice of the electorate? What is worrying with the worlds most dominant "democracy" is that both parties feel they can manipulate the opposition's position by spitting pointless venom. What happened to decency and voting for people that are right to rule?
Psychologically, I think (in a way) McCain is re-fighting the Vietnam war. It ended because the anti-war people ended it, and not the way he wanted (we lost). Obama represents the anti-war people (although a generation or two removed). Hence the intense animous from McCain towards Obama. Somehow, if he can win this election, it vindicates the Vietnam war and means his time in the POW camp was not wasted (it was, as was that whole war and this one as well).
The experts are almost right about Obama. He does not want to win the race now. He wants to win it on Nov. 4th. He fears that if he pulls ahead too much at this point, his supporters would be less mobilized, his opponents more vicious. He wants to stay where he is today, until a couple of days before the vote. And only then, will he give it all he's got. Obama is one of the most disciplined strategists I've ever known.
I agree with Concordian's comments for both candidates.
I agree with the analysis of John McCain. For months now, we've seen him hiding behind Palin's skirt while she says what he doesn't have the nerve to say. I'm very disappointed, I used to believe that he was an honorable man, I don't believe that any more. By the way, I've lived in Alaska for 40 years and am not a Palin supporter for good reasons.
While this piece presents some interesting ideas about the body language and the "hidden" psychology of the two candidates, in the end, I think I agree with AbbyLongoria: this article is pretty ridiculous.
I agree with Concordian
I agree with Concordian completely. I don't see Obama as not wanting to win at all, I think he's very intuitive about how the media and the public will turn on him if he comes across as arrogant. McCain is someone else now; the whispery voice, the "my friends" comment all the time....he's so fake I can't stand to see him anymore. For the first time in my life I'm a registered Independent and this year I'm quietly comforted by Obama's quiet strength.