McCain, meanwhile, is grappling with a subconscious desire to lose the race. “He is essentially shorting the presidency,” said Karasu. If he loses, he brings down the Republican party, and validates his unconscious desire to blow up his own party.
“If women and conservatives are as powerful as they are supposed to be,” McCain will win the presidency, said Karasu. “But if, by picking a staunch conservative and a woman he loses the presidency, then that validates his Maverick-y distaste for both.”
McCain was also channeling his running mate last night. “Basically, McCain has no clear identity as a nominee, and that was why he was trying to imitate Sarah Palin,” Karasu said. The Republican nominee used Palin’s qualities of “direct aggressive behavior and aggressive language.”
He spoke with his fists, not his hands, and even walked toward Obama during several of Obama’s answers. McCain was never calm, but “consciously he was trying to contain his emotions,” behavior Karasu described as “emotionally incontinent.” When McCain approached audience members, they drew back. “He was close, but it was not the closeness of intimacy,” Karasu said. “It was an aggressive presence.”
In contrast to McCain’s clenched fists, Obama made graceful gestures and actually laughed off some of McCain’s accusations. As the younger, more handsome man, Karasu said, he had a definite edge in the body-language department. Plus, he had “professorial competence,” in front of a small crowd.
McCain’s repeated refrain of “my friend” was a way of buying time. “McCain is generalizing all the time, as if he is not well tuned to the issues. Obama is a much better student—it’s a kind of professorial competence...that’s was why he was so comfortable,” said Karasu.
And while the post-debate polls called it for Obama, they don’t mean much, Dr. Shanto Iyengar, a book author who writes about political psychology and teaches Political Science at Stanford, said. “The people watching the debates are not unbiased judges of the candidates’ performance,” he said, noting that a substantial amount of research has been done on the matter. The polls “simply represent the fact that there are more people who want to vote for Senator Obama and they’re simply rationalizing their choice.”
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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.