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The ‘Real’ McCain
McCain the fighter was back, with Barack Obama on the defense most of the night.
I once asked John McCain why Al Gore lost the presidency to George W. Bush in 2000. His answer was simple: the debates. It was McCain’s belief that three different Gores showed up for the three debates (who can forget the rouge-cheeked “Ronald Reagan” Gore?), which proved unsettling to voters.
During this debate season, we did not have three different McCains. We had two tepid, placating McCains, offering pleasant, affable commentary carefully chosen not to upset anyone, especially his opponent, before the “real” McCain appeared last night. The most passionate moment in McCain’s campaign so far was the moving, from-the-gut call-to-arms at the end of his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention—the fighter calling his fellow citizens to his cause. That was what we saw in the third presidential debate—McCain the fighter taking it to Barack Obama, who looked on the defense most of the night.
There were campaign-defining lines (“I am not President Bush!”), zingers (“that old washed-up terrorist,” meaning William Ayers), and personal digs (“who has never been south of our border,” meaning Obama). But the most memorable aspect of the debate was McCain’s passion. This was the in-your-face defender of the common man—one journalist once called him Citizen McCain—who was willing to lay into Obama in defense of all the Joe the Plumbers across America, who are not keen on ideas like a redistribution of wealth. Had the real McCain shown up for the first two debates how different his campaign may be today.
Check out other opinions on the debate from The Daily Beast team.
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The Daily Beast is dedicated to news and commentary, culture, and entertainment. We carefully curate the web’s most essential stories and bring you original must-reads from our talented contributors.
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Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
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Paul Alexander is the author of Machiavelli’s Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove and Man of the People: The Life of John McCain, among others. A member of The Authors Guild and PEN American Center, Paul has been a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
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Paul Alexander is the author of Machiavelli’s Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove and Man of the People: The Life of John McCain, among others. A member of The Authors Guild and PEN American Center, Paul has been a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Flashback
Paul Alexander is the author of Machiavelli’s Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove and Man of the People: The Life of John McCain, among others. A member of The Authors Guild and PEN American Center, Paul has been a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
wahooligan
Wow. That was the most delusional post ever.
Rocket88
So the "real" McCain is a congential liar with a creepy, inappropriate grin, incapable of expressing anything other than unfounded personal attacks? Maybe the "other" McCain should have appeared, then. Snap polls showed the "real" McCain losing by a larger margin last night than he did after the first two debates.
tonypony
Paul must have been watching a different debate than I watched!! If this is the real McCain--I find him out of touch.
lfrenchsmith
Had the "real" McCain shown up at the first two debates, Obama would surely be leading by 20 points instead of 10. Thank goodness this baser self is only appealing to a small extremist group. I couldn't imagine it showing up at say a meeting of the G7 or say the gathering a dignitaries at the United Nations.
ronbailey
You really think so? I only wish that the constipated, antiquated, irritated old fart that we saw last night really HAD shown up for all three events...
jenny4hill
"There were campaign-defining lines ('I am not President Bush!')" ... That is campaign-DEFINING? who McCain is NOT? What I find truly disheartening (not to mention, hypocritcal) is John McCain's recent turnabout, to emulating the Bush machine at its most sinister. That is, using the strategy of fear-mongering with the buzzword, "terrorist," as its centerpiece -- heedless of harm to the American public, selfish and short-sighted in pursuit of personal ambition.
macnac
McCain looked more like a creepy Dr. Evil than a fighter. His smirking, snorting, blinking, and mock surprise--that counts as the old John McCain. Why not just say it? John McCain is old-fashioned in the type of campaign he is running, and he sold himself out to get the nomination. If he had stayed true to the John McCain of 2000 for the last eight years, he might have had a chance this year. Then again, maybe not. Obama's a rock star.
ArtimusClydeFrog
surely you were watching some other channel......
ChuckWood
Citizen McCain...how appropriate. A bitter, once successful old man ends his days unhappy and alone. Except McCain himself has eight Xanadus.
ChuckWood
Citizen McCain...how appropriate. A bitter, once successful old man ends his days unhappy and alone. Except McCain himself has eight Xanadus.
ChuckWood
Citizen McCain...how appropriate. A bitter, once successful old man ends his days unhappy and alone. Except McCain himself has eight Xanadus.
RandyDuck
If McCain came off as any kind of fighter, it was as a punch-drunk boxer in the final round, swinging wildly at an opponent who was content to hold him back with one gloved hand and wave to the crowd with the other.
BrianByrne
I was trying to figure out what in god's name you were watching that you could say this about, and then I remembered they showed Chuck Norris's "Delta Force" on one of the HBOs last night. The debate was on the news channels, dude. S'okay, you didn't miss much.
Unfocused
Mr. Alexander: McCain should not be "defining" his campaign less than three weeks before election day. He's been running for President for two years. If, this close to the finish, his "campaign-defining moment" is to announce that he is not George Bush, then he deserves to lose all 50 states.
It seems a little odd for you to congratulate McCain on his "zinger" against Bill Ayers, who isn't a candidate and who Obama barely knew.
Finally, is it really a personal dig to say that Obama has never been south of our border? At least he has had a passport, and has used it, to go further than Canada, unlike McCain's running mate. Again, neither interesting nor effective.
Instead, McCain appeared to have carefully studied Al Gore's worst debate performance, in which he constantly rolled his eyes, shook his head, and sighed in apparent disbelief at his opponent's statements, in order to imitate it. McCain's eye rolling and audible snorts were a bizarre counterpoint to Obama's patient calm.
McCain, to put it bluntly, was pwned.
bencharif
To be an effective spinmeister, you must, at a bare minimum, begin your argument with a point on which most observers, whatever their perspectives, would agree--a point that might give subsequent points added weight and give your argument greater credibility.
Yes, I'm an Obama supporter, but that support doesn't blind me to what I regard as his deficiencies. Mr. Alexander is an unabashed true believer who seems to have watched a different debate, and a very different John McCain, from the debate and the Republican presidential candidate I saw on PBS last night.
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