Saddleback, Schmaddleback

Here's the second of this weekend's guest-posts, from Jay McDonough of Swimming Freestyle, a blogger who really does deserve more attention.

Anyone watch last night?  Seriously, a presidential forum, in a huge church, on a Saturday night in August, moderated by a megaselling author/pastor without journalism credentials, and concentrating on issues that only some 20% of voters believe are critical (abortion, gay marriage and the Supreme Court), going up against Michael Phelps as he was vying for a record breaking eighth gold Olympic medal?

Through the magic of modern electronics, I did see both.  Watching Phelps was fun and uplifting.  The church thing?  Not so much.

For the math fans out there, it was pandering to the nth power.  Barack Obama won't win the evangelical demographic, but hopes to get 25 or 30% of these voters and assure the rest that it wouldn't be the end of the world if he were elected.  Obama hopes those other folks stay home on election day.  On the other hand, John McCain desperately needs this demographic if he's going to win the presidency.  Evangelicals, however, have been somewhat squishy on McCain, and last night was his big opportunity to buffalo them into believing he's one of them.  Based on cable news commentary following the forum, he scored some points.

For the 20% of voters idenitifying themselves as evangelical, abortion and gay marriage are right up there on top of their "to do" lists.  I know that because those questions were the first asked of each candidate.  After McCain and Obama answered those, Rick Warren asked each about the Supreme Court.  The Court, for evangelical voters, is just another way of asking about abortion and gay rights.  Conservative president = conservative justices = end of federal abortion and gay marriage rights.

But for the 80% of us who aren't evangelical, a discussion about national morality could have included more than just questions about abortion and gay marriage and include more discussion about preemptive war, the use of torture, veteran care, the rising tally of uninsured, and poverty in America.

If you wanted contrast between presidential candidates, you got it last night.  Obama was contemplative, conversational, and "nuanced" (per cable news analysts).  McCain was blunt, recited much of his stump speech, and direct.  The audience favored McCain, obviously, but was respectful to Obama.

If the objective was to win evangelicals, McCain won the night.  But McCain said a couple things that, had there been someone other than Rick Warren interviewing, would have prompted follow-up questions.

The first was the definition of rich.  I know - kinda dumb question, but I suppose it relates to the tax plans of each candidate.  Obama answered that folks making greater than $250K/year would see a tax increase with his plan, so I suppose we should take that as Obama's definition of wealthy.  Well, if you could figure out McCain's answer you did better than I did.  I think I heard McCain say individuals making more than $5M a year would be considered "rich".   (The statistics are a little shaky, but there are approximately 11,000 individuals in the U.S. making more than $5.5M/year).  Wow, that's a high bar.  I suspect most folks think the number is a good deal lower.

The other question had to do with addressing evil.  Obama said evil "absolutely exists" and must be "confronted".  Obama's answer falls into the "nuanced" category, and some will claim it's weak.  Confronted how?  Under what circumstances?  Always?  Sometimes?  But his answer strikes me as appropriate, and I wouldn't trust anyone delivering a black/white answer to this question.

Which brings us to McCain's answer.  What do we do about evil?  "Defeat it".  Well, that sounds great and it had the audience applauding.  But what the heck does that mean?  There's alot of evil in the world.  Off the top of my head; Zimbabwe, Sudan, Somalia, North Korea, China, Russia, Georgia, Venezuela, Iran, American inner cities, and your hometown.  There's evil in each.  John McCain is going to be one busy dude and we're going to be one busy nation defeating all that evil.  Are you up for it?  Should someone ask Senator McCain how he intends to do it?

But damn, did you watch Phelps and the three other Americans swim their hearts out last night?  Now that was some magic.

Comments

[anderson]

"There's alot of evil in the world."

You left out one potent source: The Office of Vice President.