Like most Americans, I guess that I am suffering from election fatigue. While watching last nights debate it occurred to me that we are witnessing more of the same each time Senators Obama and McCain grace the same room or stage. It is difficult to truly declare a winner of last night’s debate because to do so really boils down to which candidate you support. As such, count me in the Obama column. My opinion is not based solely on the forensic performance, as I have become accustomed to Obama’s calm demeanor and masterful oratory. Last night, I thought that McCain performed far better than in the first debate where he appeared wooden, angry and unsure of the complexities or depths of our economic problems.

No, my opinion at this juncture is based upon the fact that as hard as McCain may try, that it is difficult for me to view him as anything more than a part of the problem---not the solution. Unlike his running mate Sarah Palin, an outsider that many voters hope remains outside because of her lack of preparedness for the job, McCain is the ultimate Washington insider. During his twenty six years in Congress he has witnessed both Bear and Bull economies, successful military missions and not so successful ones too, like the Beirut mission in 1983 that he mentioned last night. With that much institutionalized knowledge within him, McCain is best needed right in the Senate where he can use his self touted willingness to be bipartisan to help the next president, which I hope is Obama, develop some serious plans to right the economic ship. McCain, if he is willing to admit that he has backed failed economic policies in the past, could be most helpful in the committee meetings and floor debates where the heavy lifting on domestic policy is done.

Ultimately, it is McCain’s temperament that makes him, in my estimation, unfit for the job of president. His “That one” comment about Obama was rude and uncalled for. When watching McCain, I am often reminded of the mercurial character Sonny Corleone, who in the Godfather ultimately seals his own fate because, as Virgil Sollozo says to family lawyer Tom Hagen, he cannot control “that famous temper”. With Democrats all but assured to be the controlling party in Congress for at least the next two years, I just don’t believe that McCain's temparament would enable him to deliver on any of his proposals to stimulate the economy. Gridlock would certainly be the name of the game, and we, the people, will suffer because of it.

McCain’s friends often state that his irascible nature is due to his training as a warrior. It has been said that he views politics much like he would an enemy combatant. Well, that may make sense to some, but it certainly does not bode well for forging consensus at home or abroad. We can thank our current president for straining relations with many of our longtime allies because of his go-it-alone mentality that has, in many ways, left us almost completely alone in doing the heavy fighting in the war on terror. The next president must do a better job of rebuilding those alliances. It is important to remember, as some experts have suggested, that one of the primary reasons behind our victory over the Soviet Union during the Cold War is that we ultimately engaged that nation in an arms race that they could not win. Their economic collapse was the key to their ultimate ruin.

Similarly, McCain’s passion, the war on terror, has all but diverted him from considering that our own economy cannot afford to continue funding new fronts based upon his penchant for offensive warfare. McCain often chides Obama for refusing to admit that “the surge has worked”, while Obama, quite deftly, continues to hammer McCain for not realizing , until just two weeks ago, that the fundamentals of our economy are not strong.

Last night’s debate was troubling in that, again, both candidates have a penchant for speaking in broad general terms that are devoid of any specifics. Case in point, McCain unveiled an extremely promising idea of the Treasury purchasing faulty mortgages and renegotiating lower premiums for those in default. As a Democrat, I immediately wondered whether we had pitched such an idea first, and if not---why not. Still, McCain lost a chance to continue hitting that point in the debate, a point that just may have piqued the interest of some undecided voters in Florida, where the foreclosure crisis is reaching monumental proportions along the crucial I-4 corridor between Tampa and Daytona that holds the key to Florida’ electoral votes.

Which brings me back to my main point---these debates have become utterly useless. Anyone who has yet to decide will have to do so based upon projecting which candidate would best represent their vision of what America is and ultimately will be. It is becoming very unlikely that we will not hear specifics until the ultimate victor begins selecting his transition team and cabinet while outlining his goals for the first 100 days in office.

RACE AND POLLS

Count me among the skeptics about polling data. As my mother often reminds me, Gallup and others have never called her or me. Truth be told, most of us have never participated in any of the polls that project which way the country is leaning this election season.

I thought of this last night when following the debate, CNN’s David Gergen discussed a new Stanford University-Yahoo poll that suggests that Obama’s lead may be overestimated by as much as 6% among likely white Democratic voters. Yes, Democrats. http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-race-in-america

The poll acknowledges the obvious, that Republicans, regardless of race, are unlikely to vote for Obama based upon ideology, just as they refused to vote for Kerry or Al Gore previously.

I was a little surprised, however, to learn that perhaps as many as one third of white Democrats have yet to warm up to Obama. What is their excuse, since he consistently tows the party line on all major issues? Within the Associated Press article discussing the Stanford poll, one white Ohio voter, John Clouse, stated that “we still don’t like black people.” I find his ignorance to be disturbing, particularly when considering that this same guy and his friends probably cheer for the black stars of the Ohio State Buckeye football team or brag about the exploits of Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers while professing to dislike blacks.

To their credit, Obama’s campaign understands that there are some white Democrats in this country, particularly over the age of 45 that just cannot vote for him based upon his skin color. I would imagine that if Hillary Clinton had been the nominee, there may have been significant numbers of Democrat males that would not have supported her because of her gender. Lest we forget the cruel “Iron my Shirt” outburst at a Clinton rally during the primary.

Still, the optimist in me recognizes that Obama’s success is owed, in part, to the many whites that do support him. I am encouraged because as I have often said in opinion columns, the younger generations, those that have grown up going to school with, playing with and in many instances praying with different races have less racial bias than those who came up during rigid Jim Crow. I believe that twenty years from now, most presidential primaries will be filled with ethnic and gender diversity. Win or lose, his very presence draws us closer to being the color blind society that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamt of.

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