EclecticLip

The second Obama-McCain debate was the other night; I caught a replay after coming home from ball hockey.  Obama won this one so handily, it reminded me of Chris Rock’s description of the first Rocky: “a movie which finishes with a black brother beating up a white man for forty-five minutes?  What’s not to like?”

The debate was a highly-scripted town-hall format (the audience could ask questions, but had to submit them in writing in advance and weren’t allowed to deviate if they were chosen) which McCain evidently prefers — he had wanted to do town halls with Obama across the US, during the campaign.  His connection with the audience (in studio and watching) though, seemed forced.  The first time he addressed the audience (in studio and watching) as “my friends” it sounded genuine.  The fourth time, it sounded ingenuine; the eighth time, it sounded as genuinely artificial as my attempt to use “genuine” in each of these descriptions.  While Obama articulated facts and policies, McCain positioned himself based on experience and fear-of-what-Obama-would-do.  In this regard, it flashed me back to Harper and Martin’s respective strategies, last campaign.

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Up here, it looks like Harper might get re-elected without much of a seat gain, with the main beneficiaries being the NDP.  The amount all parties combined are allowed to spend this Canadian election, is roughly Cdn$90 million.  Or, less than what Barack Obama raised in the month of September.  (US$85 million)