Though I don't always succeed, I was taught, and hold it as an ideal, that I shouldn't allow myself to display anger or indignation when I'm debating someone on issues.
I recall that Bush blustered and hurled accusations in his debates against Kerry. Is this the new Republican presidential deliberative style? I don't remember Reagan being irascible. Obama seemed a lot more like Reagan rhetorically to me: his calmly but firmly delivered line about the Ayers issue saying more about McCain's campaign than his own struck me as a Reaganesque "There you go again" gesture.
I don't think that Obama dominated, but I don't see how anyone could say that McCain won. It seemed like a close call, but I have to give it to the guy who was more steady and gentlemanly, because I value that demeanor over one marked by anger and indignation.
If you believe that Obama pals around with terrorists, or that he told baldfaced lies about McCain, or that he's going to sink the country with his policies, then I guess you might like to say McCain won by sticking it to him, that in the face of these outrages McCain's anger was justified and appropriate, and that McCain's plain, Lysian style was more rhetorically honest than the Eastern eloquence of Obama.
No comments:
Post a Comment