http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=mccains_desperate_debate_gambitMcCain's Desperate Debate Gambit
John McCain knows his campaign is in trouble, and so he's trying to pressure Barack Obama into a long series of town hall meetings. But speeches are the real way the president appeals to the public.
Paul Waldman | June 17, 2008 | web only
Few controversies of the presidential campaign seem less momentous once they conclude than the traditional “debate over debates.” One campaign pushes for more debates, the other pushes for fewer, and the two perform a ridiculous tango of dudgeon, disappointment, and expectations-gaming. As with so much else in this long, long campaign, the debate over debates has started early this year.
John McCain is pressing Barack Obama to join him for ten town hall-style debates, while the Obama campaign has countered with an offer of five debates, only one of which would be a town hall. But, posturing aside, how much will the debates, and the rest of the campaign, really tell us about the next presidency?
It’s hard to blame the McCain campaign for wanting to turn the race into little but one town hall after another. They seem to have noticed that what’s tickling their ankles is the quicksand of defeat. Desperate for a hanging branch to grab onto, they have seized on the town hall, the forum that has been so good to them for so long. If they could only force their dynamic young opponent with history on his side to come to the place where McCain feels most comfortable, perhaps the GOP nominee could drag himself back to firmer ground.
The kink in this plan is that, for all his masterful speechifying, Barack Obama does fine when interacting with voters. He might not make his audience weep, but he won’t turn them off, either. And while the John McCain who reads a prepared speech is certainly a less pleasant candidate to listen to than the one who conducts a town hall, it isn’t as though the latter is Itzhak Perlman with a Stradivarius or Willie Mosconi with a pool cue. McCain could conduct five town halls every day from now to November, and it wouldn’t be enough to make Americans forget the war or the economy or the joyous prospect of putting the last eight years of misery behind them once and for all.
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Giving speeches isn’t just something presidents do when they’re not doing the real work of running the country, it is one of the core duties of the president. In modern times, presidents give speeches nearly every day. The ability to move, inspire, comfort, and engage the public is one of the most valuable skills a president can have, and their speeches eventually become the touchstones of our historical memory. The Gettysburg Address, Roosevelt and Kennedy’s inaugurals, Reagan demanding that Gorbachev tear down the Berlin Wall -- speeches come to define the president. There is one president, on the other hand, who tried to persuade the public through repeated use of the town hall. His presidency has seven months to go.
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