Post mortems and in-depth discussions from Washington insiders have flowed freely following Friday's first McCain-Obama debate with the majority of pundits seeming to agree that neither side came out the winner in a spirited contest. Both Obama and McCain traded blows on issues ranging from foreign affairs to the economy without landing any killer punches though importantly neither contender produced any major gaffes - a big consideration for both campaign teams.

This was a typical example of the analysis:

"It was one of the more competent debates we've seen in a long time. There were no major gaffes. It was data-driven, and both spoke clearly to their constituencies, as they should have," says Allan Louden, a debate expert at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. "I would rate it as a draw, but if it's a draw, the draw goes to the challenger and that would be Obama." [source]

So it was down to perceptions with the tough, nuggety Senator from Arizona reinforcing his reputation as an experienced, down-to-earth debater with Senator Obama looking more cool and dispassionate. For this observer, though it seemed a draw, it was McCain who took the spoils, recovering from a disastrous week where the financial melt-down on Wall Street threatened to derail his campaign. Far from seeming out of sorts on the economy, it seemed that McCain reassured his supporters with his fighting display.

With the economy seemingly headed for dark days, could it be that voters may see the experienced McCain as the preferred option for president, over the inexperienced Obama?

This BBC article gives an interesting slant on the first debate:

Expect much more on the economy in those confrontations and, if the polls show that Mr McCain's more aggressive tone has paid off in this first clash, expect all the debates which follow to be a little more bad-tempered and direct than this one. [source]

However polls taken since the debate have continued to show Obama edging ahead though with the margin very close across the battleground states. Will the perception of the Bush administration as being "asleep at the wheel" during the financial meltdown infect the McCain campaign? Or will the doughty ex Vietnam hero convince the American people of his maverick status and independence from the tainted Bush administration?

Image top: Senator John McCain. Credit: bobster1985/flickr

 

Earlier this year, after sustained pressure from the U.S. media, a select team of reporters was allowed limited access to John McCain's medical records at forty-eight hours notice. The former naval pilot, who has had four bouts with cancer, allowed the reporters three hours to view his 1,173 page file, which only related to his medical history for the previous eight years. Only one of the reporters, Sanjay Gupta, health correspondent for CNN, had any previous medical knowledge.

...A recurrence of metastatic malignant melanoma would essentially destroy John McCain's capacity as the Chief Executive, and the American People have yet to receive a full accounting of the facts regarding his actuarial risk.[source]

Here's a fascinating story written by the writers' coach Roy Peter Clark on the subject of propaganda and the current U.S. presidential campaign.

Yes propaganda, that loaded word we often associate with other brutal regimes and philosophies in different countries and even different times. Clark argues cogently that subtle, and maybe not so subtle, methods of persusion are as alive and well in a democracy as a dictatorship.

Clark, vice-president of the Poynter Institute, rakes out a 1937 leaflet from an organisation called the Institute for Propaganda Analysis, and ticks off the seven points of recognisable propaganda outlined by the group and updates it with reference to the recent tightly-scripted Democratic and Republican conventions.

The parallels are thought-provoking and seemingly obvious yet the point of Clark's article is that, while no journalist likes to admit to being taken in by such techniques, the press corps reports faithfully the tricks being played, with no reference to the underhand methods of persuasion being played on the voters.

No politician, Republican or Democrat, would admit he or she is in the propaganda business. And no journalist I know would admit to being an enabler of the propaganda efforts of a particular political party. Like it or not, every scripted moment of every convention, every syllable of every campaign speech, is an act of political propaganda.[source]

While on the subject of spin, a new website launched this week claims to be the antidote to biased articles. Spinspotter says it monitors and exposes news spin and bias, misuse of sources, and suspect factual support. With both conservative and liberals on the company's board the website claims its anti-spin software tool is a new experience in reading the news.

Can't endorse it I'm afraid as I haven't worked it out yet, but certainly sounds interesting.

Image above: The culmination of the tightly-scripted 2008 Democratic Convention. The Obama and Biden families awash in a sea of red, white and blue. Credit: Dtgwu2005.

Sarah Palin, the surprise selection for the position of Republican nominee, has shot to prominence since she received an unexpected nod from Senator McCain last weekend to serve as his running mate. She brings undoubted talents and excitement to the somewhat staid McCain campaign but will her lack of experience prove a problem?

In a mirror choice to the Democratic party who brought in the experienced Joe Biden to balance the inexperience of Barack Obama at the top of their ticket, the young, gun-totin', pro-hunting, moose meat-eating, pro-life, activist Christian Governor of Alaska has been drafted, at least in part, to balance out Senator McCain's advanced years, add some glitz to the GOP campaign and draw back support from moral conservatives.

In the days since the announcement, she has galvanised the religious right of the Republican party, many of whom had expressed suspicions over Senator's McCain's somewhat chequered record on support for abortion rights and dismissal of moral issues activists as "agents of intolerance". Many of the religious right who had played such a major role in the election of George Bush in 2000 and 2004 were expected to turn their back on the Arizona senator in his run for president.

Indeed something akin to shock had set in amongst moral crusaders recently after news had leaked that McCain was considering choosing a vice presidential running mate who supported a woman's right to choose.

However the rumour was scotched by the choosing of the pro-life Governor and the vital evangelical voter has been greatly bolstered by the choice says this Washington Post report.

Before long TV footage of her in military uniform, firing weapons at a rifle range, inspecting troops from the Alaskan State Guard in Iraq received blanket coverage on U.S. (and world) television screens in vision guaranteed to appeal to conservative voters.

Meantime, at the other end of politics, the Democratic party's approach to Gov. Palin's elevation has been subdued. While fat files had been allegedly compiled on the more likely candidates, Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty, the file was wafer-thin on Palin according to press reports.

After the initial shock of the announcement has sunk in -- the Democrats first commercial after the appointment didn't even mention Mrs Palin -- strategy seems to have settled on highlighting the Governor's almost complete lack of experience in foreign policy, an area recently shored up on the Democratic side by the nomination of the highly experienced, if bland, Joe Biden.

Biden has been senator for Delaware since 1973 and during that time has served on numerous foreign policy committees, including his current role as president of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee.

The Democrats though will look to tread softly though as they focus on the 44-year-old Governor's almost complete lack of experience for fear of attracting attention to the weak points of their own top-of-the-ticket candidate's experience in foreign affairs.