A Fine Point

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The editors who craft the Post-Gazette’s daily stands on the issues affecting the region, the state and the nation hold an on-line conversation with readers about key topics in the news. The PG editorial writers are: Tom Waseleski, Reg Henry, Susan Mannella, Tony Norman and Dan Simpson.  

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McCain looked old

Tom Waseleski

Susan's right. It's amazing that McCain wanted 10 town hall meetings with Obama when, in fact, the format last night only highlighted his age. He moved with stiffness around the stage, I guess in large part because of his war injuries.

But viewers could not have missed the stark comparison between the two candidates in physical vitality. The 72-year-old looked it. Personally, I think McCain held his own in answering the questions, particularly if you read the text of the debate. But video images are hard to shake when you think about choosing the person to fill the world's toughest job. CNN has a handy replay  feature that gives you both text and video.  

 

Posted Oct 08 2008, 11:30 AM by Tom Waseleski
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Comments

Barbara White Stack wrote re: McCain looked old
on Wed, Oct 8 2008 4:46 PM

McCain Looked Mean

Sen. Barack Obama cut all of us, but mainly John McCain, a break when the Democrat refused McCain's challenge to debate at a dozen town hall meetings.

None of us wants to listen to this stuff twelve times. We're done with it already. Could we please hold the election tomorrow? Hasn't this campaign been going on longer than Sarah Palin has been governor?

Oh, yeah. It has.

Mainly, however, none of us could bear to watch John McCain get nastier and nastier. He's become a stereotype cranky old man. He's so bitter, he couldn't even get Barack Obama's name out of his mouth at one point during the debate on Tuesday, dismissively referring to him as, "that one."

For those who watched CNN, it's clear that his malicious attacks don't work. CNN tracks viewer response throughout, and every time McCain - or Obama - got unpleasant, those "professional watchers" reacted instantly by rating the candidate negatively.

It's not like Obama didn't lash out at McCain at all. But clearly McCain's behavior was more like that of a rabid pit bull - without any lipstick to mask its intent.

That's why most viewers gave Obama the win afterwards.