2008 PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE, PART DEUX: HEY, MCCAIN, WHO THE FUCK IS “THAT ONE”?

Well, this debate was certainly different than the first one in at least a few ways.

From the gate, in the way that both candidates seemed to enter and greet each other, this viewer really got the impression that they both wanted to fuckin’ kill each other, but in a civilized, pre-chess match sort of way.

McCain finally got the much coveted “town hall” style forum that he was constantly whining about Obama having never agreed to in the early stages of the campaign. The format can be sort of interesting, that is, if your bag is watching ninety minutes of a couple of guys taking turns at going for their best Phil Donahue impersonation. McCain apparently feels that this is a folksier environment in order to try and fool Joe Sixpack into thinking that the Senator from Arizona and his political party even remotely give a shit about the working class.

The debate had occasional signs of possibly changing its format from Donahue into Dr. Phil with occasional mild verbal jabs between the two candidates. McCain insinuated that Obama was going to turn us all into the terrorists’ bitches, while Obama at another point accused McCain of picking up sick little kids and punting them out of hospitals like Shane Lechler on 4th and 20 at the Raiders’ three yard line.

In the first debate, Obama kept trying to cut in with “That’s not true” to certain parts of McCain’s statements and this time, he kept trying to ask for response times in a format in which both candidates agreed not to go over too much time, much less give responses. This is obviously not the wisest strategy, as the Senator from Illinois should realize that those of us watching the debate at home are smart enough to realize when McCain is full of shit without any outside help. Trust me, Senator Obama, we know that certain battleground states may be gullible enough to take your opponents statements at face value, but sometimes it’s best to just let him malinger from the reality and then we can talk about it at the water cooler or the bar or wherever.

McCain really bugged the shit out of me when, at one point, when making one more braggadocio about some vague piece of legislation that he wasn't supporting, he referred to Obama as “that one” who did support it.

By the way, my friends, I know you grow a little weary with this back-and-forth. It was an energy bill on the floor of the Senate loaded down with goodies, billions for the oil companies, and it was sponsored by Bush and Cheney.

You know who voted for it? You might never know. That one. You know who voted against it? Me. I have fought time after time against these pork barrel -- these bills that come to the floor and they have all kinds of goodies and all kinds of things in them for everybody and they buy off the votes.

I was so taken back by the terminology that I forgot what the Hell McCain was talking about. Not “this Senator”, not “this man”, not even “this person”, but “that one”. Uh huh, referring to your opponent as a thing, suggesting separation from yourself, with the inconvenient coincidence “that one” happens to be African-American. Yeah. Great form there. Ought to really galvanize the minority vote. For Obama. Oh yeah, I forgot. With the exception of maybe Don King and Marilyn Manson.

INTERESTING SIDE NOTE: If you think that my observation of McCain calling Obama "that one" could be dismissed as left-wing blogosphere overreaction, consider that Keith Olbermann made the same observation right after the debate, literally minutes after I finished writing this post.