Tracking The Dials

Rove Fournier’s AP and other news orgs are trying to spin this as a draw, but the polls tell another story. From Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic:

A Democratic strategist passes along some contemporaneous notes from an instant-response dial group conducted for a major Democratic entity last night.

According to this strategist: whenever Sen. McCain leaned on Obama for being naive and repeated the phrase “Sen. Obama doesn’t understand,” the tracking lines nosedived.

I suppose that part of the problem was that McCain looked if he had a sharp spur in his shoe, and Obama’s performance, whatever you made of it, did not sound naive. So McCain’s charges were inconsistent with what viewers were seeing.

The fact that McCain never once looked at Obama and had to be dragged into shaking his hand was noted by several viewers, including Andrew Sullivan:

The more it sinks in, the more I think Obama actually knocked it out of the park last night. He is, in some ways, the inverse McCain. McCain is all drama and explosions but then … the air smells like damp, finished fireworks smoke. Obama seems calm and cautious but then … you realize he cleaned your clock.

A few more morning after thoughts: the body language matters. McCain couldn’t look at Obama as if he is offended by even having to share a stage with him. But Obama engaged him directly several times. Check the photo below. Even when shaking hands, McCain looks away. This is, in fact, a sign of insecurity.

And from Time‘s own focus group:

The audience did not like it when he went after Obama for being “naïve” or used his oft-repeated “what Senator Obama doesn’t understand” line. When the two clashed directly in the second half of the debate, with Obama repeatedly protesting McCain’s characterization of his statements or positions, the voter dials went down. Voters appear to have judged McCain too negative in those encounters and Obama more favorably.

Note to McCain: Being snotty doesn’t work. Unfortunately for McCain, “snotty” is his default mode. Meanwhile, Obama’s decency and humanity struck a chord with at least one viewer:

And it was in watching the replay that I picked up my absolute favorite unsung moment of the debate.

It came when Senator McCain was stumbling with Ahmadinejad’s name. He was stumbling hard, almost unable to get the name or any semblance of it pronounced. Very quietly, but audibly Senator Obama can be heard saying something. In the first viewing, I knew he had said something there, but was unable to decipher exactly what he had said. In listening to the replay it’s easy to hear his comment.

He quietly acknowledged to Senator McCain “That’s a tough one.” When I heard his remark, his gracious nod to the Senator’s struggle to pronounce a very difficult name, his compassion for the man, I choked up. It humbled me. It made me briefly look inward, and feel lesser for originally maybe hoping that it was some cutting barb. And it showed him as a man greater than politics, greater for inspiring empathy and compassion for a fellow man.

Senator McCain’s demeaning, belittling style in the debate has drawn criticism. Rightly so in my opinion. Some has been said of Senator Obama’s gracious and respectful style, some even criticizing his style for not being more vicious, more attacking. But to me, the real measure of the man, not his “style”, but who he is, came in that comment.

It was a very quiet statement. But what it said about Barack Obama is loud and clear.

This man is not only a great leader, he is a very good man.