Round One, Oxford Mississippi

Round One of the 2008 Presidential debates occurred on Sept.26 on the campus of the University of Mississippi, in Oxford. Any suspense was eliminated before the fact when Sen. John McCain flipped about whether to show up or not. He'd put his campaign on hold, he said, then ham-handedly swooped into Washington, D.C., in an effort to extract some leadership points. Imagine Senator McCain, who knows nothing, querying Secretary Paulsen, who knows too much. In any case, McCain extracted no points, so he flopped on to Oxford, looking haggard and quite old.

When the cameras came on at Ole Miss, Sen. McCain began yet another ludicrous spectacle by railing against and promising to change policies, foreign and domestic, for which he had consistently voted. He then parroted Bush's tough talk about Iran and added some tough talk about Russia on his own. He came close to correctly pronouncing Ahmadinejad, but was way off the mark in his Russia v Georgia rant. He castigated Russia's use offorce in expelling Georgians from South Ossetia, but failed to acknowledge Georgia's attempt to annex the unwilling South Ossetians. That's what started the whole thing, and it was probably done with encouragement of CIA bumblers. It the same old, same old rhetoric scripted by the military-industrial complex through its Pantagon mouthpieces. As the world knows, we've paid and continue to pay for eight years of Bush-Cheney bellicosity. How exactly does Sen. McCain equate what he said in Oxford with change?

As an agent of change, McCain is a parody; an unfuuny one. And, in a medium where appearance is everything, the senator again failed to impress. With his appalling facial expressions, affected in between responses, Sen. McCain turned into Sen. Smirk.

Senator Obama, while not nearly assertive enough, scored point on every exchange by pointing out McCain's 180 degree difference in opposing Bush-Cheney policies he previously and invariably voted to approve.

Obama came off as calm, controlled and dignified. McCain looked old and sounded crotchety.

Rev Cox, September 28, 2008