Obama Carries Uneven Record as Debater to First Contest With McCain
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: September 22, 2008
Senator Barack Obama has shown himself at times to be a great orator. His debating skills, however, have been uneven.
Some of his chief strengths — his facility with words, his wry detachment, his reasoning skills, his youthful cool — have not always served him well and may pose significant vulnerabilities in the series of presidential debates that begins Friday, according to political analysts and a review of his earlier debate performances.
Mr. Obama has a tendency to overintellectualize and to lecture, befitting his training as a lawyer and law professor. He exudes disdain for the quips and sound bites that some deride as trivializing political debates but that have become a central part of scoring them. He tends to the earnest and humorless when audiences seem to crave passion and personality. He frequently rises above the mire of political combat when the battle calls for engagement.
This was seen most starkly at last month’s forum at Saddleback Church, where he and Senator John McCain were interviewed back to back by the evangelical church’s pastor, the Rev. Rick Warren. Mr. Obama gave long, discursive answers to questions on loaded topics like abortion and personal moral failings, while Mr. McCain stole the show with earthy anecdotes and humor.
“Obama clearly knows how to float like a butterfly,” said Alan Schroeder, who studies media and the presidency at Northeastern University, “but he needs to work on the sting-like-a-bee part.”
Those who watched his debate performances during the long primary season say he improved markedly from a fairly shaky start but never really mastered the form....
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/us/politics/23obama.html?ref=todayspaper***
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A Scrappy Fighter, McCain Honed His Debating Style in and Out of Politics
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Published: September 22, 2008
Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, heads into the first debate on Friday with a track record as a scrappy combatant and the instincts of a fighter pilot, prepared to take out his opponent and willing to take risks to do so. He has used fairly consistent techniques during his roughly 30 debates on the national stage: he is an aggressive competitor who scolds his opponents, grins when he scores and is handy with the rhetorical shiv....
A review of several of Mr. McCain’s debates shows that he is most comfortable and authentic when the subject is foreign policy. And in a stroke of good fortune, foreign policy is the topic for Friday, the first of three 90-minute debates with Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee.
Voters give higher marks to Mr. McCain as a potential commander in chief, and Mr. Obama should expect Mr. McCain to question his credentials for the job at every turn — and to distort his views, as (Mitt) Romney insisted he did.
Mr. McCain is likely to steer the conversation, as he has in past debates, to his captivity in Vietnam. It was the bedrock experience of his life and is the organizing principle of his political identity....
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He uses short, active verbs that project strength, and he can connect with audiences on a visceral level using down-to-earth language....
But...Mr. McCain’s performances (in Primary debates) could be uneven. He stumbled over some words. He looked confused at several junctures and was slow on the draw, retrieving his time on occasion to amend earlier answers....When the topic strays from foreign policy, Mr. McCain’s interest can fade and he can lapse into his stump speech. “McCain’s major weakness is looking wooden, and when he’s out of his comfort zone, his sound bites become weaker and his evasions of questions become more obvious,” said David Lanoue, a political scientist at the University of Alabama and an expert in presidential debates....
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David S. Birdsell, who specializes in political communication and presidential debates at Baruch College, said Mr. McCain could be “irascible and pugnacious and clearly stoked by personal animosity.” It will be a challenge for him to keep that side in check, Mr. Birdsell said, especially toward Mr. Obama, who is 25 years Mr. McCain’s junior and who Mr. McCain believes has not paid his dues. “Can McCain restrain himself?” Mr. Birdsell asked. “And will Obama have the ability to place the pinpricks at the right moment to elicit that negative, slashing, awkwardly grinning McCain?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/us/politics/23mccain.html?ref=todayspaper
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