Pictures: US Congress (Public Domain)
'With so much scope for a complete train wreck, both candidates behaved themselves.'

Surefish correspondent Matthew Graham, who lives and works in the United States, continues his series of articles about November's presidential election

As the stock market trousers of the clown of economy continue to fall down and then get pulled up again, you have to wonder how vexed or disillusioned the candidates must be
feeling.

The America that one of them will inherit in January is going to be very different from what they expected when they declared their candidacy.

The famous 100-day honeymoon period will surely now be spent trying to repair the US economy rather then embarking upon any ambitious plans for social reform, military action or tax restructuring.

Strong comparisons are being drawn, however, with both the 1932 and 1860 elections, which gave us FDR and the New Deal and Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation respectively so maybe it’s not all doom-and-gloom.

Debates

Current events have certainly forced their way into the meticulously planned world of the presidential and vice-presidential debates.

Representatives from both camps will have spent months negotiating over the exact number, format and policy focus of each debate,
only to have the economy ride roughshod over each contest.

Carefully orchestrated opportunities for each candidate to sell their wares will have been hastily revised to include pithy soundbites and 30-second critiques of their opponent’s flawed standpoint
on the events of the past few days.

In fact, the economy almost put paid to the first debate entirely but sufficient progress on the $700bn bailout plan in Congress meant that Sen. McCain was free again to resume his election campaign and face Sen. Obama in Oxford, Mississippi.

Both candidates stuck to their scripts – Sen. McCain on his experience and Sen. Obama on his detailed plans for change – and neither committed any gaffes.

Most people felt that it was a draw or that Sen. Obama had won, particularly on the economy, but Sen. McCain did better on foreign policy, which had been the initial topic for the debate.

Disappointment

There was also a general feeling of disappointment that the debate was nowhere near as good as it could have been, although Sen. McCain’s apparent inability to look at his opponent drew some comment.

The vice-presidential debate is normally considered to be the political equivalent of the semi-final losers match but Gov. Palin undoubtedly contributed to making it the most watched in history.

In fact, it drew more viewers than the first presidential debate, though many viewers came away disappointed.

With so much scope for a complete train wreck, both candidates behaved themselves – Sen. Biden steered clear of any criticism of Gov. Palin and although Gov. Palin started off by saying that she “may not answer the questions the way the moderator and you want to hear”, she avoided the sort of exposing answers that she had given in previous interviews.

The final verdict was that Sen. Biden won but Gov. Palin did no harm to her side, which was certainly no mean feat.

The penultimate and most recent presidential debate should have favoured Sen. McCain with its town hall forum style and solicited questions from the audience.

Satire

However, most viewers felt that Sen. Obama again held the field. Sen. McCain continued to not look at his opponent, which has now become a staple feature of current political satire.

Many viewers also expressed a degree of boredom again that both candidates were playing it safe and sticking to their talking points.

Although there is still one final debate to come, the expectation is that this will not amount to much.

Certainly in this election, the normally decisive debates are playing second fiddle to the daily happenings and with just three weeks to go now, who knows what else history has in store for us.