SATURDAY, September 27, 2008, 8:16am, Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. This is the day after the historical US presidential debate—historical because an African American has reached the finals in the race to become president of the United States.

The debate last night pitted Republican John McCain against his youthful Democratic challenger Barack Obama. Expectations were running high to see whether Obama would come across as presidential and the next commander-in-chief, and whether McCain could finally show the rest of the world that he is a take-charge kind of guy to be the next president.

In the auditorium of the University of Mississippi also known as Ole Miss University where less than half a century ago blacks were not allowed to enrol, Barack Obama went toe-to-toe with John McCain. Moderator Jim Lehrer of PBS clearly wanted the candidates to speak about the worsening economic crisis gripping America, and gave them plenty of chance to do just that. Neither man was eager to speak about the economy.

Obama would not say what he was willing to cut out of his budget once he became president in order to trim spending. McCain said he will cut spending but would not specifically say where or what he would cut. In that first 20 to 30 minutes though, Obama came ahead on points. He was clear, crisp and looked every inch presidential. McCain was missing in action, often mumbling his answers and seemed clearly too uptight. Perhaps he had not anticipated that the economy would be the first issue on the agenda for debate.

When the topic, however, turned to foreign policy which is McCain’s forte, the 72-year old conservative woke up, giving some sharp jabs at Obama. There were many instances when McCain went on the attack to pin Obama down on a foreign policy issue. McCain charged that Obama showed naiveté in thinking he could sit down with Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without laying down preconditions. Obama shot back that there would be preparatory contacts before holding any talks with Iran’s leaders. He cited McCain’s own policy advisor Henry Kissinger as advocating exactly the same position a week before.

Next, McCain tried to pin Obama down on how to deal with Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq, but Obama would have none of it. Nonetheless, McCain used to great advantage his vast experience of foreign travel to show a superior knowledge of world affairs. Obama meanwhile articulated a vision of America’s role on the larger world stage arguing that America needed to regain it stature as a world leader.

While McCain quibbled about how the additional troops had reduced violence in Iraq, Obama argued that American troops were needed in Afghanistan where the Taliban and Osama bin Laden are holed up. Neither man could put the other down. Obama, for instance, squandered some excellent opportunities to knock McCain out for the count. One such opportunity came when McCain accused Obama of saying he would bomb Pakistan.

Wearing a smirk on his face, McCain suggested that Obama should know that Pakistan is an American ally. The problem for McCain was that Obama never said he would bomb Pakistan.

As Obama clearly stated in responding to the charge, the issue was what Obama would do as president if intelligence report located Al Qaeda leaders including Osama bin Laden at a specific place in Pakistan, but Pakistan would not act. In that case, Obama had asserted, as President he would authorise American forces to take out bin Laden to make America safe.

The problem was that after setting the record straight, Obama failed to press on and ask McCain what the Republican candidate would do in the exact similar situation. Not wishing to concede the point, McCain likely would have refused to answer the question or wobbled about it being a hypothetical question, thereby coming across as hesitant to pull the trigger to protect America.

For voters, the lingering image would have been that of John McCain, the presidential candidate, failing to give a clear answer to a clear foreign policy question. But Obama did not ask the question, and McCain walked away scot-free. Obama also could have pinned down McCain on Iraq question of whether the surge of troops is working.

McCain kept coming to this point to say that Obama was wrong about the troop surge, and that victory was possible in Iraq. Obama conceded that the troop surge was working, but pointed out that the initial impetus to go to Iraq was wrong. He could have cleaned out McCain by adding that America won the war in 2003 when they took out Saddam, even if the premise of the war was wrong to begin with. Now it was up to Iraqis to step up to the plate. He said it, but not very effectively.

In the end, on balance, Obama looked stronger and firmer than McCain in the first half hour of the debate, and looked consistently presidential throughout the debate.

McCain looked slightly stronger during the foreign policy portion but his weakness was his inability to look Obama in the eye. Either out of sheer contempt, anger or whatever, McCain could not bring himself to acknowledge Obama’s presence. This attitude, in the end, painted McCain as an inflexible, cantankerous and grumpy old man who thinks he knows it all.

All the snap polls taken immediately after the debate by the major networks indicated that Obama won the debate. Both men will try to improve their standings in the next two debates—stay tuned.

Opiyo.oloya@sympatico.ca