They bickered and badgered, but blunders they avoided.
From behind piles of facts and mounds of fiction came sharp disagreements and personal attacks in Wednesday night’s political double feature.
The rhetorical match-ups of those vying to be our nation’s next president and our state’s next governor didn’t attain the height of remarkable or sink to the low of forgettable.
They did introduce America to a new political face:
Joe the Plumber, living somewhere in Ohio.
Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama made the introductions in their debate.
On taxes, health care and the economy, the two presidential candidates sought to reassure the man with the plunger they were his friend.
At times, I felt a little ignored.
Obama told Joe not to worry about being taxed if the Democratic candidate wins. McCain said Joe earned enough money to be taxed under that plan. Looking into the camera, he said with a light sarcasm, “Hey, Joe, you’re rich. Congratulations.”
When Joe wasn’t on their minds, McCain and Obama made efforts to enunciate their differences on economic, energy, education and social policy. Given the chance, they slammed one another.
For the most part, McCain carried a trunkload of expectations to his seat and Obama had but a manila folder’s worth.
Down in the polls, pundits of all partisan persuasions seemed convinced this was a pivotal moment for McCain to try to alter the dynamic of a contest viewed as slipping out of the Arizona senator’s grasp.
Obama arrived with a singular purpose: Don’t mess up.
It didn’t appear he did, any more than it seemed McCain made inroads into making Obama looking unpresidential and unprepared.
While McCain and Obama did delve into their own ideas at least as much they did bashing those of their opponents, it didn’t go quite so well for Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire and her Grand Old Party challenger Dino Rossi.
They don’t like each other as candidates. It shows.
They used every question as a means of deriding their opponent.
Neither thinks the other is telling the truth. They’ve said so off-camera. But given a chance Wednesday to call their opponent a liar in front of a television audience, they each pulled back.
Drat. That would have made things interesting the next three weeks.
Beyond the verbal slaps and slams, voters getting their ballots this week who are not committed in this race, did get a good sense of the natural tendencies of where both want to guide this state.
Gregoire is proud of her record and unapologetic of how she’s done it.
Rossi is convinced the state will get stuck in the toilet if she keeps doing what she’s done.
Sounded like she was trying to reach out to Joe the Plumber and he was trying to hire him.
Political reporter Jerry Cornfield’s blog, The Petri Dish, is at www.heraldnet.com. Contact him at 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
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