Grumpy McCain's Plumber Didn't Have the Fix

Posted by Christy Hardin Smith, Firedoglake at 7:02 AM on October 16, 2008.

David Gergen's post-debate quip that McCain's debate performance looked like an exercise in anger management was spot on.  It was a huge turn-off to watch McCain taking his smirky, petulant, immature, angry id on a public parade.

In politics it is generally not considered a good sign when voters are laughing at you, not with you. And by the end of the third and last presidential debate, the undecided voters who had gathered in Denver for Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg’s focus group were "audibly snickering" at John McCain’s grimaces, eye-bulging, and repeated references to "Joe the Plumber."

The word of the night for McCain was "angry." Or was it frustrated.  Or petulant.  Or dyspeptic.  Or...

The one word that never came to mind with regard to McCain was "presidential."  Huge problem this late in the game for him.

And the snap polls show that across the board, with Obama handily wiping the floor with McCain.  Obama was calm, thoughtful, and not an asshole, which was a perfect contrast with McCain, and a great counterpoint to the mess that George Bush has been.  

Tagged as: debate, mccain, joe the plumber

Christy Hardin Smith is a former attorney, who earned her undergraduate degree at Smith College, in American Studies and Government, concentrating in American Foreign Policy. She then went on to graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania in the field of political science and international relations/security studies, before attending law school at the College of Law at West Virginia University, where she was Associate Editor of the Law Review.