In the first presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain, the two men who would lead America for the next four years, one of the main points of contention was the worldview of a man who shaped U.S. foreign and national security policy three decades ago.
And Henry Kissinger is not happy.
Obama claimed that Kissinger approved of his view that an American president should meet with adversaries without preconditions. John McCain disagreed. And Kissinger, who is advising McCain's presidential campaign, not surprisingly thinks that McCain is right.
"Senator McCain is right," said Kissinger. "I would not recommend the next President of the United States engage in talks with Iran at the Presidential level. My views on this issue are entirely compatible with the views of my friend Senator John McCain. We do not agree on everything, but we do agree that any negotiations with Iran must be geared to reality."
Indeed, in a recent appearance at George Washington University, Kissinger said that while he is "in favor of negotiating with Iran," he "preferred doing it at the secretary of state level."
The dispute over Kissinger was one of several points of sharp contention in the debate, which lasted a little more than 90 minutes. Although the debate was supposed to focus on national security and foreign policy, moderator Jim Lehrer used the first 40 minutes to ask the candidates questions about the increasingly fragile economy. Given the events of the past two weeks, Lehrer had little choice but to focus on the economy at the outset. The changes to the format undoubtedly worked to Obama's advantage, allowing him to get comfortable on stage before turning to the issues on which McCain is far better informed.
Despite this, I thought each candidate performed better in those areas where he was not expected to excel. So McCain outperformed expectations on the economy and Obama did better than many anticipated he would do on foreign policy.
Still, Obama had several moments where he was either at a loss for words or seemed to have forgotten what he was supposed to say. One particularly bad exchange for Obama came when Lehrer asked what programs Obama would cut in light of the tight budgets that will almost certainly result from the current economic crisis. At first, Obama said nothing. Then he brought up energy, but initially just said that he wanted to be sure the U.S. is still investing in energy. Finally, he seemed to remember the question and said that while he's committed to investing in energy some of those investments might have to wait. Awkward.
In the very next sentence, he referred to McCain as "Tom"--saying "Tom called me wildly liberal." He said this in reference to McCain's claim that Obama was the Senate's most liberal member and explained that he probably just seemed liberal because he was opposing George W. Bush. (Weak.) Obama followed that by citing his bipartisan work with Tom Coburn, a conservative senator from Oklahoma. It's fair to wonder whether he jumbled them a bit.
McCain, for his part, sometimes seemed to get lost in his own answers--after making his point with his first couple of sentences, he was uncertain what to say next. I thought McCain's worst answer came, ironically, when Lehrer asked him about the lessons he takes away from the Iraq war. Rather than immediately using the question to attack Obama for his opposition to the surge--even after the surge had succeeded--McCain said that the central lesson of Iraq was that it's important not to have a failed strategy that almost loses the war. Well, thanks. McCain later came back to the surge and knocked Obama for his opposition to it, but his attack was convoluted and, making matters worse, he made a mistake in doing so. Immediately after McCain pointed viewers toward Obama's recent comment that he the surge succeeded beyond his wild expectations, McCain claimed that Obama had never admitted the surge worked. Confusing. As one smart conservative put it: "McCain needs to say, ‘If Senator Obama had been president two years ago, America would have lost the war and been forced to come home in defeat.' He needs to be clear on danger posed by Obama, and needs to attack Obama's judgment." McCain did level those attacks, but they were muddled and not precise.
Overall, John McCain did fine, and Barack Obama did well. Each candidate did what he needed to do in this first debate. McCain's strong performance during the economic section of the debate may help him get beyond a very difficult two weeks. Barack Obama seemed like he belonged on stage with McCain and came across as a plausible president. For that reason, he probably walks away from the first debate a winner.
