Editorial: First presidential debate accomplishes little

‘ ‘ ‘ The two major presidential candidates met on the debate stage on Friday. Sen. Barack… ‘ ‘ ‘ The two major presidential candidates met on the debate stage on Friday. Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain debated for two hours under the moderation of Jim Lehrer on foreign policy and the economy, trading jabs at several points along the way. But after those two hours it seems like little has changed in the race. ‘ ‘ ‘ Although Obama and McCain sparred lightly on several subjects, such as diplomacy with Iran and the war on terror, neither candidate made any knockout blows or serious missteps. Each stayed close to his campaign line, and more than once it seemed as though the candidates were simply stumping their campaign promises more than actually debating. ‘ ‘ ‘ It’s unlikely that either candidate’s performance changed anyone’s mind. Polls from different groups have put each candidate as a ‘winner’ ‘mdash; a good sign that no one won at all.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Campaign representatives from each camp have claimed that their candidate was victorious, with McCain’s aides saying that he showed mastery of foreign policy issues and Obama’s campaign noting that he delivered measured and reasonable responses against arguments from the more experienced McCain. ‘ ‘ ‘ One thing is certain: If either candidate wants to win over a significant portion of undecided voters, much less have anyone switch camps, he needs to step up from delivering portions of stump speeches and instead take actual risks in the next debate. ‘ ‘ ‘ With both candidates returning from a busy trip to Washington and uncertainty over whether McCain would show at all until Friday morning, both candidates used the debate more to repeat their own messages than to attack the other candidate’s position. ‘ ‘ ‘ Another problem was moderator Jim Lehrer. Originally, the debate was supposed to focus specifically on foreign policy, widely seen as McCain’s strong suit, but Lehrer spent nearly 40 minutes on economic topics instead. His questions weren’t remarkably pointed, either, which contributed to the bland answers that the candidates gave. ‘ ‘ ‘ Luckily, the second presidential debate, scheduled for Oct. 7, is a town-hall debate where audience members ask questions directly on both foreign and domestic policy, which should eliminate the possibility of lackluster questioning. But McCain and Obama both need to step up and answer the questions forcefully and directly, rather than skirting around them and tying them to their campaign lines. ‘ ‘ ‘ There’s no denying that this election is full of historic firsts and broken records. The candidates have raised more money than in any other, more people voted in the primaries than in any before, and the campaigns have received more media attention than any election in history. But if there’s one telling statistic about the debates, it’s that TV ratings for Friday’s debate were about 12 percent lower than those of the Bush-Kerry debates four years ago. ‘ ‘ ‘ If Obama and McCain want to make an impression on voters, they need to change their debate strategies by next Thursday. Otherwise, they’ll simply be continuing a lackluster debate tour that leaves everyone underwhelmed.