Barack Obama would like the next two debates to be about the economy. John McCain would like them to be about anything but the economy, preferably with plenty of discussion of 60’s radicals and crazy preachers.
McCain won’t get his way, of course. We will hear discussions of the bailout, taxes, health care and the like, with Obama eloquently explaining the failed Bush-McCain approach to these issues, while McCain tries to paint Obama as an out-of-touch, tax-and-spend liberal.
But what will it take for Obama to win the debates? The best answer I’ve heard to this question comes from a man who has been an irritant to Obama supporters for many months now, a man whose advice I approach with great caution, out of fear that he is setting a trap for the candidate. The man is Bill Clinton, and the advice is this: to win the presidency, it is less important to make people like you than to convince people that you like them.
The man who “feels our pain,” famously biting his lower lip, knows how to project empathy. Obama did not display this talent in the first debate. He did an excellent job of portraying competence and knowledge, and of appearing calm and presidential in the middle of a financial crisis, a strong contrast to McCain’s erratic behavior during the same period.
But the campaign is getting dirty now. Sarah Palin is accusing Obama of pallin’ around with terrorists. We can expect some unofficial interest group to start cranking out ads with you-know-who God d@#$ing America. McCain and company will try to scare people away from Obama.
To dampen these fears, Obama needs to show people that he cares for them. How best to do that? He needs to reveal his heart without coming off as a phony. If he starts biting his lower lip, we are in trouble. If he pulls out one of those tired old campaign stories and expects us to feel his empathy — “why just the other day in Toledo, I spoke with Betsy Wilkerson, a single mother blah blah,” — well, been there, slept through that.
Obama needs to tell us about people who he truly loves deeply, and about how he wants to help the same people. When he talks about his love of America, and therefore his love of the American people, he should talk about how our great country helps people very close to him achieve their own version of the American dream. Does anyone who he loves rely on Medicare? Let’s hear how that person would be affected by McCain’s policies.
Most undecided voters won’t be voting with their heads; they won’t be calculating tax rates, health-care deductibles, and federal budget deficits and seeing which candidate comes out on top. Instead, they will be voting with their guts. And if they can’t trust a candidate, they won’t vote for him.
The image of Barack Obama palling around with terrorists won’t stick in people’s minds if they see his caring side on display Tuesday night, and if they see how his head for policy details works together with his heartfelt desire to help the many people he loves.
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