Post-Rick Warren conversation blogging

by Demophilus

Yes, I watched it. I came away impressed with both candidates, and, at least for tonight, have a vague feeling that I could live with either man as president. This is the anti-Bush/Kerry election -- instead of thinking both men to be unimpressive dolts, I have a minimal respect for each of them. (I write this having been disappointed with the campaign thus far.)

Andrew calls it a draw. Which is fair enough, but for me McCain exceeded expectations. He was sharper than I anticipated and did well in ways I didn't expect -- his answer on education, for instance, was quite good. Its really worthing pointing out, again, how non-insane the man is. Its interesting that for his answer on how he has parted ways with his own party, McCain noted his vote against sending troops to Beirut in the early 1980s, going against Reagan and many Republicans. Out of all the things McCain could have said -- and however horrible some might be, like campaign finance "reform" -- this seemed to me to send a distinct signal: I've been to war, I even went against the great Reagan when it came to putting our men and women in harm's way, and I'm not one to take this responsibility lightly. His answer about the situation with Georgia and Russia was mediocre, but not terribly irresponsible. A bit moralizing, but it seemed to me he went out of his way not to mention anything about a military response of any kind.

I cringed when McCain said he wanted to "defeat" evil, but its worth noting he immediately talked about hunting down bin Laden and winning the War on Terror. I think both formulations are wrong in their own way (I don't much care about bin Laden, and I think the phrase "War on Terror" is stupid), but he wasn't literally talking about the removal of evil from the world in a metaphysical sense. In fact, he was responding to Rick Warren's formulation of picking between "ignoring, negotiating with, containing, or defeating" evil -- I would have chosen "contain," but isn't nuance lost in most multiple choice settings?

Its also should be mentioned that McCain was well coached on how to talk to evangelicals. Its not that he never comes across as a bit stiff and uncomfortable discussing his faith -- he does, and I actually like that -- but his discussion of homeschooling when asked about education, as well as the story of he and his wife adopting a daughter, were home runs. I know some people are tired of the same old McCain anecdotes and jokes -- but I'm sure most of them follow politics for a living. If my parents were watching this tonight, they wouldn't think them tired or recycled. He'll have to be careful as the campaign moves forward, especially in the debates, but for now he's fine.

Lastly, I'm more than a little troubled that this event was held at a church and featured a conversation with "Pastor Rick." But Warren's main theme was civility, and the event also was a symbol of the changing nature of evangelicalism -- that, in fact, enough evangelical votes are undecided that they can be wooed, that a conversation even needs to be had. The more secular among us will be very disturbed by what happened tonight; but I also think we can view it as an important moment in the political maturity of evangelicals. The tone was relatively high-minded, the questions fairly serious, and real respect was shown to both candidates by the audience. If we're going to mix religion and politics, we could find worse ways of mixing them.

UPDATE: I meant to mention, too, that McCain's answer about the failure of his first marriage, when asked about his personal mistakes, was the right one.