McCain can't win even when McCain wins

Poor John. Even when he is winning on points, he looks like he is losing.

Here are a couple of 'instapolls':

CNN: 58 percent thought Obama did the better job versus 31 percent for McCain. CBS: 53 percent for Obama, 22 percent for McCain.

He had the best zinger of the night.

The topics the moderator brought up were in his 'wheel house:' taxes, Bill Ayers, abortion, offshore drilling.

He had Joe the Plumber.

He had an opponent that did not seem to want to attack at all.

Yet still, people feel like he lost.

Why?

Two reasons: 1) John McCain's verbal and non-verbal communication style and 2) The public 'repudiation' of the core of modern Republican policy platforms

1) The 'Monet' perspective. When one views a Monet, it is best not to stand too close to the painting, as Monet's style was to paint with dots, rather than lines. If you stand too close, the painting does not make sense--it looks like a bunch of splotches and dots. McCain looks a lot better on paper than he does in person. Is this a function of his age? Yes and no. Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan (do your physical therapy Nancy), are examples of people who have looked charming on TV and in person as elderlys. John McCain has been described as the 'angry old guy that yells at you to get off the lawn.'

To me, he looks like a brat and a punk. In all three debates he has appeared like a frustrated little boy whose parents won't agree to let him play ball in the house. In the first two debates, he could barely even look his opponent in the eye, or call him by his name. In the third, there was much improvement, but there was still the strained look on his face, like he was trying to conceal his intense hatred of his opponent. He looks like he is asking for approval from the moderator--like the moderator is some sort of father figure or the one who is going to make the judgement. He reminds me of myself and my siblings when we would get in some fight, and then have our mother or father referee it. He looks snide, condescending, and self righteous. His repeated remarks of "My friends... ." and "I know how to.... [get bin Laden], [win in Iraq], [win in Afghanistan], come across as vain, condescending, and weird. Vain, because the emphasis is always on the "I" and not on the issues. Condescending because he knows, obviously, how to do these things, but his naive opponent (like the rest of us apparently) don't. Weird because he is again pleading to the moderator for some sort of validation. Even when he speaks, his words don't come out the right way. He butchered the "health" of the woman argument on the topic of abortion. I know what he was trying to say, but it came accross as belittling to woman. When he says, "My friends.." he sounds like an outdated politician who should be selling used cars. Barack knows that the Americans he has never met that see him on TV are not his friends--they are fellow citizens who share the concerns he does--that does not make them friends. He makes weird facial expressions that are scary, he has shifty eyes, and he looks anxious.

2)The GOP's ideology is bankrupt. As a senator who has been in office for three decades, how come things are not working better right now? As someone who won the GOP nomination and picked Sarah Palin to excite the base, how can he pretend that the GOP's old messages of smaller government and lower taxes are a) authentic or truthful, or b) assuming the truth of (a), going to work? The GOP has had the Presidency for 8 years, and Congress for 6 of 8 years. They have grown government and help bankrupt the country.

McCain does not have the charisma--in fact he has the opposite of it. The GOP does not have any new ideas--they have been hearing from Bush that 'smaller government and lower taxes' will bring us to the promised land.

They haven't, and Americans can't justify putting their faith in McCain and Palin.