The patsy

What is it that keeps one person from looking another in the eye?  Shame, deep anger, fear ... those are a few possibilities.  For someone who didn't watch the debate, that description of McCain's behavior seemed most familiar.  James Fallows wasn't the only one who noticed it, but he describes it beautifully:

"Unless it happened when I glanced away, up until this moment, 77 minutes into the 90-minute debate, John McCain has not once looked at Obama -- while listening to him, while addressing him, while disagreeing with him, while finding moments of accord.

"This is distinctly strange -- if anyone else notices.  Obama is acting as if this is a conversation; McCain, as if he cannot acknowledge the other party in the discussion."

I've heard sound clips this morning and I didn't like Obama's decision to address McCain as "John."  "Senator" would have seemed more appropriate.  But, as with Al Gore years ago, McCain has never seemed to "be there" during any encounter, whether with Obama, with the press, or with anyone in a public encounter. 

Here's my guess:  both Gore and McCain ran for the presidency as surrogates for strong, ambitious, demanding fathers.  That's enough to make you look away when your opponent addresses you.  After all, you shouldn't have been there in the first place.  You're just a patsy, sitting in for someone else.  It's not Obama you have difficulty acknowledging, it's John McCain.

Update:  Here's another take on McCain's eyes from Will Divide at Huck and Jim. He's right, too.

"We live in a new world, and my take on McCain's reluctance to look at Obama last night is that he cannot bring himself to face the future."

Comments

[JayDenver]

Take a look at Talking Points Memo post "So Angry" near the end of the post to read a comment from a primate researcher on this observation.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/

Basically, he's saying that McCain defers to Obama. I think there's more going on here than meets the eye though. McCain simply does not look well.

The events of the past week make me wonder if postponing the debate and "suspending the campaign" were failed attempts to hide some news about McCain's physical condition and not just some "mavericky" gimmicks. This is all so weird.

[PW]

What happens if, between now and November, McCain is "incapacitated"?

Another oddity: If you look at the photos of the debate in the paper, the candidates are the same height. Which they're not. The only way to achieve that is to choose a particular angle and then, if necessary, crop to diminish perception of the angle.

[Will Divide]

Aw, shucks, PW. Thanks for the kind word.