Candidates Face-Off During Second Presidential Debate

JIM LEHRER:

And with that, the presidential debate has ended. And now the first reactions to it go to — we'll get from syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.

David, you're on.

DAVID BROOKS, Columnist, New York Times:

Well, I didn't think it was a great debate. They have CD-ROMs in their head, and they spit out the old answers. Nonetheless, I guess, if you have to pick an edge, I'd say the edge went to Obama.

JIM LEHRER:

What would you say?

MARK SHIELDS, Syndicated Columnist:

Well, Jim, last week at a Colorado town meeting late last week, John McCain was asked by a supporter, "When are you going to take the gloves off?" Because they're concerned that he was trailing in the polls. And John McCain said, "How about Tuesday night?"

And I don't think the gloves came off. I mean, there was no mention of Reverend Wright. There was no mention of Bill Ayers. There was no mention of sort of what had been the subtext of the McCain campaign.

I think that, if John McCain was trailing going into tonight, there was nothing that happened tonight, certainly, that changed that arrangement.

JIM LEHRER:

Why did you think Obama got the edge, David?

DAVID BROOKS:

Well, I think, first, in style. He has a calmness and a fluidity that I think is easy to be around. And it provokes a certain amount of reassurance, so I think it's easy to imagine him as president. And for the leading candidate, that's the most important thing.

The atmosphere is frosty between them, so you don't get a lot of human back-and-forth.

On policy, I thought they were both reasonably fluid, I thought Obama a little more fluid. The only new policy we got the entire night, as far as I could tell, was John McCain embracing an idea that Martin Feldstein of Harvard and Glenn Hubbard of Columbia have come up with, which is to reinforce mortgages as a way to solve the crisis.

The other problems — the other policies they gave were the standard policies, which, frankly, ignored the new economic situation.

Nonetheless, in general, I think, in ease and comfort and in a sense of being able to adapt to a changing world, I just thought Obama seemed more confident, more at home in the times. McCain sometimes seemed a little labored.

JIM LEHRER:

Did you hear anything new, Mark?

MARK SHIELDS:

I thought the initiative — I didn't think John McCain explained it well. I mean, I think it's a more interesting initiative than he gave it tonight.

The question, Jim, about what sacrifices would you ask of the American people, and John McCain was tone deaf on that. He said, "We'd have to eliminate earmarks, I've got to tell you that."

And I just thought it was one to tee up — I mean, both of these guys are still insisting they're going to go forward on January 20th. We're sitting in the middle of an economic crisis that matches the Great Depression, and they're still talking on a platform that they each laid out six months ago.

And, you know, I thought it would be a chance that, look, this is going to be tough, folks. It's going to be hell. And I'm going to ask the best of every one of you, and every one of you is going to share the burden.

He walked up to it, Obama.

JIM LEHRER:

Obama did.

MARK SHIELDS:

A little bit. But neither one of them, I thought, rose to the challenge of leveling with the American people of what the sacrifices are, because they're going to be enormous.

JIM LEHRER:

And those questions now have been asked of both of them many times.

DAVID BROOKS:

Right, I guess they just don't want to take the risk. Another very good question concerned Pakistan. Would you go in and invade Pakistan's sovereignty to chase down al-Qaida, Taliban, Osama bin Laden? And that's actually a tough issue, and you can see an argument on both sides.

And they both typically reduced it to a level of generality, which was impossible to disagree with them. And I think that was their instinct both nights. I guess, if you're a politician in the last month of a campaign, that's what you do. But, you know, you hope for a little more.

JIM LEHRER:

Did you go — going into this, Mark, you can tell us now — I won't tell anybody — David and I won't tell anybody — but did you expect McCain to, whatever the question was, to really take on Obama's character…

MARK SHIELDS:

I thought he'd be more aggressive. I really did. And, I mean, I didn't feel that he was. I thought, if anything, he was more aggressive in the Oxford, Mississippi, debate than he was tonight.

JIM LEHRER:

What did you think about it?

DAVID BROOKS:

I agree. A few jabs, but no big surprises, no big attacks, nothing that would even potentially change the momentum of the race.

JIM LEHRER:

So clearly they've made a decision not to do that?

DAVID BROOKS:

Well, I think they decided — probably correctly — in a town hall format you just lay out your case. And he did it fine, but nothing that would involve any risk.