John McCain Would Fail My Speech Debate Class

I couldn't bear to watch. Perhaps McCain didn't realize that CBS showed his face on a split screen next to Obama while Obama was speaking. I watched him smirk,giggle, puff up, stamp his feet, ignore, make fun of, patronize, and sometimes just burst out laughing when his opponent said something he disagreed with, or felt embarrassed about. Was this a PRESIDENTIAL debate?

I teach my students in my college speech classes that nonverbal communication is 93% of communication. The words only count for for 7%! Laughing at, ridiculing someone non-verbally speaks VOLUMES about character, and winning the debate. Like the debate between Nixon and Kennedy, it was different if you saw it on TV as opposed to Radio. Nixon lost that debate, due to TV, and the presidential election, because of his poor, sloppy, nervous behavior on screen compared to Kennedy, who was composed, very articulate and calm. America wanted a calm, leader-like president. (We still do.)

As I also teach Propaganda, I was also horrified to see McCain regularly resort to the worst propaganda device of all. It's called "glittering generalities" -- trying to 'hook' people on emotions of goodness, usually works best when you use a story of a single person. While Obama mentioned frightening facts, McCain would regularly resort to personal stories about a Mother who spoke to him about her dead son in Iraq, or how he spoke with individual under-supported troops.... They were very sad stories indeed. They make us cry. But this was a propaganda trick, a devilish device designed to deflect our attention away from the facts. It was McCain's best debate tactic. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glittering_generalities

As a university speech teacher, if I were grading this debate, I would give McCain a D-. I would give Obama an A, based on skill and effort. Obama overcame his opponent on skilled content, delivery, and critical thinking skills. His delivery was as good as his content -- which is paramount.

But as a normal everyday person, as a wartime veteran, who is living in a country that is falling apart, I am frightened that America could be fooled again by a president who uses such skilled propaganda devices to try to make us believe something that leads us down the path of destruction.

I usually try to avoid commenting on politics. But as a speech teacher, I had to comment on this debate. I watched John McCain blink so many time in indignation, that I thought at one point he was even sending a message in Morse Code to his speech coach! Indignation.... loses a debate.