McCain Denies. We Apologize.

Speaking Earlier Today on ABC News’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Senator John McCain was asked about his apparent reluctance to look at Barack Obama during Friday’s debate.

“I Wasn’t,” interrupted Senator McCain.

Mr. Stephanopoulos, Visibly Surprised, said, “No? Well, we went back through the tape, and some people were saying that that was showing disdain for him. Is that fair?”

Senator McCain Chuckled. “I was looking at the moderator a great deal of time; I was writing a lot of the time. No way, no how, that in any way would—”

“Certainly Not What You Intended,” interrupted Mr. Stephanopoulos.

“Not Only What I Intended,” Answered Senator McCain. “Wasn’t,” he repeated. “That’s just foolishness. I’ve been in many, many debates, and a lot of times I don’t look at my opponents, because I’m focusing on the people and the American people that I’m talking to.That’s what the debate’s all about.”

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What Can You Make of the Video Evidence?

http://www.the-peoples-forum.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=5185

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The American Voters Were Promised an Opportunity to evaluate the ability of our two presidential candidates debating face-to-face. While Barack Obama frequently turned toward his Republican opponent, and addressed his opponent directly, Senator McCain clearly did everything he could to avoid looking at his debate opponent.

Does Senator McCain Expect That International Debates would go well for him—and for the American people—if he would not address his counterpart directly? Such behavior in most cultures is taken as a sign of weakness and an insult. Weakness and insult lead to war, not to peaceful, constructive international cooperation.

In the Debate, Barack Obama showed Senator McCain the respect that this distinguished war hero deserves. Whether Senator McCain’s behavior reflected denial or senility or venality hardly matters at this point. The debate is over. The opportunity is lost.

However, If Senator McCain Claims that what happened didn’t even happen, it’s hard to know what to think. There is no good answer. What he was thinking—before, during or after—no one may ever know.

While We Respectfully Disagree with Senator McCain about the purpose of a debate—in which both parties have agreed to debate each other—it is hard to label something as “cheating” when the accused person insists that not only wasn’t he cheating, but that the cheating did not even occur.

On the Basis of the Confusion, We Apologize for accusing John McCain of deliberately cheating the American people in last Friday night's debate.