The Importance Of David Letterman

BY DANNY M. ADKISON

With the last debate over and two weeks to go before the presidential election, there are two important questions to consider.

First, who asked the candidates the toughest question? Second, who made this statement during a debate? “I need to say little to convince [voters] of the necessity which presses us into a pursuit of this measure. They know that our national debt is considerable; this together with domestic debt, is of great magnitude, and it will be attended with the most dreadful consequences to let these run into confusion and ruin, for want of proper regulations to keep them in order.”

Let’s take the second question first. This is what students call a trick question. That’s because it did occur during the debate, but it was the debate over the creation of the Department of the Treasury in the first Congress in May of 1787.

It’s not just a “gotcha” question. It points out that the issues don’t seemingly change much over the decades [or even centuries].

Politicians debate taxes and spending priorities. Yet, we know that for the voters that stay undecided and are not seriously attached to any particular candidate, issues are not that important.

In spite of what your eighth or ninth grade civics teacher may have told you, most of these voters – and they will probably decide the election – are not basing their votes on the two major political parties’ platforms or the candidates’ plans for what they will do once in office. On the contrary, most vote based on how they feel about the past four years.

In these circumstances, political parties [again, contrary to your civics teachers lessons] play an important role. They provide the retrospective voter with a rational choice. If they like the way things are going, they vote for the incumbent; if not, they vote for the challenger.

The problem is that the 22nd Amendment limited the voters’ choices. Presidents Eisenhower, Reagan, Clinton, and Bush could not run for a third term.

This is why Barack Obama has sought to tie his opponent to the policies of President Bush. After all, John McCain is the Republican Party nominee. On the other hand, you don’t hear McCain reminding voters much about his affiliation with the Republican Party.

The proverbial Martian would think that the strong third party in America is the Maverick Party.

Which brings us to the first question.

McCain may or may not be similar to President Bush. He may or may not continue the economic and foreign policies of his predecessor. That doesn’t really matter. What matters to the voters is whether McCain will perform more like Bush or bring genuine change.

All three debates taken together should be enough to supply voters with the answer to this question. But the individual who came the closest to exposing the answer was not a journalist. It was David Letterman.

Letterman pressed McCain like no journalist has. He pressed him on three major points, all of which went to the issue of character and image.

The first was Sarah Palin. It was clear that Letterman, like most Americans, does not believe she is presidential material. He obviously couldn’t get McCain to admit this, but he made his point nevertheless.

Second, Letterman pointed out that it was ridiculous for McCain’s running mate to say Obama had palled around with terrorists. McCain finally admitted that these are just things you say during a campaign.

Then, finally, Letterman brought up Joe the Plumber.

Letterman knew from news reports that Joe was not a licensed plumber and that literally everything [that is not an exaggeration], everything McCain had said about Joe and his financial situation [both real and under an Obama administration] was wrong.

Just as the McCain camp did not know exactly what they were getting with Palin, they were surprised to discover that Joe the Plumber was what Thomas Frank, author of the book What’s The Matter With Kansas? calls a winger.

Joe, it turns out, made just over $40,000 last year, owes back taxes, and isn’t even a licensed plumber. He can’t pay his taxes but he wants to buy a business worth over a quarter of a million dollars?

Here is the overall perception with which the voters are left when viewing the McCain campaign as we head for the home stretch: Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber, and a rather shrill McCain.

Is McCain, to place it in the context of one of the more memorable moments of the last debate – selection of Supreme Court justices – the individual voters want to entrust the selection of justices [who serve until they die, resign, or are impeached and removed from office]?

As Frank puts it in his new book The Wrecking Crew, “Never again will conservatives shoulder the blame for catastrophes like the Great Depression or even the many blunders of the Bush years; no matter how much of it they control, the government is never theirs, and they cannot be held responsible for its actions.”

– The author teaches constitutional law at Oklahoma State University and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer.