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Looking for leadership

Candidates didn't wow on Tuesday

October 9, 2008

The presidential debate Tuesday should have been a leadership moment. Sadly, it wasn't. Not in the way that people crave. With global financial markets spinning out of control threatening nest eggs, homes, jobs and the American dream, voters were hungry for more from John McCain and Barack Obama than policy prescriptions and one-upsmanship. It was a moment for inspiration.

Voters need to believe that this too shall pass, and that someone knows how to navigate toward that day. Neither candidate satisfied that craving. They'll have one more chance Wednesday at Hofstra University, site of their final debate. They need to rise to the occasion.

Admittedly, that's a tall order. Government can't make this crisis go away. The economy will right itself, but we're in for a bumpy ride. The most Washington can do is to make the trip less painful, and a repeat of this crisis less likely.

Obama and McCain offered similar plans for doing that. Each promised to cut taxes, help homeowners, push energy independence, spend less and regulate more. McCain added a proposal for Washington to buy up bad mortgages and renegotiate them - which the $700 billion bailout vaguely authorizes already. Obama added health care reform and aid to states for infrastructure to his list.

But asked about sacrifices, both candidates came up short. McCain said do without earmarks and promised a tepid spending freeze. Obama said conserve energy, accept offshore drilling and nuclear power. It won't be that easy. We needed hard reality and the candidates served up pablum.

And that followed days of poisonous rhetoric from the McCain-Sarah Palin ticket linking Obama to terrorists, based on his association with 1960s radical William Ayers, who's now a college professor. It's legitimate to talk about past associations, but not in a way that provokes threats of violence. The nation doesn't need more rancor and division. It needs principled leadership.