In Debating McCain, Obama’s Real Opponent Was Voter Doubt

By ADAM NAGOURNEY
NYT

WASHINGTON — The presidential debates between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama have been viewed from the outset as a match of the skills, knowledge and appeal between the new leaders of the two major political parties.

But as Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama prepare for their third and final debate Wednesday at Hofstra University on Long Island, it appears there might be a more instructive prism through which to judge these encounters: not as a competition between two men but as a prolonged tryout for Mr. Obama.

Unlike Mr. McCain, a fixture in American politics for nearly a generation — he has appeared on “Meet the Press” 51 times, second only to Bob Dole among politicians, while Mr. Obama has appeared 8 times — Mr. Obama entered these debates at once famous and unknown. Polls suggested that he stirred an ambiguous and slightly suspicious response from much of the public, an impression Mr. McCain has sought to encourage.

But every indication — including a New York Times/CBS News poll released Tuesday that showed Mr. Obama vaulting to a significant lead — suggests that Mr. Obama has succeeded in erasing many of those doubts, primarily through the debates.

If that continues through the final debate, it could turn out that the Obama candidacy has become what many Democrats and had hoped and Republicans feared: a reprise of Ronald Reagan’s candidacy in 1980. Mr. Reagan struggled until he met President Jimmy Carter in their only debate at the end of the campaign and voters decided they were comfortable enough with Mr. Reagan to take a chance on a relative newcomer to politics.

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