The Alfred E. Smith Banquet

Obama and McCain were at the Alfred E. Smith Dinner on Oct. 16th. The Banquet is named after the 1920’s governor of New York and is a fund raiser for the Catholic Church. The banquet has an interesting motif in that it is a roast. Both candidate talked for about 15 minutes and poked fun at themselves, their opponent, and other government officials. It was really quite entertaining.

I really wish all the networks covered the dinner. It is a way to see the candidates in a different and much less serious setting. I think if more people saw this, it would have greatly helped McCain’s cause. During the debates McCain is being classified as grumpy, attacking, stoic, unrefined, irritable, nasty, and a variety of other negative verbs. Whereas, Obama has been portrayed as being eloquent, Presidential, smooth, and a variety of positive verbs. However, during the Alfred E. Smith dinner McCain was hilarious and on his game. If people could see McCain in this setting, I bet his approval ratings would have shot up and there would be more positive verbs to describe him. Obama did well at the dinner, but not as well as McCain. Besides, Obama’s approval ratings are already so high they could not have been helped even if he was spectacular. Obama did well enough that he certainly would not hurt his approval ratings, but McCain did. Too bad most Americans will not see it. It could have been of a game changer for him and his campaign. Maybe there is a reason that all the major news channels did not cover it except Fox. Once again, the media probably did not want to put something on that could only hurt Obama who is far ahead in the polls. Too bad because I think the American people deserve to see candidates in different settings.