Spitball Army

Back when such matters occupied a lot of conversations, before bailouts, AIG, and William Ayers, the long-standing debate could happen at any time.  The root question?

Who is better?  Siskel, or Ebert.

By “better,” the question meant, of course, whose opinion was right.  And, as discussions about art, politics, child-rearing, and religion tend to go, there was never a universally agreed-upon stand on the issue.  I enjoyed Gene Siskel’s general Devil’s Advocate stance, but sometimes he seemed to be forcing it for its theatrical effect.  Roger Ebert’s “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” was generally prefaced by a thoughtful analysis.  I favored his choices, as they tended to agree with mine most of the time.  To this day, if I need an opinion about a movie, I go to rogerebert.com to see what ol’ Roger has to say.

I was surprised today to find a column of a different sort on Ebert’s website.  It began:

I do not like you, John McCain. My feeling has nothing to do with issues. It has to do with common courtesy. During the debate, you refused to look Barack Obama in the eye. Indeed, you refused to look at him at all. Even when the two of you shook hands at the start, you used your eyes only to locate his hand, and then gazed past him as you shook it.

Ebert was reacting to this year’s first Presidential debate, which occurred two days before this column.  And he wasn’t reacting to anything that McCain had to say about economic or foreign policy.  His issue was interpersonal.  He continued:

Obama is my guy. If you are rude to him, you are rude to me. If you came to dinner at my house and refused to look at or speak with one of my guests, that would be bad manners and I would be offended. Same thing if I went to your house. During the debate, you were America’s guest.

I recall visiting some dear friends not too long ago.  We spent the afternoon and evening together and had, by all accounts, a marvelous time.  They had invited me to stay overnight at their home, and I accepted.  While at their house, I was given the John McCain treatment by one of their grown children – the only one of their children, in fact, still living at home.  No eye contact, brushing by me in the hallway without an acknowledgement, never saying my name (but never necessitating its use by speaking to me directly).  The experience was unnerving.  I don’t know if anyone else noticed.  Roger?

I’m not the only one who noticed your odd, hostile behavior. Just about everybody did. I’m sure many of your supporters must have sensed the tension. Before the debate, pundits were wondering if you might explode in a display of your famous temper. I think we saw that happen, all right, but it was an implosion. I have instructed my wife to exclude you from any future dinner parties.

Hmmm.

I doubt that tomorrow night’s debate will be much of an improvement, but I’ll admit that my expectations of John McCain are nearly as low as those I had for Sarah Palin in last Thursday’s Vice-Presidential debate.

And those were met.