kennley v. leanne, john v. barack

the huffington post, the new york times, and cbs are all "reporting" that barack obama has "won" the third and final presidential debate. i really could have done without all that talk of "joe the plumber," though.

it's interesting that we assign winners and losers to debates yet we complain about negative campaigning. the truth of the matter is that while we simultaneously espouse the belief that negative campaigning smokescreens the real issues and damages the sanctity of our political process (*cue the ken burns movie music here*), politicians continue their negative tactics because THEY WORK. we may not like attack adds and character assassinations, but sub-consciously we respond to them.

MSNBC held a small focus group after the debate last night to discuss "average" people's reactions to the debate. republicans, democrats, and independents all expressed discomfort with the personal nature of the debate and all expressed by show of hands that the talk of "joe the plumber" was ineffective. several respondents felt that barack obama had a slight edge of john mccain (which should be taken with a grain of salt since one never knows how focus groups are chosen), but interestingly one self-described republican voter felt that mccain came off as "frazzled and angry."

as far as the other contest of the evening - the finale of project runway, i had to wait until this afternoon to watch it on youtube since i was debate-watching last night. i was excited that leanne marshall won, and i felt that her collection was not only elegant, innovate, and cohesive, but also her use of sustainable fabrics was a nice touch, since her collection was inspired by water and waves.

nina garcia, editor-at-large of elle magazine expressed some concern that leanne's collection might be to same-y, since every outfit had the (beautiful) repeated structured petals. this is my same worry when it comes to barack obama. every response he had to john mccain last night in the debate seemed to use the same (beautiful) talking points of "the middle class" and "being able to send their kids to college." now i know every designer and every politican uses themes and talking points to distill their respective vision(s) to an essential level for easy consumption by their audiences, but that makes me no less nervous that barack obama and leanne marshall might be too one-dimensional to compete at the professional level.

both barack and leanne have kept the personal insults to a minimum in their respective competitions (john mccain and kenley collins were formidable challengers) but john and kenley's styles were old-fashioned in a manner that no longer appeared quaint, but archaic (kenley's 50's-inspired dressess look straight out of john mccain's era). both have not taken criticism well and have squealed like little children when they didn't get their way. in addition, the contestants for season five of project runway and the primary candidates for the presidential election were a little lackluster compared to previous years.

i wish the best of luck to both leanne and barack, but i see both contestants for what they are: the cream of a sub-par crop.