The NYO has a debatable article discussing `Hillary’s lessons for McCain` which I found interesting because it crystallised something I’ve been thinking about for a while:  McCain does not like Obama one bit.   In fact I’d go so far as to say he’s contemptuous of him.   Whereas he does like and respect Clinton.  What’s been interesting me is does that work for McCain or against him in this election if Obama’s the nominee?  (Also, would it work for or against him if he were up against Clinton?)

What was most vivid for me in all this was a later Republican debate where McCain’s dislike of Romney was so vivid.   It actually trapped him – his irascibility came to the fore and he was provoked into a gratuitous and spurious attack on Romney that didn’t work well for him, was demonstrated to be a lie.  So much for the Straight Talk Express…. McCain lost some support in that debate – Romney’s polling went up significantly after it.

Among other things, The NYO article says:
“Clinton also showed the weakness in Obama’s conflict-adverse personal style. Debates are not his forte. When she, with some help from debate moderators, pressed him both on values issues (she wouldn’t have stayed in that church) and substance (doesn’t raising the cap on payroll taxes hurt people who aren’t rich?), she made headway, cementing her image as the tougher and more aggressive of the two. (It wasn’t coincidental that he gave up debating after Pennsylvania.)
McCain, too, will need to walk a tightrope (one he didn’t always traverse successfully in his own primary’s debates). In the debates against Obama, McCain will need to appear assertive but not nasty in order to convince voters that he really is the “take charge” candidate, the most credible leader. And Clinton showed that Obama can be made to seem defensive, even irritable, when pressed.”

With regard to the debates, I think Obama’s main weakness -v- Clinton was that he was forever handicapped with his own sense of constraint that he, a black man, couldn’t get away with beating up on a white woman and, of course, the famous New York Senate debate debacle.  Probably both of these were coupled with his own sense that you couldn’t use arguments against a fellow Democrat that could be used against her in the General.   None of these will be operative when he’s up against McCain.

With regard to the second NYO argument,  I think this one applies far more to McCain.   He’s going to get nasty when he’s up against Obama.   I see a real tension here:  is his contempt for Obama going to be an asset because it sharpens his intellectual weapons and liberates him to mount compelling, rational attacks (whereas with Clinton he’d not have as much disagreement)  or is it going to cause him to lose it?  I have the feeling that Clinton would bring out the best in him  - but Obama the worst.

I‘d be interested in other people’s thoughts on this.