The pre-debate status of the Obama vs McCain contest is best illustrated by the major national polls prior to the debate: all showed Obama with leads significantly outside the margin of error and none showed Obama with a lead of less than 5 percentage points. In other words, McCain needed the debate to be a game-changing event. Obama merely needed to make no gaffes or provide the Repugs with sound-bites for use in their ads. The debate was not game-changing. Advantage: Obama.

The debate itself, one-night polling, and second-day polling, advantage Obama. McCain showed himself to be dismissive and condescending towards Obama not unlike a 13-year-old desperately in need of a sound whipping. Advantage: Obama.

Obama showed himself to the reasonable adult, agreeing where there was agreement, disagreeing where there was disagreement, and correcting where correction was needed. While movement Democrats would have liked to have seen the proverbial blood-in-the-water, Obama wisely chose to be who he has always been: a man in command of facts; a man not overwhelmed by complexity nor given to a Manichean approach to complexity; a man who is thoughtful and not prone to quick anger; a man who understands the supremacy of strategy vs tactics; and a man who thinks before he acts or speaks. This is the Obama we saw throughout the primary campaign and that we see, now, in the general campaign. Obama demonstrated throughout the debate that he is not the stereotypic, “angry,” African-American in the molds of a Jesse Jackson, Sr., or a Shirley Chisholm, of happy memory. In other words, he showed himself to be an American. Period. Advantage: Obama.

Despite his reputation, McCain showed himself factually challenged in the areas of foreign relations and relatively current (1990s) world history. Most problematic, for McCain, was his propensity to force questions into formulaic constructs, demonstrating a troubling lack of intellectual flexibility. Of course, it is this very lack of facts-based and inflexible thinking which has long been the modus operandi of the GOP in the modern era. Ideology seems always to trump facts and rational thought. McCain’s failure to demonstrate his superiority claim in matters of foreign relations during the debate renders him the decisive loser. Advantage: Obama.

Much has been made in the media of McCain’s refusal to look Obama in the eye during the debate. Behavioral scientists have noted that, in monkeys, inferiors instinctively avoid eye contact with their superiors. There is substantial scientific evidence that the same applies in homo sapiens. McCain’s condescending behavior towards, and dismissive comments to, Obama seem to confirm his at-least, unconscious, self-understanding he is, indeed, an inferior to Obama. Advantage: Obama.

Post-debate polling of undecided voters shows Obama won the debate on all fronts, including national security. What these polling results confirm is that Americans, by a vast majority, do desire real change: they seek thoughtful vs impulsive/ideological thinking. In short, Americans are rejecting the Manichean zeitgeist of the modern GOP. Advantage: Obama.

For José and Tomaso: In 1952, Prof. Welcelean arrived at Central with “marching” orders to institute music theory courses in the Eastman style. In other words, to separate paper theory from aural theory. Now, over 50 years later, every music department in the country does the same. Obama is very similar to Prof. Welcelean. Both are anchored in the canon, in the fundamentals. Each is willing to look at new ways of arriving at the same goal.

By the time I arrived at Central in the 1970s, Prof. Welcelean was thought to be old. I did not. He taught me in such a way that I am now a New Music composer. On the first day of 16th century counterpoint, he explained that he would teach us 104 rules (from the Kitson book), and would then teach us how to break all those rules the next semester. He did just that. While parallel fifths are canonically considered harmonically weak, you can write parallel fifths that are musically exciting if you understand the reason for the old canons... I do this frequently. I learned from Prof. Welcelean, the man who described himself as a man with the “snow around the mountain,” referencing his graying hair. What I believe Obama is doing, is similar. He understands and respects the old canons. What he calls us to do is to respect the old canons and the foundations, and yet, embrace new ways to make beautiful music and a better country.