A lot of verbiage has been spilled over McCain’s "that one" comment. Less time has been devoted to what happened after the debate. Face time for the candidates was skewed. At first I was shocked, could there be such severe Obama bias on the part of MSNBC? It seemed like the camera never left the Illinois senator. The reason only materialized a bit later as Air America’s Rachel Maddow explained the senator from Arizona had left in fairly short order with wife Cindy in tow.

Senator McCain’s temper is both fabled and well documented. It is hard to imagine after all these years that he can calmly accept defeat. It is easy to imagine based on what we know of his impetuous, self-seeking nature that a poor performance in the debate would make him want to lash out or take cover, and it seems he chose the latter course of action. With age comes wisdom. (I’m sure that Scotch on the rocks he had right afterwards hit the spot.)

It was big news last night on the blogs when McCain made eye contact with Obama. That in itself is very telling. The fact is simple: John McCain has projected a sense that he finds Obama somehow beneath contempt, and that it’s somehow demeaning to compete with him. Many think there is a racial component at work here, and I don’t doubt it (though I also don’t see it per se). That said, first and foremost we’re dealing with a giant ego being thwarted.

Regarding the race question, I can’t speak for Senator McCain, but his behavior suggests something more than mere competion. There is an icy demeanor that is misplaced. Senator Obama is a colleague. He is an accomplished man. You’d never know it. McCain barely countenances him at all, and when he does it is clear that the senator from Illinois only figures as an obstacle, and an affront to McCain’s dream job.

Media critics and pundits on the left today have suggested that the "that one" comment was best deemed the quip of an old codger referring to one in a gaggle of grandchildren, a slightly condescending, yet loving, gesture. After all, the bill was "loaded with goodies." (Egad.) It is a fine reading, and a doltish move. What on Earth was the seventy-two-year-old senator thinking? He is already fighting an age stigma. Way to drive that home, McCombover.

Beyond bad strategy, there is something ugly about the comment as well. It’s objectifies. Obama ceased to be a Senator, a colleague, a man. He was a thing. And for this reason, the race issue emerged as a sliver, a suggestion, what Daniel de Groot today called "dog whistle racism."

It’s not anything overt, and I do not think McCain is a racist any more than any other American. Race is an issue in the United States, and as long as one distinguishes between the races, we’ve got a problem. But the fact is this: slaves were considered things, not people. That’s why you’re hearing the left scream racism. Unfortunately, we end up in the same place via the infantalizing version: "that one" as "youngun" is just a skip and a hop from "boy."

Either way, the comment and it’s waywardness, revealed both a man and a campaign in troubled water. And thank God for that.