Two Bracelets, Two Stories - Obama's "Watch" Moment

Last night's debate presented an opportunity for a clear insight into both Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama.



At one point Sen. McCain elevated his wrist and said:

"I had a town hall meeting in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, and a woman stood up and she said, "Senator McCain, I want you to do me the honor of wearing a bracelet with my son's name on it."

He was 22 years old and he was killed in combat outside of Baghdad, Matthew Stanley, before Christmas last year. This was last August, a year ago. And I said, "I will -- I will wear his bracelet with honor."

And this was August, a year ago. And then she said, "But, Senator McCain, I want you to do everything -- promise me one thing, that you'll do everything in your power to make sure that my son's death was not in vain."

He didn't have to look at the bracelet to read the name.  It flowed as if he's said it countless times, and sounded as if he thought of Mathew Stanley often.

Sen. Obama interjected shortly after with:

"Jim, let me just make a point. I've got a bracelet, too, from Sergeant - from the mother of Sergeant Ryan David Jopeck, sure another mother is not going through what I'm going through."

It seemed as if he had been outfitted with a prop.  He seemed uncomfortable with the statement, stumbled in attempting to remember the name, and appeared to look at the bracelet in order to read it.  A poseur.  A moment that may follow him as did Bush's 'watch' moment in his debate with Clinton.

Charles Hunt from the NY Post noticed that exchange as well.  Here's what he read into it:

"One of last night's most telling moments came when McCain revealed a wristband that had belonged to a soldier killed in Iraq given to him by the soldier's mother. Do everything in your power, the mother told McCain, to make sure "my son's death was not in vain."

"I've got a bracelet, too," Obama said - given to him by the mother of a dead soldier who asked Obama to "make sure that another mother's not going through what I'm going through."

Here lies the difference between these two men:

Obama will accept defeat if continuing on hurts too much. For McCain, any mission where defeat is an option is a mission not worth fighting in the first place."