Democracy and Humor in Action

John McCain and Barack Obama appeared together last night at the 63rd annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in New York, a charitable fund raising event with a tradition of humorous speeches. In their speeches, McCain and Obama each poked fun at his opponent as well as at himself, and I have to say that while Obama's speech was very funny, McCain was the winner of this event. The debates might have been more favorable to John McCain if he had appeared as relaxed and natural as he did in this speech. Each of them spoke for about 15 minutes. The video above is part 1 of McCain's speech (part 2 is here). Obama followed McCain (part 1 and part 2).

You can see that both McCain and Obama do indeed have a sense of humor, and it's great to see it on display here, in spite of the tough campaign and the current economic crisis. It's also a great thing about our system that whatever their differences, even in the midst of a hard-fought presidential battle, that they can appear together like this and even praise one another in their speeches - and that it sounds sincere. Politics can be a dirty business, but it's clear that each of these men cares deeply about this country.