By Stacey Patton and TaRessa Stovall

Senator John McCain's blatant disrespect of Senator Barack Obama in the controversial first presidential debate held at "Ole Miss" brought the ghosts of old southern genteel racism back to life on an international stage. As he broke the bonds of civility, McCain slapped the race card onto the table.

Hard.

Beyond partisan preferences, pundit propaganda and the posturing that typically color such face-offs, it is impossible to ignore the pure spite and derision of McCain's inexcusable insolence. McCain's behavior, a rudeness rarely seen in presidential debates, was not only

an insult to both his and Obama's status as United States senators, it was an insult to the American people as a whole.

A candidate for the presidency ought to conduct himself better than that.

McCain immediately set the tone with his limp handshake exchange with Obama, who confidently strolled across the stage to respectfully greet him with a firm grip and a steady gaze. Throughout the verbal jousting of the debate, McCain's use of demeaning language ("Senator Obama doesn't understand ...") and avoidance of eye contact suggested that his opponent was not worthy of the most basic respect or consideration. While some may claim

that this is "normal behavior" in a presidential campaign debate, or business as usual for the Republican Party, it is chillingly reminiscent of the blatant disdain associated with attitudes of white superiority and entitlement.

The body language of the debate spoke more powerfully than the verbal portion, and McCain's petulant refusal to look at Obama painted a self-portrait of an individual who has given up his integrity in a desperate attempt to win the White House. Side-by-side, McCain

resembled the likes of an Orville Faubus or George Wallace having to debate a much underestimated black candidate.

One should recognize that McCain's conduct was not just a continuation of the way that he has run his entire campaign. His uncouthness revealed the further working out of the desperate gamble he took last Thursday - trying to lure Obama into suspending his campaign so that he could stop the further erosion of his own campaign. That nakedly

cynical ploy was one of the most craven insults a presidential candidate has ever dealt the American people.

Pundits from the left, right and center, including George Will, John Judis and Richard Cohen, among others, have in recent weeks, questioned McCain's campaign assertions and his ethics. The reasons why were on full display in the first debate. McCain's evasive answers to the questions, his body language - shifting from side to side, sneering, fidgeting, his coded and condescending remarks suggesting that Obama lacked the intellectual

capacity required for leadership, and his sharing "flashbacks" of his personal war traumas in an attempt to validate himself as a hero to the American people were all clearly calculated and compensatory maneuvers.

In analyzing the first debate, some pundits have asserted that Obama was polite to a fault. They are wrong. Obama was presidential. McCain, on the other hand, was desperate, and desperation made him crass. Tacky.

Pitiful. Not the John McCain of old, who wielded enough credibility and political currency to warrant some respect, and would have been civil to Obama, at the very least. On Friday, we saw a new, lesser McCain, who, rather than leading, seems to be following orders from the Bush-Rove high command.

This new McCain appears to have sold his soul to the political devil.

And in his desperation, he appears to believe that the only way he can win the White House is by denigrating Barack Obama, injecting venom laced with racist undertones. In the yesteryear, which he seems to inhabit, those Jim Crow-esque tactics may have given McCain a winning hand. But in the first of this year's three debates, they backfired. Not only did the Senator from Arizona reveal his lack of faith in the American people and the political process when he played his crude version of the race card, he revealed that he is playing with a marked deck. And on every level possible, he lost.