Notes on the 9/26 Presidential Debate

First off, a couple of general notes.

I want to congratulate the audience that attended the debate. I think that they behaved magnificently. One of my gripes with state of the union addresses and other public appearances by politicians is how rowdy and out of line people behave. The audience at this debate behaved like a group of grown-ups, which was amazing.

I heard a lot of griping after this debate that the candidates didn’t talk more about the current financial crisis. Two thoughts on this… one is that this debate wasn’t ABOUT the economy, the next debate will be. I commend Jim Lehrer for remaining on-topic and recognizing that the role of the president is larger than simply working out our finances.

One thing that I noticed is that, after the debate, when the vice-presidential candidates typically say a word or two, Sarah Palin was conspicuously absent. Instead, the republicans had Rudy Guiliani talk instead. How little confidence must they have in this woman? Is she just a young, pretty face to counter-balance John McCain? (Okay, relatively young – she’s my age.)

After the debate, I watched Real Time with Bill Maher. One of his guests was actor Tim Daly, who asked… get this… “What exactly is “victory” in Iraq?” I LOVE IT! I’ve been asking that question for two years – maybe now that a celebrity is asking it, more people will start. I really want an answer to this.

Also, I noticed that Senator Obama is wearing an American flag pin, whereas Senator McCain was not. I wonder why Senator McCain hates America? Will the conservative arm of the media crucify him like they did Senator Obama for not wearing one at other public appearances?

One final note before I move on to the debate… Jim Lehrer, the moderator, stressed to the two candidates that it was not only okay but preferable for them to speak directly to one another. Like a marriage counselor trying to get a bickering married couple to communicate. After a while, Obama did that. He started addressing comments and questions directly to McCain. McCain, on the other hand, refused to even LOOK at Obama. Tom Brokaw, in the wrap-up afterward, commented that it seemed like something about Obama bothered him. THAT bothers me. I think that we need a more courteous country, but if our leaders don’t show courtesy, I don’t think that the rest of us will.

Round one of the debate was about the current financial crisis, including the bail-out bill now before Congress. Bear in mind that neither of the candidates have had time to read the wording of the bill. Both candidates stated a bunch of generalities, neither one really said anything concrete, so I consider that round a wash.

Round two was when Jim Lehrer asked about fundamental differences between the two candidates’ financial plans. John McCain commented that the biggest problem with our economy was runaway government spending. He picked out some $932 million dollars in earmark spending that Obama asked for. I didn’t research those, but I do know that earmark spending, representatives “pet projects”, equaled 18 BILLION DOLLARS in last year’s budget. Obama pointed out that 18 billion is a lot of money, but when you compare it to a seven hundred billion dollar bank bailout and ten billion dollars PER MONTH for the unprovoked invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq, it’s basically a drop in the spending bucket.

Senator McCain also commented that he wanted to reduce the corporate tax burden from 35% to 25% so that American companies will stay here and create American jobs. All I can say is that with all of the loopholes in the corporate tax laws that Senator Obama points out, American corporations pay among the LOWEST tax rates in the world. And it hasn’t worked so far. Doing more of what’s not working won’t suddenly start working.

Round 2 to Senator Obama.

Round 3 was a question of what would they give up as President in order to pay for the financial rescue plan. Senator Obama said he didn’t know what the federal budget would look like next year, but he would probably have to delay some of the programs the he wanted to implement, but stressed the importance of pursuing energy independence, health care, and becoming competitive in education. An understandably vague answer.

Senator McCain commented again on the importance of cutting government spending. Then he fell back on the old conservative standby and called Senator Obama “liberal”, as if that’s a bad thing. Now, once he got past that, he talked about eliminating corn biodiesel subsidies (which I agree with) and “cost-plus” contracts, such as the contracts that we have in Iraq with Halliburton.

Round three to Senator McCain. He didn’t so much say what he would give up, as to say what he would change about what we’re doing now, but at least that’s something. I would like to remind my readers, though, that this runaway spending (including ten billion dollars per month in Iraq) has happened under Senator McCain’s watch.

Senator McCain also used round three as an opportunity to scare Americans about how Senator Obama’s health care program would turn medical decisions over the federal government. I’ve gotta tell you, brothers and sisters, I haven’t seen that in Obama’s health care plan. I encourage you to look at his website and judge for yourself.

Round four asks what lessons will we learn from Iraq? Senator McCain took this opportunity to talk about how great we are doing in Iraq and how we’re now WINNING in Iraq. Whatever THAT means. Same old bullshit conservative rhetoric.

Senator Obama asks the question that so many of us have asked – should we have gone into Iraq to begin with. He also uses this as an opportunity to comment that we “took our eye off the ball” in Afghanistan. He said that the lesson to be learned is that we must use our military strength to help keep peace in the world, but that we must use it WISELY.

Round four to Obama, which makes the overall score so far Obama two and McCain one, with one draw.

Also, Senator McCain comments about something that happened “Two fourths of July ago”. Would that be a half of a July? Guys, there IS no holiday called “Fourth of July”. The holiday is called “Independence Day”. Just a side note.

Senator McCain also comments that Senator Obama voted to cut spending for the troops. Nasty accusation. Thank God, Senator Obama, being a liberal with BALLS, commented that they have EACH voted against troop spending – him in a bill attached to no time limit in Iraq, and Senator McCain attached to a bill that HAD a time limit.

I’m also tired about hearing the misnomer “troop surge”. What we had last year was not a surge, it was an escalation. A surge eventually recedes.

Round five was whether or not we need more troops in Afghanistan. Obama says yes. McCain said that he wasn’t going to repeat the mistake that we made in the eighties which was to remove the dominant force (the Russians) and then providing no backup support. Frankly, we already did that so that we could move into Iraq, with Senator McCain’s approval. Then he attacked Senator McCain’s comments about how he would attack Pakistan if need be. (I encourage you to research this comment if you’re interested… the question was phrased in such a way to back Senator Obama into a corner on it.) But the round was not about Pakistan.

So round five to Obama. Obama 3, McCain 1.

Round six was a question as to whether or not Iran poses a real threat in the world. McCain says yes. Obama says yes. It’s a wash.

Senator McCain also used this as an opportunity to follow the F-word News network’s example of mispronouncing the name of Iranian President Ahmadinejad. Let’s be clear here, shall we? The inability to pronounce a foreign leader’s name does not make you a better or more patriotic American – it makes you an inarticulate moron. Four years ago, we elected a man president because he seemed like “one of us”, like someone we could “have a beer with”. Let’s not make that mistake again. Let’s elect a guy with a brain instead – one who actually shows the respect to foreign leaders that MAY restore our standing in the world.

Strangely enough speaking of F-word News, a really excellent article about fact-checking the debate can be found here: http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/27/fact-checking-the-presidential-debate/

Round seven was a question of how do the candidates view Russia? Both view Russia as potential partners, but a threat if they don’t behave. Wash.

They both also mentioned the Russian invasion of Georgia from a while back. The problem is that all that we could do at that time was threaten and talk, largely because of our troop commitment in Iraq. Bush and Rice both commented that the aggression wouldn’t be tolerated, but ultimately we did all that we could do – we sat back and watched until Russia decided to leave. Our military has been so undermined by the mess in Iraq, that we CAN’T help our allies in these cases. Senator McCain said that Senator Obama didn’t understand what a threat that invasion posed. I think that he understood it, but recognized that we were powerless to do anything about it.

Also, kudos to Senator Obama for correctly using the phrase “We’ve got to walk the walk and not just talk the talk.” I’m sick and tired of hearing people say that people should “walk the talk”. I DARE you to walk a talk. I don’t think that it’s physically possible.

Now we’re up to round eight, the last round. At this point, in my opinion, Senator Obama has effectively won the debate. The best that Senator McCain can do at this point is a 3 – 2 loss.

Round eight was a question of whether or not America could suffer another 9/11 type attack. Senator McCain said that America was safer… BUT STILL NOT SAFE! Have to get that little jab in to keep the fear up. Vote for him, folks, only he can keep you safe. He also commented that “most” of the 9/11 commission recommendations, upon which both he and Senator Biden sat, have been implemented. I would point out that most of those recommendations had been BLOCKED by the republican congress, and not passed until the democrats took control in January, 2007. They have made implementing most of these recommendations a priority.

Both agreed that another 9-11 type attack was possible, so it’s a wash.

In my opinion, this debate was a 3-1 victory for Senator Obama.

Obama for President.

Peace.

Randal