Thoughts on the Final Presidential Debate

Okay, before I get to the debate, let me make a couple of points.

One is that when Obama supporters talk about Palin’s lack of experience, the McCain supporters’ response is “Oh yeah? Well, you didn’t say that about YOUR guy.” Of course they didn’t that would be dumb. Their point is that the McCain team’s choice of Palin after saying that Obama didn’t have any experience was ALSO dumb. If you think that my guy doesn’t have enough experience, then you don’t go out and pick someone with less experience for your team.

The second thing is that none of the three national “debates” so far have been debates. I can’t remember if I ever saw a real debate between presidential candidates, although I vaguely remember one between Reagan and Carter. I watched a documentary about high school debate recently called “Resolved”, and in it, they made an excellent point. They were arguing the resolution that America should intercede in the Rwandan genocide, one team pro, the other con. The narrator pointed out that, even if the pro team figured out how to stop the genocide, they could still lose the debate. I remember in high school (ironically enough, considering Palin’s husband’s political affiliation) I had to argue pro on the issue “Alaska Should Secede From The Union”. If I had said “Well, my opponent wants to raise the cost of lunches, and I’m from a small town, and my opponent is a poopie-headed terrorist and I love Isreal” and then winked, I would have lost. As it was, I lost anyway – pretty much all that my opponent had to say was “As soon as Alaska tried to secede, the US would bring all it’s military might to bear to get those oil fields back.”

For the record, this is actual debate structure:

Resolution: the main argument – always stated in the positive

Affirmative: argues the resolution – tries to prove it correct

Negative: argues against the resolution – tries to prove it incorrect

Constructive Phase: each side will have 2 chances to construct their arguments

Cross-examination: each side will have a chance to question the other side after each constructive argument has been made

Rebuttal Phase: each side will have 2 chances to rebut the statements made by the other side and clear up any confusion surrounding their own arguments

I personally would love to see a presidential debate structured like that. Let’s face it, if you timed these phases to one to three minutes (strictly timed, as in turning off their mike at the end of that time) and actually have a set of judges to declare a winner, I think that you’d see some pretty excellent debates, with each debate covering several topics.

With that said, on with the debate…

Okay, Bob Schiffer has just laid out the ground rules, and they sound like this is going to be the most debate-like debate this year.

They start by talking about the candidate’s new economic recovery plans. Again, McCain says “Let’s cut taxes for rich people” and Obama says “Let’s cut taxes on the middle class”. As far as I’m concerned, Obama just won. Thank you, Barack Obama. “What we haven’t yet seen is a rescue plan for the middle class.”

A loved one of mine, as we shared one of our many marvelous conversations (who voted for Bush both times and is still undecided in this race, by the way) and is pretty well-off at the moment, commented that he wouldn’t mind paying more taxes as long as it was evenly distributed. Someone on the Bill Maher show commented that it’s patriotic to want to pay your fair share of taxes. Some things to think about.

Question one is “What are you going to cut back to help with the deficit?” Obama pointed out that for every dollar that he’s suggested spending, he’s suggested a way to earn that dollar back. Now he’s talking about what he wants to do for us. Great stuff, but not really telling us what he’d cut. McCain started off by doing something that I find reprehensible. He said “Back in the depression, we had a program…” He was a child when the depression ended. He has no active memory of the depression, and it kind of pisses me off when people claim to have been a part of that when they weren’t. Then he went on to talk about programs that he’d cut (not his, but existing programs) and his idiotic idea for a spending freeze. I guess that I have to give round one to McCain by a single hair because at least he DID talk about things that needed to be cut, which Obama didn’t. I don’t want to, but I have to be fair.

Question two is “Are you willing to say to each other’s face what your campaigns are saying about each other?” Ooh, good question. McCain said “It’s been a tough campaign and it’s all his fault, because he didn’t take up my offer for town hall meetings.” He then said that he regrets the turn that the campaign has made. That’s good. Personally, I think that Obama SHOULD have accepted the out of bounds remarks. Then McCain started whining about some comments made about him by some Senator or other. Now he’s whining about Obama not taking public money. Obama started off bad with “People expect presidential campaigns to be tough.” Now he’s talking about Bush’s failed economic policies. As near as I can tell, neither one is answering the question. Round two is a wash. Now Obama is pointing out that his campaign wasn’t connected with the candidate who attacked McCain, but was instead concerned with comments like “Terrorist” and “kill him” about Obama at McCain rallies. He then pointed out that his campaign repudiated some of the things that were said, and that the senator who authored the attack apologized. McCain commented that ACORN is trying to perpetrate the greatest voter fraud in American history. Apparently he’s forgotten Florida in 2000, and that the supreme court appointed our president that year. I would personally call that the greatest voter fraud in our history.

Question three is “Why would the country be better off if your VP candidate becomes president instead of his?” Obama said that Joe Biden has great foreign policy experience, and that he personally has experienced tough economic times, so he tends to fight for the “little guy”. McCain started talking about what an advocate for women’s rights Palin is, which is total bullshit. Then he said that when she saw corruption in a board that she was on, SHE QUIT! Then he started harping on the bullshit “maverick” thing. Round three to Obama. When McCain pointed out that Palin knows about “special needs” families (selfishly – I think that if her son didn’t suffer from down’s syndrome she wouldn’t) Obama pointed out that a spending freeze would hurt that.

Question four is “Would each of you give us a specific number of how much you think that your energy plan would reduce foreign oil imports?” McCain keeps talking about how we can “eliminate” our dependence on foreign oil, which, I think, means “100%”, which is bullshit… at least within the next four years. Even McCain said that it would happen within “7, 8 to 10 years”. Obama said “Within ten years, we can reduce to the point where we no longer depend on Middle Eastern oil.” Neither one is giving a specific number, so it looks like a wash.

Question five is “Would either of you favor controlling health care costs over expanding health care coverage?” Obama says “We have to do both and that’s exactly what my plan does.” He estimates that if you have health insurance now, that he can cut your premiums up to $2500 per year. If you don’t have health insurance, you can buy into the same federal health insurance that congress has. McCain started off by talking about how sad our health crisis is. Then he said that we need to put health insurance information on line, and reduce obesity, and blah blah blah. No answer. Round five to Obama. McCain started talking about his plan to issue a $5000 tax credit so that people could get their own health insurance policy. The problem is that the average cost of a health policy in the US is $11000. That means that it will COST YOU $6000 per year. Not a good plan. He also finally admitted that, for the first time in history, health insurance held by employed people in America would be taxed for his plan. He also commented that the $5000 would be in addition to your current health insurance plan. What if you don’t have insurance? You’re out of luck? Also, the insurance industry said that the McCain plan could result in mass canceling of employer-sponsored health insurance.

Question six is “Could or would you support a supreme court justice who disagrees with you on Roe Vs. Wade?” McCain said that he’s a federalist so he thinks that it should be a state-by-state decision. For the record, since the revolutionary war, a federalist is a person who supports a strong federal or central government. McCain ultimately says that he would not oppose a candidate who opposes him. Obama said the same. That’s a wash.

The final question is basically, “Why, since we spend the most on education, does our educational system suck so bad?” Obama said that we need to recruit better teachers and pay them better, as well as increase pre-school education and make college more affordable, such as his $4000 tuition tax credit. Also, parents are going to have to show more responsibility, thank God for him. McCain is using this as an opportunity to talk up charter schools. I’m personally still undecided on that issue. I think that Obama gave a better answer, but McCain’s answer was not bad, so I have to call this a wash.

Final result? Obama 2 rounds, McCain 1, with four ties.

I think that this has been the best debate this year, and I give credit to Senator McCain for addressing Senator Obama directly, instead of ignoring him like he did in the first debate, or referring to him as “that one” as he did in the second.

One point that Obama made is that we can’t talk about spending money without talking about paying for it. Thank God for that. I think that our government and our people have lost the concept of the value of money.

I can only close this with what Bob Schiffer quoted from his mom… “Go vote now. It’ll make you feel big and strong.”

Peace.

Randal