Presidential Debate 2: Town Forum Style
Submitted by anne on Wed, 2008-10-08 00:33.
Damned if you do
Damned if you don't
Right off the bat---John McCain has no business saying, "My friends" every time he opens his mouth. Secondly, he's so f-ing patronizing and condescending, I don't see how anyone could possibly support him or plan on voting for him.
But, that's not to say that Obama gets off lightly either. On several occasions---the last question in particular!---neither candidate did a good job of answering the question which was asked.
Both of them spent so much time "tattle-taling" on the other candidate's record, past speeches, past positions and votes and ohmygodI'msickandtiredofthefingerpointing!
Neither candidate followed "the rules" of tonight's debate---so worried one was going to "one-up" the other in their he said/he said crap. And frankly, I don't think either candidate is willing to truly "tell it like it is".
One question, "will it get worse before it gets better"---how hard is it to say, "Yes. Based on what I see right now, I believe it will get worse before it gets better." That's how I feel about the current economy. But instead, they practically whipped out their US flags and started waving them patriotically, in their rush to lie to the American people.
We all know that 2 minutes isn't going to cover the topic for either candidate. Hell, it takes more than 2 minutes just to tattle on the other guy's "true" position.
How many times did McCain mention Ronald Reagan and Tipp O'Neil? How many times did he say someone was his hero---and am I the only one who caught that his hero changed during the debate?
And frankly, ever since I did a little reading on Senator McCain's first marriage and how he's "admitted to extramarital affairs" which led to the break-up of that marriage, I've kinda questioned his ability to hold the office of President. Not because a man's personal life is the world's business if he's President, but because those affairs would have happened during the time he was in rehab after being a prisoner of war...and that means he was violating the Uniform Code of Miltary Justice. If he's willing to violate that, what else is he willing to do? *cough* Keating 5 *cough*
So, who're you voting for?
Either way, I think the whole country's gonna be blue---as in, very very sad....
I like Obama
I'm comfortable with him being president. Politics in nature is unseemly and makes us feel like we need a bath. But it's how the game we loosely call democracy is played, unfortunately. I think we'll be in decent shape if Obama wins.
I, uh, respectfully disagree
Well, I'm less uncomfortable with Obama than McCain. But unless we elect God Him/Her/Itself president and somehow convince God to serve, I think we're going to be far below decent shape. This is damage that has been done for DECADES (arguably since Wilson was president), Shrub and his merry band of kleptocrats has only hastened the inevitable with their nearly 100% track record of screwing the pooch. I hope to God I'm wrong, but the next 10-20 years is going to be a very painful one for America (possibly rivaling the Great Depression), and who we elect President is only going to change that in small degrees. But, I predicted the dot-com bomb in 1998, a major war with Iraq a couple weeks after 9/11, and the mortgage crash and the precious metals run-up in 2004. My record on major economic events is pretty good. Maybe I'm due for a miss! Let's hope.
As a fiscal conservative, I believe Obama is the better (but still not a good) choice. His tax plan and budget reduction strategy is more sound than McCain's and I feel he will get better advice than the jerks McCain picks to advise him on the economy. Yes, I know McCain canned Gramm. But Gramm was his FIRST choice!
In the end, will probably buck up and grimly vote for Obama in November, which will mark the first time I have voted for a major party candidate for President ever (Ron Paul in 1988, Ross Perot in 1992, Harry Browne in 1996 and 2000, and hesitantly for Michael Badnarik in 2004). If for no other reason, the article that Anne linked to by Matt Taibbi is a good one. Plus, I think Obama will do a much better job patching up our relationships with our allies, and even our enemies than McBomb-bomb-bomb-bomb-bomb-Iran will do.