9.26.2008

"I've Been To All Those Places Too, But That Doesn't Make Me Right."

The above quote is from Joe Biden in response to McCain listing all of the locations he has been to in the Middle East. As I watched the debate and heard McCain mention the places that he's been, I thought to myself, "So what?" I know a lot of college-age folks go backpacking across Europe, but that doesn't mean they can be a foreign advisor. It just means they've seen a lot of sights. You can talk to a lot of people too, but all you're getting are opinions.

I really didn't get much out of the debate. McCain has been a lot of places and met with people, but he also tried playing the "young whipper snapper" card a lot and it didn't play as well as I think it did. McCain just helped forge the public image of himself as an old man. His attacks on Obama's experience and saying, "He just doesn't understand," can be easily applied to his running mate, Sarah Palin. The vice presidential candidate should be just as capable of running the country as the presidential candidate, because the VP has to take over in case something happens. The Republican party won't even let Palin do interviews after her performance with Katie Couric. The post-debate talks with representatives from each party were trying to get the running mate's views on the debate, but Palin was a no-show. How does that instill the public with any level of confidence in her when her own party sees her as a liability now?

I have my qualms with Obama's performance as well. Some of the pundits I heard were saying that it's more Obama's style to be graceful and counter-punch an opponent's jabs. That's great, but he passed up some great opportunities to put McCain in his place. McCain made the point that he was going to endorse nuclear energy, but when the Senate was voting on disposing of nuclear waste in salt mines he wouldn't allow the waste to travel through Arizona to reach those mines. Obama also needed to clarify his point of talks with leaders of "enemy" nations. That's been a point of attack ever since he made that comment over a year ago in the Democratic primary. Although he mentioned what his stance was, he still left it open for attack.

Again, they both are making promises that they most likely won't be able to keep. They both dodged the issue of the effect that the bail-out would have on their economic plans. I know it would be detrimental for either one to admit that they would cut spending in a specific area, but spending on the defense is a large chunk of the problem right now. It's an area that can use some trimming. Do we need to curtail the earmarked spending? You bet. But as Obama said, that is only $18 million. It's a drop in the hat. The best way to get money back into the economy is to tax big businesses that have been allowed huge, corporate loop-holes. The families that make less than $250,000 don't impact the tax-revenue that America receives, because, honestly, a good percentage of them probably don't even pay their taxes.

I'm looking forward to seeing the responses from both sides over the next few days on how this debate went. I'm eagerly awaiting the VP debate, just to see how much of a joke Palin truly is as a running mate. Many of the pundits aren't counting her out yet, but they all know that there is an obvious problem when Palin's own party has her hidden from speaking publicly.

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