The Debate..Two Days Later

I don't believe McCain did well with the town hall debate. He was full of platitudes and misinformation. FactCheck will be sending out lots of e-mails to correct his claims. The only thing he came up with that was new and interesting was the refinancing of mortgages for ordinary folks and that idea came from two or three Republican economists this week.

Obama , on the other hand, had some well thought out answers with very few platitudes. The balance in the past five days has tipped to Senator Obama and this debate cinched it. Unless the country's unspoken but still very present racism manages to defeat him, he has this election won.

As far as the $700,000,000,000 that we spend on foreign oil is concerned that McCain insists funds terrorism, that is baloney. Canada and Mexico are our major sources of oil and neither of those countries are terrorist countries. McCain tries to play the fear card every chance he gets. He probably thinks it worked for Bush so in desperation he will give it the last ditch try.

On the question about the fastest way out of our economic mess is concerned, Obama put his finger right on the problem...deregulation, deregulation, deregulation. And, unfortunately for McCain, he has called himself the deregulator. The only way the country will get back on track economically is for some regulation to be re instituted. Capitalism is greed driven and this economic crisis has proven that for sure. The recent investigations this week have proven that if there was any doubt beforehand. As soon as AIG was bailed out with that $85,000,000,000,000 bailout, their CEO's took a $400,000 junket vacation. Talk about irresponsibility! We should demand the money be returned!

Obama made a good point when he said when Bush came into the presidency eight years ago, the country had a balanced budget with a huge surplus. Now we have a ten trillion dollar deficit for the next president and our grandchildren to face.

McCain sounded very ignorant when he said he could tackle all three other huge problems the country is facing now at the same time....the entitlements (social security and Medicare) and the energy crisis, as well as health insurance. McCain said it would not be that hard to fix social security. He didn't say how he would do that easy task. He did admit that fixing Medicare would be harder.

Obama sounded very cool when he said he would tackle the energy crisis first, then health care and last of all the entitlement programs. He admitted he could not get it all done in his first term.

When both candidates were asked what sacrifices they would ask of the American people, McCain dropped the ball altogether. He suggested he would freeze all unnecessary government spending, (except veterans affairs) eliminate earmarks and cut unnecessary defense spending. Is that asking for sacrifices from the American people? Doesn't the man know what sacrifice is? During the second world war, we were rationed for gasoline, sugar, rubber of all kinds, ...we actually did sacrifice for the war effort. The American people anymore just want everything they see advertised and are not interested in personal sacrifice. They'd rather let others do the sacrificing. ..like those young men and women in the flag covered caskets that the Bush administration won't allow to be filmed.

Obama , on the other hand, said we would all have to watch how we used energy and stop being wasteful. He would provide incentives for folks to use green efficient energy, buy battery driven autos, use wind, solar and clean coal for energy. I felt neither really rose to the occasion. Possibly they remembered what happened when Jimmy Carter suggested that we should become a more frugal people and make personal sacrifices.

McCain often repeats the Reagan philosophy in stating that the government is the problem, not the solution. He ignores the fact that Reagan increased the size of the federal government more than any of his predecessors and instituted the largest tax increase in history.

McCain was snapish and rude and referred to Obama as "that one" on one occasion. Probably he couldn't remember Obama's name. I am 72 and I certainly know how that feels. But people don't like McCain, don't trust him, and when the guy no one likes attacks, they like him even less. The snap polls prove Obama came out way ahead with this debate.