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Thursday, October 09, 2008Debate Number 2 Wrap & NotesI watched the debate from the start to the end, I listened to each candidate's answers, I watched each candidate's body language, comfort level, knowledge and candor. And, in McCain's case, I watched for signs of barely contained rage.I don't think McCain is aware of how much he speaks down to people. His can't-possibly-be-wrong attitude fails to impress given reality, fact checks and my own memory. Combined with his awful and annoying "My friends" schtick (he doesn't do folksy well, at all) and the incredibly, incredibly bad jokes that flew about as well as a wet waffle and you have an uninspired performance. Not terrible but nothing close to what he needed to start to close the gap. The post debate polls gave a decisive victory to Obama on the economy and presence and McCain won out slightly on terrorism and foreign policy. What alot of it comes down to is which candidate would you want representing you? The young idealist with a head full of good ideas and plans to repair the harm done to our nation by 8 years of Republican idiocy or the old grumpy condescender who appears ready and willing to say anything to get a vote. I find it bizarre that McCain/Palin keep bringing up accusations against Obama but they are the real perpetrators of the "crimes". Palin keeps bringing up past associations of Obama when her own history is full of far more relevant and far, far more questionable associations and beliefs. McCain keeps talking about straight talk while he flip flops around on economy issues and what we need to do to fix our ailing nation. McCain is more of the same policies that have gotten us here. Obama is a change, he will remove the stranglehold that the special interests have on our country, he will root out the corruption in Washington, he will hold golden parachute CEO's to task, he will not give billions of dollars to big business in the hope that some of it will trickle down to the middle class. McCain's trickle down theory essentially involves the rich pissing change on the poor. It is a failed economic concept that has been demonstrated again and again to not work in practice. The middle class needs direct assistance and not once did I hear John McCain say he had any interest in helping the middle class (no wait, that's not entirely correct, he did have the decently good idea of renegotiating mortgages at the lower assessed value of the house, not sure how the economics of that work out but it appears to be a good idea). Obama was presidential, gracious, articulate and engaging. McCain was testy, condescending, factually wrong and stilted though he did get better as the debate went on. In the end, Obama won again. McCain's numbers will continue to sink and Sarah Palin will increase her increasingly hateful and racist attacks. And Obama will continue to act presidential and rise above the pathetic personal attacks because he knows it serves nobody but the GOP to get down into the muck with them.
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