We've already heard all of the pundits' reactions, we've already gossiped with our friends and singled someone out as "That One" just to get a laugh. We're all awaiting the report on Alaska's Sarah Palin investigation, which is to be released tomorrow, and wondering how much voter registration fraud has happened in our districts. I'm personally wondering if I'll be recieving my absentee ballot and voter's guide on time. But, despite all of that, I'm going to return to Tuesday night's debate and go through the transcript so that some of the statements made get the attention they deserve. And by attention, I generally mean criticism, because who really has time for anything other than attack ads these days?
In McCain's response to the first question, which addressed the current economic disaster, he said that "we've got to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don't want us very --- like us very much." He then went on to talk about the $10 trillion dollar debt. Is it just me, or has that debt he's talking about largely been caused by the war in Iraq, the war that John McCain has supported from day 1 and continues to support? Are we not sending billions of dollars into a country whose people want us to get the hell out? Then he mentioned reform to bring "peace in the world." Am I crazy, or did McCain just contradict himself within the first two minutes of the debate? He then made his, not Obama's or Bush's, but his, big economic proposal, which is to order the secretary of the treasury to buy up the bad home loan mortgages and renegotiate new values for those homes...which he admits will be very expensive....but he promises not to raise taxes for anyone. Hm. Interesting.
I'm a big fan of Bill Maher's show Real Time on HBO. At the end of every show he does his "New Rules" section, which is exactly as it sounds. I think I might throw in some of my own New Rules as I go through this. 1) New Rule: John McCain must stop saying that he suspended his campaign in order to go to Washington and pass the rescue plan aka bailout bill. His campaign was still airing commercials on TV and taking online donations. On top of that, he continued on his campaign before the bailout was passed.
Obama and McCain both reiterrate the same messages that we've been hearing for weeks. Obama focuses on the middle class, health care, education, change, change, and change. McCain repeatedly talks about stabilizing the housing market (well I guess he hasn't been saying that for weeks, since he only recently realized we have a problem, but I think he's very excited about his new idea). He also repeatedly mentions his history of bipartisanship in questions completely unrelated to his answers.
2) New Rule: If John McCain wants to discuss Obama's earmarks (which I think is a fair and valid point), he must also discuss Sarah Palin's earmakrs as governor of Alaska. He must also explain why he voted for the $700 billion dollar bailout bill when an additional $110 billion of pork was written in to sweeten it up.
McCain brings up a good point in discussing Obama's small business tax increases. This is definitely a point that the Obama campaign doesn't want to draw a lot of attention to. Raising taxes on buisinesses does make products more expensive for us consumers. But funding for things like health care has to come from somewhere...and hence, a key economic difference between a Democrat and a Republican... However. It is difficult to say how many small businesses will actually be affected by Obama's tax plan due to the different ways in which people file their income taxes. So, McCain's assertion that taxes will increase on 50 percent of small business revenue is very misleading, if not entirely false. It is unlikely that taxes for more than a few percent of small businesses will actually increase.
Speaking of health care. I wonder how all those voters in Florida are feeling about McCain's position on privatizing health care and the possibility of losing Medicare? Speaking of Florida...
One thing I think we were all looking for in this debate was for McCain to address some of the issues that have been taking the spotlight in his most recent attack ads...Bill Ayers for example. But it seems as if McCain has a more difficult time bringing up ridiculous accusations when he actually has to face Obama. In fact, he seems to have a difficult time looking at Obama at all.
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