The VP Debate Followup + the Economy

I don't really think that this video needs an introduction. I have a feeling that most cognizant Americans will have seen or heard about it by tomorrow, so I figured I'd just keep up with the latest trends. Maybe one day that will make me....trendy. Unlikely.



In my last post I said that I would talk about the 700 billion dollar Wall Street bail out plan that was passed last Friday by over 2/3 of the House and Senate. I'm going to just say, right off the bat, that economics are not my strong suit. (However, I am also not running for president...but maybe I could be?) It has been a long two weeks for any American with a stake in the stock market...and the Americans like me who don't...okay, it's just been a long two weeks...two months...eight years. We're all affected. Unemployment is increasing faster than it has in five years. The Dow Jones lost 777.68 points on Monday when the House rejected the first bailout bill. This is the largest one day loss in history. Even after the House passed the revised bill on Friday, the stock market still lost 157 points.

So what does this mean? You're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't? The thing is, no one seems to know exactly what to do or what is going to happen. Even after listening to hours of radio and news broadcasts and reading dozens of articles of "expert analysis," I still find the subject to be confusing; and I am not in the least bit reassured that this bill is going to actually benefit me or my country. The "economic recovery plan" is by no means a guarantee. In fact, the $700 billion was just a randomly picked number. Yup. It just sounded good.

I know that the big buzzword this election year has been Change. It has been reiterated so frequently that it has become just more empty rhetoric, an optimistic platitude. However, when it came to voting for this bill, both Senator Obama and Senator McCain were in full support. How exactly does their support for bailing out a failed system reflect their willingness for change in Washington? Especially after packing it with pork in order for Congress to pass it? We're talking tax cuts for makers of wooden arrows and worsted wool, racetrack operators, film producers and rum importers. Seriously. If I were a politician, I would be thinking twice before jumping onto the back of a plan that was so heavily courted by the Bush Administration (who gave us nonexistent WMDs, Mike Brown, Scooter Libby, Alberto Gonzales, etc.). Bush appeared on the White House steps Friday just to congratulate Congress on a job well done.

However, I am certainly not a politician or an economist. I can only come to my own conclusions after becoming as informed as my free time allows...and after this week I know that I will be making very careful choices when it comes to which Congressional Representative will get my vote this November.

Just to note: Tuesday is the second Presidential debate in which the candidates will be taking questions from the audience...as far as I can tell...information is a little scant. I will be working that night and my response will be coming as quickly as I can sit down to watch.

The Real Place for Politics

It's being called the most important election in recent US history, at least by those in the running. While president George W. Bush has been president I have accomplished many things. 12 year old molars, the first kiss in the back of a greasy movie theater where you suddenly have a popcorn and Slurpee tongue reaching down your throat, graduating from training bras and the discovery of the thong, one week of AP physics, a sober prom, a short film, defeating Costa Rican cockroaches, the blog. The list goes on. On the top of this list though, is realizing that the rapidly changing world in which we live will never be the same as it was during my childhood of the 1990s. I have often heard it said that my generation, generation Y, is indifferent to the world outside of our cell phones, Facebooks, and iPods. I would like to take a brief moment to say that this is not entirely true: if the economy crashes and the cost of power becomes so extreme that we can't recharge our iPods and connect to the Internet to access our Facebooks...I think you'll find that a lot of my fellow generation Yers will be at the forefront of political action and agenda.

This week there was one of the most highly anticipated Vice Presidential debates of all time in which 70 million people tuned in to watch. Republican Governor, Sarah Palin, and Democrat Joe Biden took the stage for an hour and a half of uninterrupted political discussion...I mean debate. Why did so many people decide to spend their Thursday night watching politics instead of The Office? Well, I think it was for the same reason that people enjoy watching NASCAR races or Project Runway. There's always that possibility that someone is going to go into a tailspin and end up on an ambulance for more than just a bruised ego. I know that when I turned on my TV, I was awaiting Sarah Palin's next big verbal tailspin as much as I was hoping for Joe Biden to lose his cool and tell Ms. Palin to get off the stage. Well, like so many other Americans, I have to say that I was a little disappointed by the lack of any dramatic or embarrassing episodes.

Sarah Palin gave us an hour and a half of well rehearsed folksy charm *wink* and Joe Biden gave us straightforward, fact based, practiced politician style prose. I think while it's safe to say that Biden easilly came out on top, it was interesting to hear Palin twist her answers into something relating to her expertise in energy policy and the overall mavericky nature of both herself and John McCain. Biden reminded us that he is able to count to at least two, and he also reinforced McCain's history of deregulation and the current financial crisis which, as we all know, McCain was a little slow to get on board with ("Still, the fundamentals of our economy are strong!").

I want to call special attention to a few facts that Sarah Palin seemed to find it necessary change...or else was just unaware when she was speaking incorrectly. As far as I know, she beat out Biden on the creation of factual fallacies. (However I will be the first to admit that I pay more attention to news sources that are more likely to talk about Sarah Palin's blunders than Joe Biden's --- at least I am able to name which news sources I utilize, and no, it's not "All of them." They include: The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Democracy Now, NPR, BBC, CNN, Fox, MSNBC.) I think I'll go Biden style and number my responses to this. 1) The troop levels in Iraq are not lower than they were before the surge. 2) Barack Obama did not vote to raise taxes for people making $42,000 a year or more. 3) The General in Afghanistan is David McKiernan not Civil War General George McClellan. 4) McCain does not, in fact, want to allow bankruptcy judges rewrite mortgages.

Phew. Although I think there were a few more moments to be commented on, I'll leave it at that. Y'know, it's not that I can say I personally dislike Sarah Palin. I've never met her and it would be presumptuous of me to assume that she and I would not get along. In fact, as long as we agreed to not discuss politics, I'm sure she could teach me a few things about decapitating moose. What I can say though, is that John McCain has given me a very serious reason to question his ability to make sound decisions by placing this self-proclaimed pit bull with lipstick hockey-mom a heartbeat away from that big chair in the Oval Office. I'm not even sure if I would want this woman running my child's PTA, especially if she were to tell my daughter that she had to pay for her own rape kit in a medical examination.

More to come on that $700 billion bailout when this full-time student with a part-time job has made more time for this full-time hobby -- because I, unlike some politicians we all know, can walk and chew gum...at the same time.