I am watching the debate online right now at Hulu.com and I am just going to list my comments as I watch, starting at the beginning.
- Though not important, I am continually surprised that Senator McCain does not wear a flag pin, given the brouhaha over flag pins earlier this year.
- Both candidates say they are for the “middle class.” I would like a candidate that is for every American, regardless of their “class.”
- McCain finally made a point about lowering business taxes and its impact on luring businesses to the US. I felt that he never really made this point clear in past debates.
- Obama seems to be using the term “investing” to mean government spending.
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McCain says he wants a spending freeze and promises to use line item vetoes to achieve that.
- Obama responds that a spending freeze is too broad and needs a finer touch – the “scalpel.” However, he goes on to say that earmarks are too small to worry about. That just seems incongruous.
- McCain just forcefully said he’s not President Bush and that if Obama wanted to run against Bush, he should have run four years ago. What took McCain so long to bust out that line? He should have been saying that all summer.
- I think Bob Schieffer is, so far, the best moderator of the debates. He lets the candidates to respond to each other and just “lets them play,” to use a sports term.
- Is the campaign really so negative? I do not think there is anything comparable to the Swift Boat ads of 2004 or the shenanigans of the 2000 South Carolina republican primary. Particularly in the age of campaign finance reform, it is impossible to control one’s supporters (527 groups, etc), from where most negative ads come.
- Both candidates think we can eliminate oil imports from the Middle East and Venezuela within 10 years. Really? That seems incredibly optimistic. Until American transportation moves to electric vehicles, it will continue to require oil. Nuclear, solar, and wind power plants will not reduce that usage because they produce electricity, not gasoline.
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Obama just said that preventative medicine would save the government money in the end. I disagree; preventative medicine, if it increases life expectancy, would actually increase government expenses because people would be living longer and consuming more government services such as Social Security and Medicaid/Medicare. Obviously, we need to live shorter lives.
- As an aside, why does anyone believe the government will manage universal health care better than its existing health care programs?
- The health care portion of this debate is just a repeat from the first two debates. Seriously, it was almost word for word! Why even bother when neither candidate is willing to actually address the issue?
- I fear I am starting to sound too partisan, but Obama is talking nonsense about establishing Senate “oversight” of the Supreme Court. That is completely and utterly ridiculous. The Supreme Court is called such for a reason. Because you disagree with a decision does not provide grounds for trying to implement a legislative check on the Supreme Court’s Constitutional powers.
Overall, I think Obama won the debate simply because it was not disastrous for him. McCain was the one who had to have an incredible performance, which he just did not have. I think he was too forceful in trying to portray Obama as naive and inexperienced. It bordered on rudeness and was unbecoming.
