October 8, 2008

• This Just In: The 2nd Presidential Debate

  

  An unbiased and non partisan view of the second Presidential debate held 10/7/08 in Nashville, TN.

  I like to think I’m informed as well as opinionated, and I’ll be the first to admit that I’ll change or at least modify my opinions if information warrants it. I’m a “Clinton Democrat”, who is ready to embrace Democratic Presidential candiate Barack Obama, simply for the sake of party unity and a desire to see the Bush years in the White House pass uncomfortably into history. I really don’t want to see any more Rebublicans in the White House, but as an informed citizen of the United States, I don’t want to leave an impression that I will vote along party lines simply because I’m a registered Democrat. I figured the Presidential debates between Obama and Republican candidate John McCain would amplify their differences and give me a better picture of each candidate as they answered questions that weren’t necessarily seques in their stump speeches inserted by their campaign managers.

  I was a registered Rebublican when I began voting. I campaigned for Richard Nixon when I was in high school. I was so dismally disappointed after Watergate that I stopped voting for many years. It was Bill Clinton’s campaign in 1992 which kick started my political involvement again, and I registered Democrat. I was solidly behind Hillary Clinton throughout the long bitter primary season, which seemed to last forever. I still hope she receives a top level cabinet post in an Obama presidency. I want to embrace Obama. I must admit I enjoy his speeches, except that for the past few months, I seem to be hearing the same things over and over again, and they seem to sound more like sound bites from Obama advertisements rather than policy announcements. Thus I turn to the debates to see if I can find anything different, hear anything new and wonderful which will give me more of a reason to feel dynamic and happy when I vote next month. I’m even willing to let my tolerant inner self change his mind if I am to hear anything resembling intelligence and presidential manner from John McCain. Just because Obama keeps saying he’s “more of the same” doesn’t really cut it with me. I follow the news and I know McCain has voted against the grain of Republican politics many times as a senator, and was not well embraced by the Bush administration.

  I began to watch the first debate when it aired. I wanted to find the most presidential “looking” candidate. Neither Barack Obama nor John McCain seemed too “presidential” then, and I am sad to report that I didn’t find them seemingly “presidential” last night. In fact, the most presidential looking personage in the whole debate was moderator Tom Brokaw. Maybe he should be my write in candidate for the 2008 election?

  I never finished the first debate. I turned off the television about 15 minutes into the debate when I realized that both candidates seemed to be continually falling back on their stump speeches. I heard nothing new, and didn’t hear anything to sway me from voting for Obama, so I left the whole thing alone. I missed the vice presidential debate. I really wanted to see Sarah Palin mess up, as the pundits were predicting. She didn’t and so I didn’t miss anything. I did see a few minutes of the Saturday Night Live parody of the veep debate. I wonder if Sarah’s handlers realized she bore such an incredible likeness to an ex SNL comic. It’s almost as if a Chevy Chase lookalike had run for president back in 1976. Tina Fey’s popularity has gone up, I’m sure. Perhaps more people will watch “30 Rock” now. In fact, I’m possibly against a McCain presidency simply because he’s an older man in his 70s with a vice presidential running mate who I classify with the massively politically incorrect title of “ditz”. If McCain as president dies in office, Palin becomes president. I don’t want another ditz in the White House. Eight years of Bushie was enough thank you.

  Was I going to receive any epiphanies as I settled in to watch the second debate? Would Obama finally win me over with solid decision making instead of rich rhetoric? Would McCain sway me with his storied career in the senate and seeming knowledge of the inner workings of politics? Would this debate make me feel like either candidate were any more “presidential” than moderator Tom Brokaw? As the image at the top of this blog can attest, no, no, no and no. I’m really not going to mark in Tom’s name on the ballot, but he had a lot more gravitas than either of the two real candiates as they stumbled around trying to misrepresent the other. At least McCain didn’t follow Sarah’s lead and keep needling Obama about his supposed “ties” to ex-terrorists back when he was eight years old. At least the two men didn’t snipe at each other too much, nor did they berate each other or come to blows. That might have been good television, but I want to think of my president as a solid decision maker and not a figurehead.

  Sadly, the debate didn’t sway me nor change my mind. In fact, both candidates seemed more like their party’s figurehead, and less like the future leader of America. And Tom had to keep telling them to get back on point and keep their answers more brief.

  The questions were given in a “town hall” format. Tom pointed out someone in the bleachers or read a question from the internet. No matter which questions were asked, the two candidates kept falling back on their stump speeches and talking points. I Tivoed the debate with about a ten minute buffer. A few times I fast forwarded through some of the proceedings. No matter if it were McCain or Obama, each time I stopped for a moment before speeding on, the candidate seemed to belabor the same points, over and over again. Both men lied about the other’s record, stretching the truth or inflating numbers in order to make it seem as if the other either didn’t know what he was doing, or was simply wrong.

  McCain was somewhat flippant and seemed bored part of the time. Obama smirked and looked smug when McCain was talking. Neither candidate shone too brightly. As the more presidential Brokaw kept trying to get the candidates back into a tighter format, both McCain and Obama wanted to “correct” the other’s numbers. I wasn’t impressed with either candidate any more than I was going into the debate.

  Frankly, I turned off the debate about 20 minutes before it ended, so I didn’t hear too much about military policy. What I heard about domestic policy was enough. There were many questions which seemed to ask what the current financial “crisis” means to the “average” voter. In my opinion, none of these questions were answered. Each question seemed to act as a springboard for still more repetitious talking points. “The difference” between the two candidates was pointed up so much that even when they agreed, they seemed to disagree. All in all, a most disagreeable debate. 

  Who won? I’m sure both parties will claim their candidate shone the brightest, although both were dimmer than Tom Brokaw. McCain couldnn’t discredit Obama, and couldn’t turn the financial crisis blame toward the Democrats, no matter how hard he tired. At one point, he said about the Dems and lendors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, “They’re the ones that, with the encouragement of Sen. Obama and his cronies and friends in Washington, that went out and made all these risky loans, gave them to people that could never afford to pay back.”  Obama countered: “Now, I’ve got to correct a little bit of Sen. McCain’s history, not surprisingly. I never promoted Fannie Mae. In fact, Sen. McCain’s campaign chairman’s firm was a lobbyist on behalf of Fannie Mae.”

  I’m not sure I’ll even watch the next debate. I’m informed enough that it doesn’t seem like I need to. I’ve been hearing the same things over and over again, and the debates seem like extensions of the political ads, without the direct criticisms. I don’t know if I want either a flippant or smug president. We need someone to lead us out of these depressing times and this bad war. We need someone who can put money back into my pocket instead of taking it out. Both candidates decried the cronyism and special interests which grease the wheels of government. But neither seems to be able to fix anything, or even has the wherewithal to do so. Too bad Brokaw isn’t running! He’s been reporting the news for decades. He probably would have made a great candidate. Both McCain and Obama showed him some respect.

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  Top debate moments from Yahoo video. My parents used to say that politics and religion were not subjects for mixed company. Bloggers are surely mixed company, and there are many political and religious blogs from a disparate cross section of humanity. It is not my aim with this entry to spark political debate or to start discussion. I have opinions, as stated, but I really wanted to watch this debate with an open mind, in hopes to hear something different. My point is that I didn’t hear anything different. I am no wiser than before the debate. And I’ll probably still vote for Obama. MFN/ppf.

  • 10:19 am
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