President Debates - Take Two

Let’s begin with the fact that I loved that Obama came out saying that the executives of bailed AIG who chose to spend $400,000.00 on a partner’s retreat with some of their cash should be fired, was a great way to start. It was nice to hear that and I think the country wanted to hear something like that.

Overall I thought that it was clear McCain was very comfortable in this town hall format, and did a good job personalizing with folks one on one where Obama did appear a bit more removed but slightly to me – more like a public speaker and McCain more like “your good buddy” as he continually said “my friend”. I did, however, think his attempts to be funny with comments or jabs with Brokaw came across cheesy and lead you into the slick politician mode. I was sad Obama threw the first stone in sarcasm, but McCain MORE than made up for it by being sarcastic, repetitive and antagonstic as soon as he got the bait to do so – and I thought Obama held back comparatively. Both of them fell to unprofessional demeanors to me with their sarcasm but it is an ugly finger pointing election at this point and they both are, alas, politicians. Neither one of them did a very good job at directly answering questions – one more than the other depending on the question, but in the end, again, at this point they are both unattractively “political” in their posture. I don’t see how they can avoid it this close to the end though – it is what it is.

The first question was “what is the fastest and best way you can help Americans?” Obama felt like all campaign rhetoric to me. I actually found McCain to be more specific in this one, unfortunately, what McCain had to offer was downright deplorable to me and an insult to most of America. I already hate that both men didn’t do more to rage against the bailout – but McCain came out and directly said he wanted the government to literally buy up all the bad mortgage loans. He wants to have every mortgage loan in foreclosure reduced (at the expense of the lender/investor) in value to whatever the property’s current appraisal value is. So now that you’ve already crippled the investors forcing bad loan modifications and reduced rates for the last three years, now you’re going to outright reduce the principals and “eat” the difference of the REAL value of the property (we’re not talking about fees that inflated a loan – we’re basing this on appraisals!!!) at the expense of everyone!!! So screw all the folks that didn’t buy above their means, and let’s give everyone a free house pretty much. This from the REPUBLICAN? It’s another $3B on top of the $7.5B we already are donating to the credit companies. Get that check book out Uncle Sam b/c once you make them spend $3B on paying people’s mortgages for them, you’ll need more money to help the credit lenders who will CLEARLY still be broke. This will in reality devalue their home What happens if the economy does turn around, the housing market does, now their appraisals are back up and they get to profit from a sale on a house bought for them by the gov. in a sense? Insanity. (I could write an entire essay on that remark alone he made.)

Both said they’d consider Warren Buffet for a new Treasury Secretary. O.k. McCain was more direct with this response to question two as well I thought.

The next real question from a town hall participant was “what does this bailout mean to the average person”? McCain said buying up the bad loans would stabilize markets (yeah – so once we pay for their mortgage now they can go spend more money they clearly don’t’ have!!! – but hey – we are a credit country right? **rolls eyes** ). Obama said small businesses could survive better with the bailout and that would help decrease unemployment projections. THIS – question 3 – was where Obama threw the first stone with his sarcasm and said “not surprisingly, I have to correct McCain” or something like that – but I remember thinking “shame on you for letting your frustration affect your professionalism”. Again, McCain takes the ball and runs and shows his inability to rise above far worse in the big picture of the entire debate.

When asked if the economy is going to get worse before it gets better, neither would admit that. It is, everyone is saying so, it’s obvious, but neither one of them had the gumption to say that out loud in the debate. Dissapointing.

The best question – “how can we the people trust either of your parties when we had a Democratic congress and a Republican leadership for the last several years and this happens”? Obama focused on Bush’s increases in national debt and deficit spending, showing that his fiscal policies were record breaking and the worst in history and you had to put some blame there. He mentioned nothing of the Democrats I this answer, of course. McCain amazingly says he warned everyone, despite his record of siding with Bush at a very high percentage his entire 25 years there (!!!!!) and my favorite desperate plea of his was when he said he “reached across the bipartisan aisle to Leiberman”. Leiberman? THAT’S the “democrat” you reached to? The one that left the party and is now a Republican? Nice. Yea – way to reach out across the aisle. **rolls eyes**

When asked to prioritize healthcare, energy and social security/Medicaid – McCain refused to prioritize and said “we can handle all three at once”. Denial. Obama said Energry first b/c of fuel prices killing the economy and brought in education as one of his top three.

When asked what sacrifices would Americans be asked to make themselves to help the crisis at hand, McCain said “nothing really, just the gov. needs to stop their spend”. This is no surprise coming from the guy that wants to tell everyone that we’re going to buy all those poor folks in foreclosure’s loan so they can keep that $400,000.00 house for $200,000.00. Obama said American’s had to learn to curtail their own consumption of energy at home. McCain repeated his “golden nugget find of the week” of Obama approving a $3M projector at a planetarium in Chicago in his career – he said it three times across the night in case anyone missed it. Almost as desperate as picking Palin for VP. ;) Again, this from the guy that supported Bush’s record breaking budgeting.

When asked how to break consumer consumption habits, Obama said Washington had to show better spending habits. This is what McCain says all the time. However McCain returns with a tacky sarcastic comment about “Jello” and Obama’s tax policy – where again Obama has to correct him that the small business sector the Republican’s claim will be so harmed is less than 25% of them – that 75% of them will benefit b/c they make less than a quarter million a year.

When asked about reforming social security/medicare within two years Obama says can’t happen that fast and goes into his tax policy not taking those with income of $250 – 200K and those with incomes of $200K or less will see a drop in taxes. McCain answers with sarcasm again (he needs to quit hanging with Palin –her tacky habits are rubbing off on him of distracting with cheesy school bully deprecating humor) and then flat out says “oh social security will not fail” and admits Medicare might and wants to make a commission to study it. Wait – isn’t that more regulation? Make your mind up McCain – commissions, and buying up all the old loans - you sound like a Democrat!!!! LOL!!

Brokaw asked if healthcare was a privilege or a right or a responsibility - Obama said healthcare was a RIGHT b/c we are too privileged a country and society not to offer it to our people. McCain said it was a responsibility – I didn’t really get what responsibility meant so I couldn’t clarify how that was different than Obama’s answer- as McCain acted like It was a gov. responsibility which sounds a lot like a right. ??? HOWEVER – a great point by Obama in this discussion was his remark that if you let the health care companies go across state lines then much ilke the banking industry, ALL the healthcare companies will form in whatever state favors pre-existing condition clauses, etc. whatever is best for them – as anyone in banking knows that EVERYONE is incorporated in Delaware b/c it’s in the best interest of the company due to legal safe harbours. It is NOT in the best interest of the people to let healthcare cross state lines as a result.

Foreign relations – Obama advises he wants to talk to his enemies as much as his allies – and that the days of American the superpower that can be the bully that refuses to talk until you are already ready to bow down to our demands are over – and will never return. That that is “old school” military talking and no longer works. I have to agree. When they talk about Pakistan they both say they’d invade if they attacked Israel, and they both say they’d not wait on approval from the UN – but McCain likes to spin it and refocus on Iraq.

I think that CLEARLY the POW experience of John McCain was the quintessential time in his life – and he had to come back to a country not welcoming him b/c of the times and they hated being in war. It had to be beyond frustrating for him – and despite all his true heroics as a POW, they lost the war in Vietnam so no glory there, and his American people didn’t warmly welcome him home at that time so he never ever felt justified for what he clearly must feel he “deserves” in terms of respect. I think he uses Iraq to replay Vietnam – so he can get some psychological fix for what he didn’t get with Vietnam. Hence his constant rationalization that its ok to be there, that we’re “winning”, etc.

So in the end – they are both politicians but I agree more with Obama than McCain in his philosophy on how to approach things. I think McCain is unstable as if his choice for VP didn’t prove that enough. :p