October 07, 2008
Debate
This may be the single-most awful "debate" I've ever seen.
I can't stand these guys; Obama for his positions, and McCain for being unable and unwilling to call Obama on them.
How many times have we heard Obama talk about "cutting taxes for 95 percent of all Americans," and how many times have we heard everyone -- anyone -- but McCain say that almost 40 percent of Americans don't pay one red cent in taxes, so you can't cut taxes for 95 percent; it's impossible.
Obama's so-called tax cuts for those no-tax-paying people are nothing more than income redistribution, taking money out of your pocket and giving it to someone else.
But you wouldn't know that from listening to McCain.
McCain was better on foreign policy, but there were so many opportunities that he let slip away, that Obama comes out on top simply by leaving viewers with the impression that he's far more moderate than his all-too-brief record shows.
On the merits, McCain actually did better than Obama:
McCain said health care is a responsibility; Obama said it's a right.
McCain said he'd come to Israel's defense; Obama said he'd go to the U.N. and seek sanctions.
Obama said he'd invade "Pock-ee-stahn," which happens to be a sovereign nation with nuclear weapons -- and that ought to scare the bejabbers out of you.
But none of this really matters.
Having had an opportunity to think about the debate in the two hours or so since it ended, I am disappointed.
I think National Review's Andy McCarthy strikes the right tone: "We have a disaster here."
We have a disaster here — which is what you should expect when you delegate a non-conservative to make the conservative (nay, the American) case. We can parse it eight ways to Sunday, but I think the commentary is missing the big picture.
Here's what Obama needed to do tonight: Convince the country that he was an utterly safe, conventional, centrist politician who may have leftward leanings but will do the right thing when the crunch comes.
Now, as the night went along, did you get the impression that Obama comes from the radical Left? Did you sense that he funded Leftist causes to the tune of tens of millions of dollars? Would you have guessed that he's pals with a guy who brags about bombing the Pentagon? Would you have guessed that he helped underwrite raging anti-Semites? Would you come away thinking, "Gee, he's proposing to transfer nearly a trillion dollars of wealth to third-world dictators through the UN"?
Nope. McCain didn't want to go there. So Obama comes off as just your average Center-Left politician. Gonna raise your taxes a little, gonna negotiate reasonably with America's enemies; gonna rely on our very talented federal courts to fight terrorists and solve most of America's problems; gonna legalize millions of hard-working illegal immigrants.
McCain? He comes off as Center-Right .. or maybe Center-Left ... but, either way, deeply respectful of Obama despite their policy quibbles.
Great. Memo to McCain Campaign: Someone is either a terrorist sympathizer or he isn't; someone is either disqualified as a terrorist sympathizer or he's qualified for public office. You helped portray Obama as a clealy qualified presidential candidate who would fight terrorists.
If that's what the public thinks, good luck trying to win this thing.
With due respect, I think tonight was a disaster for our side. I'm dumbfounded that no one else seems to think so. Obama did everything he needed to do, McCain did nothing he needed to do. What am I missing?
A lot can happen in a month, but I'm afraid that McCain's inexplicable failure to take the fight to Obama makes a GOP victory look less and less likely.
Posted by Mike Lief at October 7, 2008 10:07 PM
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Comments
Can someone, ANYONE, tell me why McCain does not turn to Obama and ask him straight up in fornt of a national audience to explain his ties to extremists and terrorists? John, buddy, YOU ARE LOSING!!! Act like you give a crap and fight. Maybe you are too old and don't have the energy, but your campaign is on life support.
You need to call out Obama for the fraud that he is. I am thoroughly frustrated.
Posted by: rw at October 8, 2008 12:49 PM
I would like to know this too. Obama made a couple of misleading statements and McCain let him get away with it. On energy policy he said that the US houses 5% of the world population but uses 25% of the world's energy supplies. True, and there is nothing wrong with it.
We produce 85% of our energy needs domestically; wind, nuclear, water, oil and coal. 15% is imported oil, mainly to power our cars. We spent 700 billion USD yearly for this.
Obama's solution to become energy independent is wind energy, clean coal and nuclear energy. We are energy independent in this respect!!! The proplem is wind doesn't power our cars !
And even if we have only 3% of the world oil supplies they will bring us a long way and yearly savings of 700 billion USD.
Then Obama claims that it is incomprehensible for him why we went to war in Iraq.
Five minutes later when asked about the "Obama doctrine" he says that we have a moral obligation to "go in" and intercept if genocide, ethnic cleansing and mass murder occurs like for example in Dafur.
Hallo ? what happened in Saddam's Iraq? And where was McCain to nail him on his weird thinking ?
This debate was disgusting and unfortunately McCain might have handed the White House to Obama without a fight.
Posted by: TB at October 8, 2008 04:40 PM