I watched the debate last night with my friend Marc at Lone Spur. My first impression was that it was terribly boring. Both candidates repeated the same points they have made on the trail. The chief cause of this was this format. Questions were know by both men ahead of time, they were not allowed to talk to each other, and the audience was not allowed to follow up. Lame...
John McCain did not go "there." His campaign probably felt that the Ayers-Rezko-Wright thing would best be showcased in negative ads that will be coming soon to a theater near you. He was pretty weird though. When moderator Tom Brokaw asked him who would be the next Treasury Secretary in a McCain administration, he replied, "Not you, Tom." Huh? Was that supposed to be a joke. And the "that one" comment was just plain silly. McCain looked like a grandpa scolding his grand child.
Barack Obama had a couple of good moments (bomb bomb Iran and North Korea jibes) but essentially repeated his stump points and did not get into specifics. I guess that is alright, given time constraints, but he really has some great specifics on his web site. Couldn't he have showcased one or two?
I am left thinking that the last debate, regarding domestic policy, will be nauseatingly repetitive. That's all we have been talking about. Given the fact that they are going to talk about the economy again, I'd really like to hear some new material.
2 comments:
The "not you" comment was probably just him buying time trying to think of an answer to the question. Happens in many debates.
I didn’t watch a minute of it. The couple reviews I read this morning said it was boring. Funny though, this all comes from the same media, pundits and other political folks who usually complain about the lack of substance and policy in debates. Last night’s debate probably showed what we get when both candidates focus on policy and (mostly) avoid sound bites and gotchas. It was a freakin debate, not the political equivalent of an episode of The Running Man (even though I liked Climbing for Dollars better myself). Real debates don’t make good public spectacles. High school debates don’t get held at stadiums or gymnasiums on Friday nights in front of massive, yelling crowds. The bands do not conduct halftime shows and cheerleaders do not appear. The reason is mostly that real debates tend to be dull to everyone except the people involved or those very interested in the topic under discussion. Everyone complains when the candidates don’t provide substantive discussion of policy, but it appears that the truth is that very few people in our society or the media must not be interested in a substantive debate. They need things like headlines and hooks and a plethora of sound-bite gotchas. They probably don’t want a real debate because a real debate does nothing much more than compare position papers and well-established policy. They want the gotchas so they can then act superior afterward in chastising everyone for not providing substance. Perhaps we should just add Pat Sajak, Vanna White, and a big spinning wheel to entertain people in these things. Sorry wheel watchers, no wheel of fortune next Wednesday. Pat and Vanna are booked.
Now I’m already tired of the word earmark but last night, Obama said $18 billion in earmarks between 535 Congressional do-gooders isn’t that big of a deal but if we can only keep 500 CEOs from getting $350 million in tax breaks, well, that’s how we fix deficits.
McCain's new announced plan is redundant and it would create significant new responsibilities (and costs) for an already overwhelmed agency. I'm not sure what the big deal about it is that he had to start off the night with it and the thought that he's going to win the election on this idea seems kind of foolish. So $700 billion later, his great idea is to spend a few hundred bill more to buy the bad mortgages? Really gives me a chubby!! But I do realize that the trouble with mortgage backed securities is that they consist of pieces of several loans. That’s what will make renegotiating terms through the private sector almost impossible - it will require hundreds of people to agree on each one. McCain’s proposal may just create a shortcut that will allow for quick renegotiation, which could keep many of these mortgages from going into default.
"Now I’m already tired of the word earmark"
No shit. Me too. I have this exact line last night when I was watching the debate with my friend Marc at the Spur.
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