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Wednesday, October 8. 2008
Who Won?
Most voters say Senator Barack Obama won Tuesday Night’s debate between the two presidential candidates. They call them “snap” polls because they are taken moments after the debate has finished. After all three debates the “snap” polls showed the two Democrats as the winners.That’s my opinion too, although Senator Obama showed great restraint and could have dug deeper at McCain on a variety of issues, from the current economic crisis to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Desperation is running through the McCain campaign. During the debate McCain belittled Obama on two occasions, once referring to Obama as “That One” and another time asking if Obama said how much the Democrat would fine parents who didn’t buy health insurance for their children.
Actually, it was more than two times. McCain said trying to nail down Obama’s tax policy was like trying to nail Jell-o to the wall. Obama showed restraint, although he looked at McCain several times with a subtle expression of contempt.Obama’s tax plan has been one of the most talked about aspects of the Democrat’s policies. And yet McCain claimed it wasn’t clear. Even the pundits found it amusing.
In a moment when McCain was at his most condescending, he mocked Obama for saying that as president, he would go after Usama bin Laden in Pakistan if need be, thereby violating Pakistan’s sovereignty.
“I’ll get him. I know how to get him,” McCain said. “But I am not going to telegraph my punches as Senator Obama did.” Well, a year ago in the Military Times, McCain said he would do exactly what Senator Obama said in the debate Tuesday Night. And he would go after the Taliban in Pakistan as well.When asked if he would invade Pakistan to get bin Laden, McCain said, “Sure. Sure. We have to, and I’m sure that after the initial flurry, that whoever our friends are, wherever he is, would be relieved because, as I mentioned to you before, he’s still very effective in the world, very, very effective.”
So, what changed in the past 12 months? Going into Pakistan to get bin Laden became Barack Obama’s position. McCain wants us to think it’s a matter of “judgment.” What does it say about his judgment when he flip-flops on issues like terrorism and national security? Maybe it says his judgment is based on which way the wind is blowing.
First he’s for his own immigration bill, then he’s against it. The leaders of the Religious Right are “agents of intolerance,” and then they are McCain’s best friends. First he would not have a litmus test for appointing judges, and then he would get judges “in the mold of Alito and Roberts.” First he would go after bin Laden in Pakistan, now he won’t.
McCain hammered Obama on health care. Obama would like to make one of the most expensive costs Americans face affordable for everyone, without loopholes the health insurance companies can walk through to avoid paying for your care. McCain wants to give married couples a $5,000 tax credit — that goes directly to the health insurance companies. We single folks, well, we’re not so lucky.That $5,000 tax credit is really the whole of McCain’s plan for health care. It doesn’t really address anything other than giving married couples a break they actually never see. Does it reduce co-pays? Does it reduce the possibility the insurance will deny your claims because they might be pre-existing conditions? Dos it really lower the cost of health insurance? Does it actually change the insurance industry from a profit-based enterprise to one that is focused on the health of the patients? “No” on every count.
McCain’s plan for health care is really the status quo. He has no plan to change that. Actually, Obama doesn’t really go far enough either. My plan would be to model our health care system after that of Canada or Great Britain, thereby taking the bottom line — profit — out of the equation. When did health care become a “for profit” industry?
To his credit, Obama said health care is a right, not a privilege. McCain thinks it’s a “responsibility.” Really? Whose responsibility? McCain didn’t really expand on that. Someone’s responsible, but we’re pretty sure neither he nor the insurance companies are responsible. Nor are employers, or even parents. Certainly not government. McCain’s plan is for less regulation of the health insurance companies. Someone needs to ask Senator McCain who is responsible for health care for all Americans.Probably the funniest gaffe by McCain came when he told Obama “The news is bad.” No shit Sherlock! Obama told you that three weeks ago when you said the fundamentals of the economy were strong! Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden, joked, Wednesday Morning, about McCain’s sudden epiphany. On the morning of September 17 McCain said “the fundamentals of the economy are strong” and just a few hours later, it was “the economy is in crisis.”
It’s that good Catholic upbringing! Heck, maybe I’ll return to church ... naaah ...
Biden got off a great zinger at a campaign rally in Florida: “You can’t call yourself a maverick if all you’ve ever been is a sidekick.” It’s probably going to be in the Obama-Biden campaign soon, if it isn’t already.Are we getting tired of listening to McCain call himself a “maverick”? it’s getting quite absurd. McCain’s surrogates get on television to back up the claim, but they only bring up the same two times McCain opposed his party or the president. McCain loves to talk about working with Democrats Russ Feingold and Ted Kennedy. And of course with Joe Lieberman. But Lieberman is no longer a Democrat and McCain never really had to go against his party to pal up with Lieberman.
McCain is hoping that if he and his surrogates — and his running mate — tell us enough times he’s a “maverick,” we’ll believe him and think it’s significant.
On the campaign trail, both McCain and Palin are inciting their followers to violence against Obama. At campaign rallies on Monday, as both McCain and Palin talked about a non-existing relationship between Barack Obama and Weather Underground co-founder Bill Ayers, the crowd was heard chanting “Terrorist!” and even “Kill him!” And both McCain and Palin smiled at the responses from the crowd.
They know what they’re doing. Their surrogates are doing even worse, using racial code words, and implying Obama is really a Muslim and a sleeper for Al Qa’ida. As McCain-Palin slips farther in the polls, I’m betting the two G.O.P. candidates will start using the same tactics their surrogates are using on the Internets and on Fox News.Maybe they hope someone will assassinate Obama. Why else would the McCain-Palin campaign stoke those fires? Or, more accurately, McCain-Palin just isn’t thinking. We’ve had plenty of examples of McCain and Palin not thinking or being downright ignorant. And maybe they just don’t care if anyone gets hurt.
It’s getting ugly alright and we still have … (doing the math) … 27 days until the election. Look for the ugliest of campaigning from here on out.
If you think of it, please click the Ads by Google! I’m a capitalist after all!
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