The latest presidential debate, in Nashville 07 October, besides being obviously rigged by the moderator, Tom Brokaw, or his outfit, NBC News, was about as boring and bereft of substance as possible. Neither Senator Obama nor Senator McCain could seem to put three complete sentences together, and Obama, as usual, greatly overworked his delivery of the drawn-out word "and," apparently using this ploy to conceal the time it took him to frame an answer to a question. McCain overused the word "friends" to the point that one wonders if he didn't use that term for the same reason, like Senator Biden constantly uses "ladies and gentlemen" as if he were talking to anyone else.
The economy was the main subject and neither candidate seemed to have a clue as to what needs to be done, now that the Congress has acted, and Brokaw asked the dumbest of questions when he asked both men whom they would appoint as Treasury Secretary to run the show. What candidate in his right mind would actually answer such a silly question; yet, both Obama and McCain actually did, although neither was dumb enough to mention anyone for sure. Go figure. McCain did say the government should buy up $300 billion worth of bad mortgages, making one wonder if he was maybe just having a bad day.
The outgrowth of the debate – worse than the first one and unbelievably worse than the debate between the veep candidates – seems in this corner to be that none of the above is suitable for the presidency. This country is hurting for leadership but the candidates seem hell-bent on establishing every position in light of the latest poll. There's nothing wrong with people changing their minds about most everything over time, but the changing of one's mind on a daily basis is a bit much. Brokaw chose all the questions – supposedly among "tens of thousands" (his term) submitted, as if anyone would believe this – and used none having to do with abortion, judges, immigration, same-sex marriage, infanticide – in other words, none that could embarrass Obama. As for the wars – absolutely nothing new!
The only debate that would actually matter at this time is the debate that would take place between the Congress and the devil, with maybe the Archangel Michael as the moderator. Obama and McCain threw out numbers all over the place – numbers reaching from the millions to the trillions – until one's eyes just glazed over. These guys and certainly no one in Congress have even a slight idea as to the actual costs of anything. Worse, expediency seems to be the operative modus operandi with respect to the election – just tell the folks what they want to hear, not what the facts are.
McCain appeared slap-happy on the subject of non-partisanship, as if that solves anything. Fourteen senators ("gang of 14," seven each of democrats and republicans) used non-partisanship in the SCOTUS nominations to protect the filibuster rule a couple or so years ago. This is a rule that should die a natural death, tying up the Senate on any matter that can be decided by less than 60 votes, no matter how important. The House has no such rule. Elections are not held to make everyone come out even. They're held to decide a winner, whose job is to set the direction, not pander.
So…back to the Congress and the devil, the main subject of debate being which entity involves more deceit. Especially in light of the S&L debacle just 20 years ago, one could expect that the Congress would have seen to it that such a thing never happened again, with the taxpayer being stolen blind in the redistribution of wealth from those who earn and spend wisely to those who don't. Instead, this miserable Congress – no matter the party in the last few years – has totally neglected its oversight responsibilities, not because a few good men/women with good sense wouldn't have achieved them but because there's so much incest in the lawmaker-lobby gang that insane offspring – let the good times roll – is the result.
What did the debate reveal besides the fact that the country is rudderless and will likely remain so? McCain harped on the fact that he has a plan for just about everything, something nobody believes, though he certainly has more presidential bona fides than Obama, who made himself look so silly in his Grand Excursion to Europe to "learn the facts of life and ham it up in Berlin" before the democrat convention that he can't be taken seriously. Brokaw was careful to skirt the "associations issue" for either man, since McCain's would involve military folks who fight and die for freedom, while Obama's would include terrorists like his career-launcher Bill Ayers, who would cavalierly blow-up American citizens, and rabid anti-Americans like the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright and Father Michael Pfleger, the latter two nutcases clerics, not to mention crooks like Rezko.
The country should be spared another debate. The three so far have been moderated by Jim Lehrer of PBS, Gwen Ifill, and Tom Brokaw. Lehrer at least tries for balance on his News Hour. Ifill has a book coming out in January that will feature Obama, and Brokaw represents a network so obviously in Obama's corner that his choice drained credibility from the entire process. The latter two should be allowed nowhere near a debate, and the truth is that the milieu provided by Pastor Rick Warren back in the summer is by far the best, with the candidates not tip-toeing around all the issues but just actually saying what they think without fear of instant one-upmanship by the opposition.
On a scale of one-to-ten, this debate rated a one, barely.
And so it goes.
Jim Clark
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