Last Debate

My one and only observation, and it’s a critique of the moderator. Bob Schieffer asked how they were going to balance the budget.

Excuse me? I thought we were in the worst financial crisis since the great depression. And what made that depression worse was the initial attempt to not go into deficit spending. In a depression, you do not balance the budget. Barack should have called Bob to task. Keynes is back. Long live Keynes.

Oh yeah. I can’t believe that McCain said that line about “throwing money at the problem” regarding education. Just read one Jonathon Kozol book.

Update: Nobel Prize-winner Paul Krugman agrees with me. Read here.

How will McCain feel if he gets Obama killed?

Where is the Secret Service? Twice this past year I’ve been to see an Obama. First Barack when he came last winter, and most recently Michelle. On both of those occasions the Secret Service was crawling all over the place.

What does the Secret Service do when a McCain fan shouts “TERRORIST!” when McCain asks “Who is Barack Obama?” Does he chuckle and mutter, “What funny Republican fanatics,” under his breath. Or does he throw the shouter on his face? I would think that the fanatic in Sarah Palin’s crowd who shouted “KILL HIM,” or “OFF WITH HIS HEAD” (must be one of those crazy Islamic ones who like to behead on the internet) would attract serious reaction from the SS.

I would at least hope that they’re taking notes when the woman tells the interviewer for bloggerinterrupted.com her first and last name. Doesn’t this lady know that in all likelihood she’s talking about the next president of the United States? Gosh darn it, at least stick her on the no-fly list, or no-drive list, or no-get-anywhere-near-me list.

Update:

Check out the post by Charles Kearney from the Huffington Post.

Update #2:

Turns out that the Republican rhetoric was making life more dangerous for the eventual president-elect, according to the Secret Service.

Biden/Palin debate

Here are just a few observations from the debate. More cheap wine from Trader Joe’s kept me going.

First off, while initially I wanted to watch to see how well Sarah Palin would perform, the debate turned into the Joe Biden show. He’s better at this than Barack, because for the most part he omits those needless words in his sentences. They’re punchier that Barack's. He was also sincere, while Sarah was in her sportscaster mode. The strangest thing though: I think she winked at me!

(I’m only including comments that I haven’t read in other blogs.)


• OK, So Sarah is not answering the questions, but the first person to be egregiously ridiculous is Gwen Ifill, wondering why taxing people making more than $250,000 a year is not class warfare. Why is it that only poor people get accused of this, when they have been suffering from class warfare from above since Ronald Reagan was elected. Just watch the Gini coefficient which measures inequality. If inequality is increasing, then the upper classes are winning the class warfare. (Note: Gwen didn’t ask any other really bad questions after this one.)

• Sarah isn’t wearing a flag-pin. She’s wearing a flag-brooch!

• Sarah reprised the Putin language of “rearing that head,” but this time it was Fannie and Freddie “rearing that head of abuse.”

• For the question on same-sex relationships, I listened closely to Sarah’s response. I didn’t actually hear her say what she was tolerant of. She said that her home town was diverse, but if you listen closely, it seems as if the people she is tolerant of are the intolerant, i.e. the “rednecks.” (I figure I can use that non-PC term because there are a bunch of funny TV shows that are all about rednecks.)

• Sarah said all options are on the table regarding Darfur. Does that mean we can stop a genocide with nookular weapons?

• Did anyone notice the sincerity index when Gwen asked about what they would do if the president were to die? Joe appeared sincere when he said it would be a great tragedy. Sarah said the same, but it I thought she might have had her fingers crossed behind her back. I know, really harsh thing to say, but were John McCain to die in office, it most likely would be of natural causes, and I can just hear Sarah say, “Gosh darn it, I guess it’s my turn!”

• Last point. Sarah said that in Alaska she appointed people based on their qualifications, regardless of what party they belonged to. If you look closely, I think she appointed people according to how well she like them in high school.