Some Thoughts On The Presidential Debate

Presidential sealImage by Scott Adams via FlickrObama v McCain

Below are some notes I took during the debate this evening. The times are approximate.

I’m sure I missed some things here that I would just love to bring to your attention. I have to admit, boring as the whole thing was, certain parts of it had my undivided attention and I forgot to make a note, listening to what was said.

Sorry ’bout that. Look below for links to other blogs with more commentary.

If you watched the debate, hopefully you caught most or all of the deceptions going on. There were several, and I tried to catch them. If not, read on for a few of the most obvious…

910
McCain’s ‘greatest fiscal crisis’ remark. I wonder if he remembers the 1980s, the Savings and Loan mess. Google Keating Five. Wikipedia reports “Senators John Glenn and John McCain were cleared of having acted improperly but were criticized for having exercised “poor judgment”.

915

Did McCain warn evrybody about the financial crisis for the past 2 years? ABC News reports that just last year he said he was ‘surprised’.

920
McCain talking about earmarks. Sarah Palin is known as the (google link)’earmark queen‘.

925
Corporate taxes. Did you know that 2 out of 3 corporations in the US pay NO taxes?

930

More McCain earmark talk… why doesn’t he mention the bridge to Nowhere, Alaska?

935
All this talk about how to handle our energy needs. Good grief.
Drilling will not do anything at all for a minimum of 10 years, with only marginal impact then.
Biofuels? Waste of good food while people are starving.
Nukes? They really do cost too much, take too long to build, and have other inherent risks that have yet to be addressed… just look at France.
And clean coal? It DOES NOT EXIST and industry experts expect that it never will exist.
Both candidates gave only a passing mention of solar, wind and geothermal. At least Obama talks a bit about rebuilding infrastructure, something that goes with the wind and solar.

940
Spending freeze? That’s not gonna help anybody! Unless maybe that’s how McCain plans to bail out his buddies on Wall Street. I guess if you cut everything but defense and ‘critical’ government services, there just might be $700 billion there.

942
OK, this is just out and out lies. McCain, the great prisoner of war from ancient times, the man who has seen torture 1st hand, McCain, the man with the same lame slogan that failed him 8 years ago… McCain voted to allow waterboarding.

945
McCain says the surge worked, and without it we might have seen more sectarian violence. He says Patraeus had a great strategy. He actually calls that man a ‘great general’. What the great general did was to hand out guns and ammo to certain factions and then looked the other way. Immediately after the surge and most likely because of it, a period of massive ethnic cleansing ensued. The real reason that the violence dropped off after the surge was that each neighborhood had reasonable success at killing the families they didn’t want there. This great general enabled that to happen by handing out weapons and ammo for free, with no accounting whatsoever.

950
McCain doesn’t know what the troops want. The troops are financing Obama over McCain by a 6:1 ratio.

955
If we pull out of Iraq it will help Iran? Going into Iraq has already helped Iran. The border there is nearly 400 years old, made to separate the Sunnis(Iran-Persians) from the Shi’ites(Iraq-Ottomans). And who now rules Iraq? The Sunnis. What we have done in Iraq has helped the Iranians more than anything in the last 400 years.

And let’s not forget what a great vocalist McCain is. He does a great bomb bomb song.

1005
Pakistan was not a ‘failed state’! Musharef came into power by orchestrating a military coup when the Prime Minister tried to replace him. McCain Lies Again!

1010
The idea of a ‘League of Democracies’ is a direct attack on the founding principles of the United Nations. I’m against it but I think it’s such a stupid idea that it won’t get much traction, so I won’t discuss it further.

1020
All this talk about whether we should talk to our enemies or not, what did Kissinger really say, it’s all rhetoric. I give the point to Obama, because he references Kissinger, a McCain advisor and ‘good friend’ accurately to support his position. Kissinger did indeed say that high level talks should be held without preconditions.

1025
The Russia-Georgia conflict. I remember reading Obama’s initial statement, and McCain quotes it fairly accurately. I just can’t find anything wrong with calling for restraint from both sides in a conflict. McCain thought it was an inappropriate response. I think differently. Point Obama.

1030
They both mention offshore drilling. Again, offshore drilling will do absolutely NOTHING to help us in a timeframe that makes any difference. In the time that it takes that oil to reach our pumps, an entirely new industry of clean energy needs to be developed.

1035
For the record, John McCain has a lousy record with veterans. Look HERE for more on that.

Here are some links to other blogs covering the debate:
ThinkProgress
WashingtonIndependent
HuffingtonPost
ModerateVoice

I am Jon. Match: Obama.

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