Opinions On The 2008 Presidential Debate

In less than five weeks, the electoral college will select the next President of the United States. Before that, the American public must endure the ideological dog and pony shows, the Presidential and Vice Presidential debates where the candidates agree, disagree, agree to disagree, disagree to agree and spin. Last Friday's Presidential Debate was mildly entertaining and, I guess, informative,
To be honest, the debate was boring and it's clear, unless another 9/11 happens between now and election day, McCain will lose, but for the purpose of this blog entry I'll present my opinions.

On the economy and mending the current financial market crisis, both candidates agreed on federal intervention, for the bailout to include strict oversight, expressed an interest to put an end to golden parachutes for CEOs of failed finanical services companies, the need for the government to recoup revenue after purchasing and selling toxic assets and increased regulation.

Obama had a populist stance by expressing that the bailout should include assitance to middle class familes and blamed Bush's history of deregulation as a cause of the current problems.

McCain spoke of the bipartisan effort to get the leglisation passed (so much for that since its dead in the water now), painted himself as a crusader against Wall Street largese and reemphaised his "fundamentals of the economy" line. One of McCain's tactics to end the crisis was cut government spending. He touted earmarking as the bane of our financial woes and, strangely, argued it was responibile for the GOP corruption scandals of the past eight years (umm, yeah....., sure........). Another bullshit rationale for the party of morality, God and personal responsiblity of blaming someone or something else for their fraility and lack of self control.

Obama urged tax cuts for middle class to put more money into pockets of average Americans and stated that McCain wants $300 billion in tax cuts to the wealthy.

So, that's where they stand on the economy. The typical populist, for the people democrat vs. the traditionalist, no tax promising republican. I still don't understand how any candidate can offer tax breaks to anyone with a $700 billion corparate welfare to Wall Street and billion dollars wars in the Middle East. The money has to come from somewhere unless a one world currency is on the horizon.

On to Foreign Policy, Obama seemed more hawkish than McCain on Pakistan. Obama's wants to violate Pakistan's soverignty to hunt down terrorists. Even after we entered their country and mowed down some of their civilians and downing of one of our killer drones, I was quite surprised Obama's advocating heavy handed tactics against Pakistan. In the one instance where McCain delivered a stunning blow to Obama, McCain called him out saying the idea was basically stupid and would further detoeriate our fragile relationship with that nation.

On Iraq, from what I remember, Obama wants a gradiual withdrawal from Iraq. McCain wants to stay the course until we "win" (whatever that means). We won't leave until the oil fields start producing 2 million barrels a day then we can finally say "Mission Accomplished."

On Iran, Obama wants dipolamtatic talks with Iran. No bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran, just yet, but the military option was still on the table. McCain went off on some rant about POTUS having direct talks with a rouge head of State legitmizes that head of State. Ahmadinejad is the President of Iran, although many outside Iran have questioned his true polical role. Obama's been preaching this talking to "our adversaires" line for a while and it's great. More talk. Less bombs.