The Final Obama/McCain Debate or Debate 3.0

Obama and McCain um . . . after the debate . . . Is McCain having a "senior-moment?"

To use an achingly melodramatic term, the third and final Obama/McCain debate belongs to the ages.

Cliche aside, I believe that the real winner of this debate was moderator and CBS reporter Bob Schieffer.  Of this battle royale trifecta, Schieffer was the only moderator to get these two candidates to address each other, and had the guts to bring up the nasty subject of over-the-top mudslinging that has been plaguing the election for the last few weeks.

McCain seemed to stick to the story that if Obama had agreed to do town hall meetings with him, the election just wouldn’t have taken this nasty turn:

“Had Sen. Obama responded to my urgent requests to sit down and do town hall meetings, we could have done at least ten of them by now… I think the tone of this campaign could have been different.”

I’m afraid I’m not quite following that logic.  To me, that smacks of the abusive husband projecting the blame to the wife for the abuse that she just received.

I just want to make sure that I get this straight-If Obama had agreed to town hall meetings, McCain and Palin wouldn’t have made that association between Obama and terrorism, and incite angry crowds to shout “Traitor!,” “Terrorist,” and “Kill him!”  Yeah McCain.  All of that was entirely Obama’s doing.  Whatever helps you sleep at night. 

To be certain, Obama did call McCain’s campaign erratic.  Let’s say that Obama was referring to McCain’s age when this was brought up.  The fact is, columnists George Will and Sam Donaldson discussed that very issue on “This Week with George Stephanoupolos.”  Also, I believe that it’s fair to say that “erratic” does not nearly equal “paling around with terrorists.”  I don’t think it’s fair to compare the two.

When McCain was asked to say what he regrets, he only cited something that Obama’s surrogate, Rep. John Lewis stated.  McCain said;

“I regret some of the negative aspects of some of these campaign. The fact is, it has taken many turns that I think have been disrespectful… Congressman Lewis, made allegations that Sen Palin and I were somehow associated with one of the worst chapters in American history.”

The fact is, Lewis did not say McCain and Palin were “associated” with the “worst chapter in American history.”  He was pointing out that Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.

McCain asserted tonight that Obama never repudiated Lewis’ remark comparing McCain and Palin with George Wallace.  The following was a statement from the Obama campaign shortly after Lewis’ statement that seems to contradict McCain’s claim:

“Senator Obama does not believe that John McCain or his policy criticism is in any way comparable to George Wallace or his segregationist policies. But John Lewis was right to condemn some of the hateful rhetoric that John McCain himself personally rebuked just last night, as well as the baseless and profoundly irresponsible charges from his own running mate that the Democratic nominee for President of the United States ‘pals around with terrorists.’ As Barack Obama has said himself, the last thing we need from either party is the kind of angry, divisive rhetoric that tears us apart at a time of crisis when we desperately need to come together. That is the kind of campaign Senator Obama will continue to run in the weeks ahead.”

On the actual subject of William Ayers, the 1960s radical turned professor, McCain said he did not care about “an old washed-up terrorist” like Ayers, once a bomb-throwing militant in the Weather Underground group who is now a Chicago professor of education.

However, McCain must care just a little bit about that “old washed-up terrorist.”  Otherwise, he would have left it at that instead of immediately following it up with this statement:

“But as Senator (Hillary) Clinton said in her debates with you, we need to know the full extent of the relationship with you.”

You can’t have it both ways McCain.  Either you care about this guy Ayers, or you don’t.  What a weak way to make an allegation like that to someone’s face.  Obama once again, had to explain the loose relationship with Ayers as well as the liberal group, ACORN for those in the American electorate who didn’t quite get it the first fifty times he addressed it.

McCain actually did better in this debate than in the previous two.  Not only did he look Obama in the face as he spoke this time, but the setup of this debate prevented the 72 year old Senator from wandering to the outer reaches of the stage.  The zinger of the night does go to the Arizona Senator:

“Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago,”

Kudos to Senator McCain.  I’m sure that the comment you made would have been the one that the pundits would remember had it not been for your cavalier remark regarding abortion when the mother’s health is at risk.

McCain sarcastically paid tribute to “the eloquence of Senator Obama. He’s for health for the mother. You know, that’s been stretched by the pro-abortion movement in America to mean almost anything.”

For many women out there who have had or might experience complications from pregnancy and the OBGYNs who treat them, I’m sure that McCain’s comment went over wonderfully.  Poor McCain.  You had me, then you lost me.  I believe that McCain on women’s health issues will be a dominating force for political pundits everywhere tomorrow morning.

Megan Carpentier of womens’ issues blog “Jezebel” wrote the following:

“It used to be that McCain was leading the charge to reform the Republican platform to include exceptions for the life and health of the mother to their anti-abortion plank. That tonight he declared his own position extreme — let alone called a woman that chooses her own continued existence over the potential future life of a fetus “extreme” — is a pretty significant and rather disgusting charge.”

Here’s the video.  Notice McCain’s sneering “air-quotes:”

On the subject of the economy, the clear winner was neither Mccain nor Obama, but “Joe the plumber,” or Toledo resident Joe Wurzelbacher.  Both McCain and Obama almost couldn’t stop talking about him:

“Joe wants to buy the business that he’s been in for all these years,” McCain said. “Worked 10, 12 hours a day. And he wanted to buy the business, but he looked at your tax plan and he saw that he was going to pay much higher taxes.”

Obama countered, citing his own recollections with the now famous plumber:

“What I essentially said to him was, five years ago, when you were in the position to buy your business, you needed a tax cut then.

“And what I want to do is to make sure that the plumber, the nurse, the firefighter, the teacher, the young entrepreneur who doesn’t yet have money, I want to give them a tax break now.”

On other points of the economy, both stayed on message.  Perhaps more so for McCain.  He was using selections from “John McCain’s Greatest Hits From The Convention.”  Yes, we heard such classics as:

“We’re going to stop giving 700 billion dollars to countries that don’t like us very much”

And

“I’ve been fighting since I was 17 years old, and I have the scars to prove it.”

I think I have an idea on how John McCain can update his campaign-come up with more new material.

Senate Approves Bailout or Debt to America

And a large number it was.  This seemingly arbitrary amount of taxpayer dollars set by Treasury Secretary Henry (Let me just choose a number) Paulson passed the Senate yesterday in a wide margin of 74 to 25.  To give somewhat of a perspective on how much money $700 Billion is, it is seven hundred thousand million dollars, or enough to pay about half of my student loans.

The only Senator absent from the vote was Ted Kennedy (D-Mass) who is recuperating from a seizure thought to be caused by a change in medication.  The “Lion of the Senate” is currently battling a brain tumor first diagnosed in May, 2008.  My sincerest wishes for his speedy recovery.

Meanwhile in the wake of the Senate vote, support for the bill is gaining among House Republicans whose “hurt feelings” over a speech from Nancy Pelosi last Monday, seem to be getting “all better.”

“Still President” George W. Bush praised the passing of the bill in the Senate.  With the revisions, Bush said, “I believe members of both parties in the House can support this legislation. The American people expect and our economy demands that the House pass this good bill this week and send it to my desk.”

The one question that has been on my mind, and the question in which I couldn’t find an answer to despite digging in numerous publications, was if the bill still contained those scary 32 words that was a key part of Bush’s original bill.  You know, these words:

“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”

I even looked in “Um, All Of Them” magazine and got nothing on the bill’s wording.  That magazine was worthless.  I don’t know why Sarah Palin even recommended it to Katie Couric.

I am hoping, nay praying that those 32 words were not inserted into the new bill.  This remarkable piece of legislation is going to be with us for a very long time.  Get ready American taxpayers.  As soon as this bill clears the House and is on the President’s desk, we will be proud owners of $700 billion of debt.

During this saga, I’ve been trying to wrap my brain around all of this.  Two weeks and 3 1/2 bottles of Motrin later, I can only say that Wall Street and the US Government put all of us in “Mainstreet,” “Middletown,” or whatever else it is they’re calling us these days in an almost impossible situation.  Imagine if they were contacting us by phone:

“Umm, American taxpayer?  Yes, this is the Government.  Uh yeah, it seems that thanks to our deregulatory policies, bankers and Wall Street investors kinda went nuts.  You know what children they are.  Well long story short, they gambled away billions of dollars and put the financial market in a umm, how shall I put it?  A meltdown.  Oh, I’ve already talked to the financiers responsible and offered some very harsh words.  They tell me they’re very, very sorry.  Yes, I’m afraid this is very serious, and you’re going to have to bail them out.  I know it’s not fair to you and that you didn’t do anything to cause this.  Fact is, Wall Street is strapped for cash and we’re already a good trillion in the hole.  I know that this negates your tax-rebate check, but this is serious!  It all comes down to you.  We need you to fix this cratering economy.  No, I checked with other countries.  They refuse to give us a dime.  They called us irresponsible.  Hmph!  Can you believe it?  So yeah, $700 billion sounds like a nice, round number.  We’ll get the legislation through and let you know how it goes.”

At least, that’s how it sounds to me.

Beginning of the End for John McCain?

The Economy may not be the only thing having a meltdown.

John McCain may be having one of his own.

This past week and a half has had me asking, “What the hell is going on with John McCain?”  He first says that “The fundamentals of our economy are strong.”  The market crisis begins, so John McCain revises his statement three hours later by saying, “The fundamentals of our economy are at risk.”  He winds up backpedaling about his earlier statement telling the American people that what he meant to say was that the workers in America were strong.

Is he saying that we have good workers in America?  Yeah John.  We already knew that.  It goes without saying, so why even say it?

These workers of whom he speaks have a good idea that he wasn’t referring to them to begin with.  Most Americans know that it was a pathetic attempt by him to try to squeeze out of that earlier remark.

By this time, McCain is rattled enough to where he starts blurting out knee-jerk responses, throwing everything including the kitchen sink in there in hopes that something, anything will resonate.  He lashes at the Wall Street “Fatcats” for helping to create this crisis.  Nevermind that Merrill Lynch and Lehman Bros. were significant contributers to the McCain campaign.  He calls for the firing of SEC Chairman Chris Cox in this pseudo-populist approach that had many scratching their heads.  George Will, conservative columnist and panel member of “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” made some scathing remarks with regard to his credibility during a crisis including the remark, “John McCain showed his personality this week, and it made some of us fearful.”

Watch:

McCain’s campaign seems to be locked in “Chinese finger-cuffs.”  The more he struggles to break free, the worse he makes it.  Two days ago, McCain’s runningmate Sarah Palin went to the UN in NY to meet with world leaders and dignitaries including President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.  The media pool was allowed in for a whopping 29 seconds, and the media were not allowed to ask any questions to Palin.  This sparked an outrage of all of the journalists – even those at FoxNews who called the move, “unprecedented.”  McCain was again the subject of scorn, and Campbell Brown of CNN led the rallying cry to “free Sarah Palin.”

Watch:

That same day in Strongsville, Ohio, McCain ignored questions from his own media pool.  One of the frustrated reporters shouted, “Has your bus become the No Talk Express?”

Watch:

It gets even worse.  Yesterday, McCain announced that he is suspending his campaign so that he may fly to Washington and fix the economic problem with the President and other lawmakers.  Is it a coincidence that he made this decision two days before the first Presidential debate and hours before appearing on “The Late Show with David Letterman?”  Letterman was not at all pleased, and made it quite apparent on his show last night.

Watch:

The one main snag with McCain’s decision to suspend his campaign to work out a deal in Washington is that the deal has been worked out.  Congress rejected Bush’s proposal of handing over $750 billion to Treasury Secretary Paulson without any oversight, caps on executive salary, or help to ordinary Americans who are truly strapped in this economy.  The most troubling of Bush’s proposed bill were these words which the administration tried to sneak in:

“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”

Congress got their way because the Bush Administration overspent their political capital just as they had overspent on everything else.

With a consensus reached between the White House and Congress, will someone please remind me why John McCain still needs to suspend his campaign in order to  concentrate his efforts on Capitol Hill?

All that McCain will have to do now in Washington DC is posture politically; something in which until now, he hasn’t been doing very well.

Update: As of Thursday night, efforts to put together a $700 billion rescue plan for the national economy appear to be stalling, hours after key lawmakers had declared they had reached a deal.  Okay Maverick, get in there and show us what you can do.  But please, don’t “win one for the Gipper.”