Staff Blog
Three things I wish Obama had said in the debate
All told, I thought Senator Obama did fine in Friday night's debate. Certainly all the polling I've seen since has suggested that he accomplished more than McCain did. Still, I found myself really wanting Obama to make a few points that he didn't. Here they are:
1) "The reason Mr. McCain's 2003 mistake on Iraq matters so much now is that it reflects a fundamentally flawed philosophy on international relations, which he continues to espouse." In criticizing McCain's support for the Iraq war, Obama got off the good line about his opponent acting like the war started in 2006. He cast this point in terms of "judgment," a somewhat vague concept which suggests that, in a hypothetical tough spot, Obama could be counted on to make a better call than McCain because he's done so in the past. But why be vague? There's a very good, very concrete reason to think Obama would make a better call than McCain: He has a better approach to international relations. McCain's response to every conflict, just about, is to escalate. Obama's is to think.
2) "I have reached across the aisle. I will do so more, as President, when I am dealing with a post-Bush, post-Cheney Republican party." McCain kept saying, "I've worked across the aisle, I've worked across the aisle." This is a sort of political cliche that's supposed to be a good thing, but think about it in practice: For the past eight years, the Republican Party has sucked. They have been a largely malign factor that has driven the country to ... a bad place. Now, Obama has only been in Washington for four years. Across-the-aisle cooperation during that time would have generally meant cooperation with Bush. Now it's true that from time-to-time, probably, a Senator needs to work with the other party to get something important passed. But I suspect most voters would be fine with the fact that Obama spent his tenure opposing the Bush administration.
3) "I'm not sure Senator McCain understands what the word 'understand' means." For real. In his effort to convey superiority, McCain claimed Obama didn't "understand" something approximately 600,000 times. As my wife observed, what he really meant was that he didn't agree with Obama. It would have been fun to see Obama point this out, not so much because it was a necessary political point, but because it's always a pleasure to see an asshole get called an asshole.
I don't know. Maybe Obama had his reasons for not making points like these — for staying, generally, on safe ground. Could be he knows he's winning and all he has to do is coast, not let things get shaken up. Whenever I worry about things like these, I think of this:
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| Would that it were. |
I kept waiting for Obama to ask McCain to define “victory” in Iraq, as it keeps morphing and was even declared once with the whole mission accomplished stunt. Just what IS victory in Iraq? A Christian state?
Bush, McCain can run. But they cant hide anymore.
What ever congress does to try and fix our stunning economic catastrophe needs to be done very carefully. Congress needs to take their time, and be sure of what they are doing. Whatever is done needs to be sharply focused at helping, and protecting the best interest of the ordinary Americans. In particular the vast American middle class. 700 billion dollars is a lot of the peoples money to spend to bail out a bunch of corrupt Bush loan sharks.
When have you ever known any government plan, or project to only cost what the government said it would. Remember the war in Iraq. Bush and his so-called advisers said it would only cost you about 80 billion dollars. But we now know that the war in Iraq will cost you, and your children, and your grand children over a trillion dollars, and still counting.
So if 80 billion can end up costing you over a trillion dollars. How much could 700 billion end up costing you. Any math wizards out there. I come up with 9 trillion…:-(
My fellow human beings, just as I warned you ahead of this catastrophic economic meltdown, I must now warn you that what is ahead has the potential to be even more catastrophic than what we are going through now. The worlds geopolitical landscape has been booby trapped by the Bush McCain administration and their republican allies in congress. These booby traps are poised to spring at any time.
Fortunately the Worlds Nations have been blessed with many excellent leaders (except the US) who have been careful, wise, strong, and self-restrained in dealing with the provocations, and antagonism’s of the Bush, McCain administration.
Barack Obama and the democrats are your best hope now. Tell your family, friends, and everyone you know to support them as best you can, and vote for them like your life, and the lives of your loved ones depends on it. Because it does. You will not survive 4 more years of Bush McCain.
JACK SMITH - WORKING CLASS…
I would like to see either one of them (especially Obama with his spending plan) explain how they plan to lower taxes in the midst of an economic meltdown, OR more importantly: HOW DIDN’T THEY SEE THIS COMING?