The Last Great Debate

Well...I liked the format of this debate the best. The candidates were allowed to interact and felt more comfortable. Shieffer did a good job, with a good set of questions, It was kind of like a regular Sunday morning version of Face the Nation, but on Wednesday Night.

As for the content, I think that this was McCain least successful outing. At the other two debates, and during his convention speech I was left with a feeling of 'Well, if McCain wins he won't be a terrible President, I kind of agree with him on some of his domestic policies, I don't want to invade Iran, but he was right about the surge so maybe he won't be terrible...' But tonight he just seemed out of sorts and dickish. I couldn't believe how Obama would sit there and explain his approach to something like achieving heath care coverage by regulating the private sector insurance industry, to have McCain turn around and completely inaccurately summing up Obama's plan with a one liner about British single payer nationalized health. He either doesn't listen, thinks we are all stupid, or is stupid himself. This happened over and over again, where Obama would say that his plan was to one thing and McCain would rejoinder with a completely inaccurate summary of Obama's plan.

another criticism of McCain: It's great the Sarah Palin is aware of and supportive of the problems that special needs children and families face...but I think it is important for Him to realize that Autism and Downs Syndrome are 2 completely different diseases. He equated the two ailments a number of times in the debate and it pissed me off. One is an incurable genetic disorder and the other is a behavioral and social disorder with unknown causes and unpredictable consequences.

He definitely had a great line: "I am not George Bush...if you wanted to run against him you should have run in 2004." The problem is that Obama responded with: sure you've stood up to him on things like torture (how brave of you to oppose torture!!!) but on economic policy and foreign policy your philosophies and stated approaches to governance are indistinguishable. After which McCain rattled off a list of 12 or so things that he has opposed Bush on over the last 8 years...one of which concern foreign policy and none of which concerned economic policy. Of Course after the Debate David Gregory would not shut up about the I'm not George Bush line completely leaving out the subsequent conversation.

You all know that my mind was made up about who I am voting for months and months ago. I watched this debate because I am really nervous about the future of this country and my daughter's future. I like to be reassured that either candidate wouldn't be terrible but last night I was pretty disappointed. McCain came off as a Dick-head with limited ability to control and hide his temper. I don't think we need this man negotiating with Putin on nuclear disarmament, or with China on trade policy. Not Only do we not need him, I don't think we can risk the chance that he won't do a terrible job.