Well, It Wasn’t Boring

Finally, a real debate between Barack Obama and John McCain but, for me, it was an uncomfortable debate to watch.   John McCain looked frustrated and hardly able to put his frustrations into words; Barack Obama remained calm, cool, and for the most part eloquent with his words, as usual – though there were some moments where he appeared smirky and condescending.

The recent remarks by Congressman Lewis who accused the McCain/Palin rallies of “sowing the seeds of hatred” was brought up by McCain.  Obama, at least by my psychic abilities, seemed to agree with Lewis’ assessment and didn’t repudiate the remarks.  The nastiness of both campaigns was brought up and a tit for tat discussion took place, each accusing the other of being more negative than the other.  What’s new?  I’ve never seen a presidential election that didn’t get nasty.

Joe the Plumber became the running theme of the debate.  Joe, who spoke his concerns to Obama at a political rally in Ohio, questioned whether Obama’s tax plans would hurt small business.  Obama’s now infamous rationalization to Joe was that we need to “spread the wealth.”  There lies the fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans.  “Spreading the wealth” to Republicans sounds like socialism; to Democrats it sounds like fairness to the poor and middle-class.  For once, I’d like to see a politician want to cut taxes for everyone of every tax bracket; but class warfare is a winning strategy.

Who won the debate?  Of course, Obama; all he had to do was show up.  As of today, it looks like the stars are aligned perfectly for Obama.  It seems like the election is already over and we’re just humoring ourselves with this one last debate and going out to vote on November 4th.  Let’s just hope Mickey Mouse won’t be showing up at the polls and voting 400 times.