While I'm Thinking About It

Obama/McCain 2: Electric Boogaloo

Are they really uncommitted voters? I'm always skeptical about that. Probably because I'd claim to be, if it meant getting a seat in the audience.

Aargh. They should get a chance to say their welcomes and thanks before the first question gets asked. An opening statement, if you will.

It's always the worst economy since the Great Depression whenever a Democrat is seeking the presidency. The phrase has lost all power.

I don't think housing prices are ever going to go back to where they were. It was a bubble, according to everyone four years ago.

1.3 million people make a living on eBay? I gotta get me some of that.

McCain just talked about helping everybody. Now Obama's saying he said nothing about helping the middle class. Here we go again.

"What's in it for me?" I hate that question.

Yay! Link Obama to Freddie and Fannie. And mentioning those campaign contributions!

A small business that needs a loan to make payroll is not a small business that ever deserves to stay in business.

So, two years ago McCain warned the world about Freddie and Fannie, and Obama warned the world about sub-prime mortgages. With everyone in such agreement, how is it nothing got accomplished?

I wonder, exactly how many people out there are in danger of losing their homes? To listen to Obama, it's everybody regardless of what kind of mortgage they have.

How can we trust either of them, given both parties are culpable? Best question of the night.

Surpluses during the Clinton years? Sure, thanks to accounting tricks that counted Social Security funds as general funds.

This may be the first time a Democrat has ever proposed a legitimate spending cut.

Compare the records. McCain's absolutely right about that. I think that's a good idea and fodder for a blog post.

I still want to know how healthcare ever became a federal issue.

I thought Venezuela and Iran were tiny little countries that pose no threat to us. That's what Obama said. So why mention them as places to not send US dollars?

Going through the budget line-by-line could only accomplish anything if the president has a line-item veto. Which Clinton had for awhile, until the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional.

Corporate taxes get passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices.

Talking about a nearly across-the-board spending freeze, followed by talking about helping people afford health insurance isn't exactly a consistant message, McCain.

Waitaminute. Did Obama just call

The 68 million acres the oil companies currently lease from the government. How many of those acres have oil? How many are located in areas where local interests are throwing up obstacles?

Is Obama now talking about Clinton's AmeriCorps as if it's his own idea?

18 billion dollars in earmarks may not solve entire budget problem, but it's a good start.

Small businesses, depending on the industry, can have as many as a hundred employees. Not just mom-and-pop shops with a dozen folks.

Hah. Obama's trying to break the debate rules. Go Brokaw, for not letting him get away with it.

The first step in solving the Social Security problem is to recognize that it's a giant Ponzi scheme that would provide any organizer who wasn't the federal government a healthy stint in prison. It will never be stable.

Ooh, a commission. The single best way to ensure nothing gets done.

McCain, you have also fought the First Amendment, but it's nice to see some optimism.

Every question from the studio audience has implied that their pet issue is a job for the federal government. And the candidates implicitly agree. Sure, I can understand being polite, but I hope at least one of them remembers the 10th Amendment exists.

No, maybe we can't drill our way out of the problem, but like T. Boone Pickens says, we can drill to buy time to get the alternatives up and running.

I wonder . . . how much federal money did Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and Henry Ford require when they transformed American life?

I notice McCain still isn't talking about drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Preserve, which even his running mate supports.

Look, if you had an inexpensive auto insurance copay for things like filling the gas tank or changing the oil, those rates would shoot through the roof the way healthcare costs have done. Routine services should be affordable completely out of the patients pocket, with insurance available for real emergencies. I'm tempted to give my vote to the first candidate to raise the point.

Yup, people do cross state lines to buy things. Especially from Washington to no-sales-tax Oregon.

Is healthcare a privelege, a right, or a responsibility? The very question misses the point. If people can choose to do without a car.

Historically, the "peacemaker" countries in the world have been the ones who have conquered and subjigated everybody else. Rome, anyone? I wonder if that's what the guy was referring to. Probably not.

I remember opposition to actions in Bosnia and Kosovo were related to putting US troops under UN command.

Aargh! I have never heard anyone make the case that Saddam had anything to do with 9/11. Just people saying how stupid, misguided, or evil people are for trying to make the case.

Other countries only ever seem to respect the US when we're victims, coming to their rescue, or have a Democrat in office.

It's a shame that no African countries can step up and deal with the Congo. Again, I feel the question misses the point.

McCain's advocating more restraint with the US military than Obama did. That doesn't surprise me.

Al-Qaeda forces probably started escaping to Pakistan before Bush started making noise about Iraq. They probably had bases in Pakistan before the Afghan invasion even started.

Clinton had Bin Laden offered to him on a silver platter and turned it down.

Legend and rumor hold that the Pentagon has plans to invade pretty much every other country out there. But they never talk about the plans, which is absolutely right. McCain's right about not announcing plans ahead of time. Even as ultimatims, with Obama just repeated. Again.

Brokaw's lost control of the debate. A pox on all their houses.

Of course the British don't think Afghanistan is winnable. It didn't work the last time they tried it. Doesn't make it right.

I'll take Obama's plans to take troops out of Iraq seriously when he starts talking about taking troops out of South Korea and Germany and Okinawa.

One thing Obama cannot do is try linking McCain to Bush with regards to Putin and Russia.

So, according to Obama, not only do we have to spend lots and lots of taxpayer money to rebuild the US economy (McCain agrees), but even more to rebuild European economies.

I still wonder if maybe Osama isn't already dead. It's been a long time since we've heard from him.

Neither one could answer a simple yes or no question. Sigh.

Israel has proven time and again that they can take care of themselves.

One benefit to right-wing talk radio is that I've heard Obama say he would meet with rogue dictators without preconditions.

How is it Obama can criticize Bush for going into Iraq unilaterally (which he didn't) in answering one question, then say he's willing to act without UN approval with regards to Iran? I wonder who else caught that?

"What don't you know?" Save the best question for last. And Obama doesn't really answer it. McCain does slightly better.

The real question about these debates is, do they do anything to change anybody's mind?