Bottom Of The Barrel

If the election was today, Obama would be your president-elect

Last night we heard some details of the nominees plans, listened to a good deal of finger pointing, had to sift through the rhetoric and watch as McCain and Obama "debated" each other on a number of issues. Four things jumped out at me last night: Obama is a way better public speaker than McCain, the republicans can not shake President Bush's recent poor approval, continuing to say the word change apparently gets people excited even if they have no idea what changes are needed or possible and McCain thinks we are all his friends. Here are five parts of the debate that really highlight either how good Obama was or how bad McCain was - I'm still not sure:

Question: Do you think the economy is going to get worse before it gets better?

Obama: No, I am confident about the American economy. But we are going to have to have some leadership from Washington that not only sets out much better regulations for the financial system. The problem is we still have a archaic, 20th-century regulatory system for 21st-century financial markets. We're going to have to coordinate with other countries to make sure that whatever actions we take work.

McCain: I think it depends on what we do. I think if we act effectively, if we stabilize the housing market -- which I believe we can, if we go out and buy up these bad loans, so that people can have a new mortgage at the new value of their home -- I think if we get rid of the cronyism and special interest influence in Washington so we can act more effectively.

Bottom Line: Obama has a definitive answer to the question while McCain uses the MBA mentality, it depends.

Question: The three -- health care, energy, and entitlement reform: Social Security and Medicare. In what order would you put them in terms of priorities?

McCain: I think you can work on all three at once, Tom. I think it's very important that reform our entitlement programs. My friends, we are not going to be able to provide the same benefit for present-day workers that we are going -- that present-day retirees have today.

Obama: We're going to have to prioritize, just like a family has to prioritize. Now, I've listed the things that I think have to be at the top of the list. Energy we have to deal with today, because you're paying $3.80 here in Nashville for gasoline, and it could go up.

Bottom Line: At least we know which Obama thinks is the most critical thing to do first.

Question: Would you give Congress a date certain to reform Social Security and Medicare within two years after you take office? Because in a bipartisan way, everyone agrees, that's a big ticking time bomb that will eat us up maybe even more than the mortgage crisis.

Obama: Well, Tom, we're going to have to take on entitlements and I think we've got to do it quickly. We're going to have a lot of work to do, so I can't guarantee that we're going to do it in the next two years, but I'd like to do in the my first term as president. But I think it's important to understand, we're not going to solve Social Security and Medicare unless we understand the rest of our tax policies. And you know, Sen. McCain, I think the "Straight Talk Express" lost a wheel on that one.

McCain: Social Security is not that tough. We know what the problems are, my friends, and we know what the fixes are. We've got to sit down together across the table. It's been done before. I saw it done with our -- our wonderful Ronald Reagan, a conservative from California, and the liberal Democrat Tip O'Neill from Massachusetts. That's what we need more of, and that's what I've done in Washington.

Bottom Line: Social Security is an easy fix, then why isn't it fixed yet? Bipartisan is not the only thing needed to deal with this issue.

Question: Do you think that Russia under Vladimir Putin is an evil empire?

Obama: I think they've engaged in an evil behavior and I think that it is important that we understand they're not the old Soviet Union but they still have nationalist impulses that I think are very dangerous.

McCain: Maybe. Depends on how we respond to Russia and it depends on a lot of things. If I say yes, then that means that we're reigniting the old Cold War. If I say no, it ignores their behavior.

Bottom Line: Maybe? I don't think that is an answer our president can give the public if asked such a direct question.

Question: What don't you know and how will you learn it?

Obama: My wife, Michelle, is there and she could give you a much longer list than I do. And most of the time, I learn it by asking her. But, look, the nature of the challenges that we're going to face are immense and one of the things that we know about the presidency is that it's never the challenges that you expect. It's the challenges that you don't that end up consuming most of your time. But here's what I do know...

McCain: And I think what I don't know is what all of us don't know, and that's what's going to happen both here at home and abroad. The challenges that we face are unprecedented. Americans are hurting tonight in a way they have not in our generation. There are challenges around the world that are new and different and there will be different -- we will be talking about countries sometime in the future that we hardly know where they are on the map, some Americans. So what I don't know is what the unexpected will be.

Bottom Line: Sure the future is unknown, that's a given, but at least Obama made his answer more human and humorous using his wife as the set-up.

Here's what I don't know, how could McCain - who is undoubtedly a war hero and a long time US congressman, be so unprepared, so stiff and appear so lifeless during his favored town hall format? Based on last night, I would say congratulations Mr. Obama, you sir will be our next president.

[Unless McCain and Palin do something drastic in the next 28 days that is.]

Labels: Politics

posted by TheWino @ 2:02 PM