7th October 2008

I Hate to Say This but McCain Did Not Win Points in Tonight’s Debate

I admit it - I come from a Republican family.  I always liked McCain.  I am not pro-drilling.  I am not pro-Iraq, but believe that we can’t just hang up our hats and walk out the door easily considering the problems at hand.  I have Marine Corp brothers, and a Catholic family background.  But despite that background, tonight, McCain didn’t work for me.  I have been known to switch sides before, although I often vote Republican.  You know I like what Palin did in her debate, although clearly she was not so good on the Katie Couric interview.  I also thought she held her own in the Biden debate, but didn’t care for the colloquialisms or down-home references to Joe Six Pack or winks, or soccer moms.  But I’m not voting for Palin, I’m voting for the president, and she’s not running for president.  I once thought Cheney made Bush look better - but Cheney hasn’t done much, nor did Gore make an impression on me as Vice President.  He does now, don’t get me wrong.  So I don’t get hung up too much on the vice-presidential ticket.  And for those of you who are crusading against Palin, and sending me emails on this, I don’t read them.  I have better things to do with  my time, and suggest you do the same.  Why do women, especially, love to hate women?  Do something more useful with your time, please.  Most of you sending these emails happen to be Democrats, so if you want to crusade for something, do something for the environment and join T. Boone Pickens, or WeCanSolveIt.org, or something that actually adds value to the world. 

There were questions about what McCain would do if elected, but the responses were personal against Obama.  I’ve already heard this in the debate - but didn’t expect that in a town hall meeting format.  Seeing the CNN coverage from Columbus, Ohio undecided voters, and the ratings - you would think that Obama will surely win.  Although when I saw the poll tonight an hour later showed more voting for McCain, I wondered is that because it’s a historical Republican electoral vote?  Every single person I know, well minus one, says they are voting for Obama.  I have not decided yet, but liked what Obama had to say tonight.  I don’t actually believe either of them, but Obama clearly did better in the debate/town hall tonight.  He wasn’t as abrasive as McCain - he offered “solutions” although I find them ironic at times, considering what he critiques in one moment and yet defends in another scenario if it was his idea. 

It is so easy with leadership to point the finger - it is so easy to say that Bush is the reason that we are hurting economically right now - it is so easy to have an issue with a female governor who winks at the camera - it is so easy to say we did the wrong thing with Iraq - but quite frankly we could be easily saying the same thing about Obama in four years or eight.   We cannot possibly hold government responsible for everything - there is a lot wrong with our society - and if we think that life will be better with Obama because he sounds and looks good, and handles a debate better than McCain, that is not necessarily true.  Society needs to change - and we can no longer look to government to solve our problems when we claim bankruptcy after we overcharged our credit cards, we can’t expect free healthcare for all, we all eventually have to pay the bill, one way or another.  Neither Obama or McCain can fix everything.

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