Posted by
Killer Konservative™ on Wednesday, October 08, 2008 1:27:37 AM
Tonight, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama finished their second presidential debate. Brilliantly moderated by Tom Brokaw and held in a "town hall" format, this clash, unlike their previous one, had barely a dull moment. The questions were excellent, most of the responses were succinct, and for the first time, McCain found himself performing on a level worthy of his nomination, his party and the brilliant woman currently running alongside him.
First question was on the economy. Obama, opening right up with his practiced Bush-bashing speech, complained about the "failed policies of the past eight years" and criticized the "trickle down" theory. McCain, starting off a bit stiffly, simply highlighted his plans for the future, but a few seconds later, he would bring out the big guns.
Second question seemed innocent enough. "How will the recent bailout help ordinary citizens?" McCain started off by re-defining the bill as a "rescue package" but then RIPPED INTO Obama and the Democrat Party, at last placing the blame on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the core of the credit crunch and HUGE contributors to Democratic candidates, whose party first introduced political correctness to the mortgage industry. McCain even highlighted the fact that Barack Obama is the second-biggest political beneficiary of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae EVER.
Obama, in turn, responded with some of the most outrageously socialist dogma he's used thus far, attributing the problem to the "philosophy of deregulation" advocated by President Bush and Senator McCain. Even a mildly objective individual will admit that this crisis was caused by EXCESSIVE regulation and rules designed to make the housing market "fair." The last thing we need is MORE regulation!
Then, as if that wasn't insane enough, Obama launched into what amounted to a full, frontal assault on free enterprise, blaming our current economic woes on "unbridled capitalism."
The third question was utterly nonsensical. A woman from the audience stood up and asked, "since the economic recession was caused by BOTH parties, how do we know we can trust either of you two?"
Obama, true to form, launched into yet another tirade against George W. Bush. McCain, when it came to his turn, broke out a similarly canned speech about his "record of reaching across the isle" and "working with Democrats to get things done." He halfway redeemed himself with a brief attack on Obama's spending record. But on the whole, this was a waste of time by both candidates.
Fourth question was a little more interesting, but still lacked substance. The candidates were asked to prioritize the issues of healthcare, entitlements and energy. McCain started off by promising to tackle all of them at the same time and ticked off his plans for each.
Obama, meanwhile, promised to prioritize in the following order: 1.) Energy. 2.) Healthcare. And last but not least, 3.) Education! Wait...what? I thought the last one was "entitlements." Ohh! That's right, he's a Democrat. He doesn't think there's anything wrong with current entitlements. Moving on....
The fifth question I found extremely interesting: "As president, what would each of you ask Americans to sacrifice for the good of the country?"
McCain replied that he would ask Americans to sacrifice certain government projects and programs (a very good answer in my humble opinion), and proposed his well-known "spending freeze" during which the Federal Government would re-assemble itself on a need-to-exist basis.
Obama responded the way we all knew he would. In short, he attacked Bush. But to his credit, he moved on pretty quickly thereafter to a touching speech about doubling the wondrous Peace Corps and turning off our lights to save energy. Then, of course, he had to allot time to his anal hatred of capitalism by suggesting that the wealthiest Americans (who, by the way, pay over 60% of all taxes), aren't pulling their weight and must be made to sacrifice more.
Then came McCain's second great moment in the debate. He came back with an absolutely brilliant response. Obama's "dirty little secret" he said, is that his tax hikes on the "rich" will affect small businesses more than anyone else. Small businesses, as he pointed out, are the single largest employer in the American workforce. McCain apparently couldn't help himself, and topped off this load of pure conservatism with a tasty little cherry about increasing the tax exemption for each child a family produces. (Homeschoolers everywhere cheered).
The remaining twelve questions were slightly tamer, but no less helpful to McCain.
On the environment, McCain emphasized the need for additional nuclear power plants in the United States, saying: "I was on ships in the Navy that ran on nuclear power. It's a safe, reliable power source." On the same question, Obama made a notable gaffe concerning the origin of computers. He stated that these wonderful little machines were invented for communication in the military. Actually, that was the internet. (He probably got them mixed up because he is still under the impression that the internet was invented by a fellow member of the Democrat Party!)
On a question about healthcare, McCain highlighted a fundamental difference between himself and Obama, pointing out that Obama looks to government as the solution to every problem while he and other conservatives have faith in the American People and seek to empower them with new options (like his proposed tax credit for health insurance). In the next question, he called healthcare a "responsibility" while Obama soundly pronounced it a "right," thereby necessitating that we pay for universal coverage through a nationalized system.
After several questions about the military, foreign intervention and the War on Terror (which essentially played out like the last presidential debate, that is, in McCain's favor), they came to the last big topic: Iran.
McCain refused the possibility of waiting on the United Nations Security Council to take action should Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attack Israel. Obama essentially agreed with this statement, but then returned, like a dog to its vomit, to his infamous gaffe about negotiating with rogue states, which he has insanely made a keystone of his foreign policy platform. McCain, in turn, hit this one out of the park by explaining, in far better terms that last time, why sitting down to negotiate with Ahmadinejad will do nothing to help Israel or ourselves. There is no doubt, he said, as to what Iran's intentions are, and there should be no doubt as to what our reaction should be: sanctions, multilateral pressure and support for Israel. And, should the time come, unfettered military protection for our most valuable ally in the Middle East, whom Ahmadinejad has called "a stinking corpse."
"Can you imagine what our reaction would be if a foreign leader who was working to acquire nuclear weapons promised to wipe us off the face of the map?"
Strong finish, John.
And so this one goes, without a doubt, to the Republican candidate. While I was horrifically dissapointed in his performance during the last presidential debate, Senator McCain pulled it off this time with some fantastic lines, excellent points, and energy that rivaled that of his vivacious running mate. Still, I think Sarah is a whole lot cuter! Sorry, McCain, but that's straight-talk. ; )