First Debate Running Diary

Posted by Chris Connolly on 09.26.2008

"All right, we'll call it a draw!"

Yes, the second-most hated 411 writer is back, this time for the debates. Well, technically I am the most hated, since AJ Grey doesn't really write anything, he just posts pictures of D-list skanks. After taking a writing siesta due to an almost lethal combination of post-convention burnout, an illness that closely resembled the black plague and a huge uptick in real-life duties, I am back just in time to cover this thing. It's coming to you live from the campus with the largest concentration of drunken assclowns with an over-inflated opinion of themselves and their football program in America, The University of Mississippi. Seriously, they are awful, awful people... but I digress. Let's get this thing started, shall we?



Oh, a couple other things first: 1) I am trying to quit smoking, so I'm on a short fuse; and 2) How come Bob Barr isn't at this thing? Discrimination!!!! Someone call Al Sharpton. But since a race riot wouldn't ensue, I doubt he would care to show up.

Jim Lehrer of Pravda, er, PBS is running the show and I am watching the Fox feed. Which reminds me, Big Bird makes like half a billion dollars a year, so why the hell do I have to pay for him to stay on the air? Anyway, I am going to give a general description of the question and then my reaction to their answers, as that seems to be the best way to handle this thing. Now, let's begin...

First question is about the financial recovery plan being kicked around Capitol Hill right now.

Obama, answering first, repeats the tired line that we are at our worst point financially since 1929. Sorry, but the 1970s were worse. And once again he's refusing to acknowledge the role Clinton and Congress played in this whole mess. Of course, when you're lining your pockets with Fannie Mae money, pointing the finger at someone else is always the best idea.

McCain responding now, and he's trying to come across in a "feel your pain" manner. He's spouting his bipartisan stuff now. I fail to see how bipartisanship helps if the other side is 100% wrong.

Wow, now Obama is saying he was giving warnings on this mess two years ago. Uh, sure you were buddy. And it was overregulation that caused this mess!

McCain comes back talking about accountability. He's sounding like William Jennings Bryan with all this talk about "greed".

Obama is now using codewords for socialism and has the gall to talk about lobbyists, when he's so deep in their pocket he can tell you their shoe size.

McCain is trying to take the positive track on this one, saying that yes times are tough but we'll get through them because we have the best workers in the world. Finally, someone says something I agree with.

Second question deals with differences in economic policy.

McCain starts off saying we need to get spending under control. He's really good when he's talking about this subject. Goes after Obama's horrific record on spending. A million bucks a day for every day he's been in the Senate people.

Obama now going after McCain on tax cuts. He repeats his lie that he'd cut taxes for 95% of Americans. Barry, you can't do that when a third of people don't pay income taxes at all. He also fails to mention he wants to raise capital gains taxes, which would affect 70% of the country,

McCain calls Obama's suspension of earmarks for himself a political play. He makes a good point that it's not so much the amount of money but the system itself. He then brings up Obama's wanting to bust the budget with new spending and compares it to his wanting to actually reduce government.

Obama says he has a way to pay for all his new spending. Obviously he doesn't read the LA Times. He's continuing to run with the McSame stuff.

McCain talks about how the corporate tax rate needs to get slashed so that businesses stay in the country. Ireland only has an 11% corporate tax rate, which makes me want to pack my bags right now. Also talks about expanding the Child Tax Credit and refundable tax credits for health care.

Obama lies about his tax plan again. Now he's going after McCain's health plan.

McCain comes back and talks about how he voted against the last pork-laden energy bill, while Obama voted for it. Obama tries to throw in his "4 billion for oil companies" line, but McCain ignores him. He should, since it's not 4 billion targeted to energy companies, it's how much tax relief they'd get under the new corporate rate plan. He also talks about his personal income tax simplification plan.

Obama is still talking about the oil company thing, and McCain is getting visibly annoyed.

Next question tries to get back on track regarding the bailout plan, and what priorities they'd give up in response.

Obama doesn't say what he'd stop, just what he thinks we have to do no matter what. Talks about his magic wand energy plan and everything else he's talked about over the past few months.

McCain goes back to slashing spending, specifically ethanol subsidies (thank God someone on that stage is sane) and fixing the way defense contracting works. Gives a great example of an out of control contract. Also talks about killing a bloated Boeing deal. He's doing good with the specific examples. Of course, if Obama had any specific things he's done to point to I'm sure he'd be doing the same.

Lehrer ignores the last answer and reasks the question of both guys.

Obama starts to stutter through another answer and talks about lobbyists again. Talks about how he worked with Coburn on more spending transparency, and I fail to see how this stopped anything.

Lehrer continues to press the question, I think he's trying to give Obama a chance to actually say something.

McCain decides to bust out the spending freeze card, with exceptions for Veterans Affairs, Defense and some entitlement programs. I like it.

Obama rejects that idea, saying it's a hatchet instead of a scalpel. Of course he mentions how much we are spending in Iraq.

McCain comes back talking about how much we spend on foreign oil and repeats his call for an "all of the above" energy policy, including domestic drilling and nuclear power. Two asides here: first of all, did you know Harry Reid is trying to sneak an oil shale ban in through the backdoor? And also, the French rely heavily on nuclear power. If they haven't melted themselves down, I think we'd be okay. McCain also ties the power issue to new jobs and climate change.

Lehrer AGAIN presses this issue.

Obama talks generally about the issue AGAIN. Jesus, man, give a damn answer already so ol' Jim will move on.

McCain comes back saying he wants families making health care decisions, not the feds. Goes back to slashing spending as an adjustment he'd make. Also makes the point that low taxes and spending restraint can help the economy out of the rut it is in.

Obama calls McCain on his agreement with Bush 90% of the time. Why won't McCain call him on agreeing with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid 97% of the time?

McCain comes back with a list of things he and Bush don't agree on. It's the same list we've heard before and he plays the Maverick card.

Next question deals with the lessons of Iraq.

McCain says that it's that if a strategy is failing, it needs to get dumped sooner. He talks about pushing for more troops and that instead of leaving defeated, we're going to be leaving victorious. He lists the good things that come with winning and the shitstorm that would have happened had we cut and run.

Obama of course says we shouldn't have been there. He talks about how brave he was as a state senator to oppose the war. He thinks it was a distraction. He keeps going back to the Iraqi surplus, which doesn't have any correlation to whether or not we should be there. Although maybe we should look at their budgeting procedures.

McCain brings up the fact that Obama failed to recognize the success of the surge, never went to see the situation in Iraq until this summer and has been an utter failure in his role as chairman of the Foreign Affairs subcommittee. Since NATO has crapped the bed since taking over Afghanistan operations, you'd think he would have called a hearing to ask some questions.

Obama brings up his gaffe-laden buddy Biden. Mark the date down people: he actually acknowledged Petraus did a good job. He brings up some points where McCain was wrong at the start of the war.

McCain brings up the troops and Petraus asking for the ability to finish the job. Also brings up Obama voting to cut off funding for the troops.

Obama brings up McCain opposing the timetable legislation and says that's why he voted against the bill. He continues to talk about things in hindsight. Goes back to his 16 month timetable thing. I guess he wants to let the Iraqis keep our equipment.

McCain comes back talking about how Petraus and the rest of the commanders are saying that the peace in Iraq is fragile and if we pull out things could get ugly fast.

Lehrer wants to move on to Afghanistan, asking about more troops and when.

Obama talks about the deteriorating situation and how there needs to be more troops. He also wants to press the Afghans on working for their people and stopping the poppy trade. He also wants to pressure Pakistan to clean up it's act. For anyone who cares, I think we should carpet bomb the hell out of the border and then let the Indians take out the Pakistani intelligence guys working with Al Qaeda.

McCain talks about the mistake we made in the 1990s when we allowed the void left by the Russians to be filled by the Taliban. He talks about not being prepared to threaten the Pakistani government. He notes correctly that if you have to do things, do them, but don't announce it first. He talks about getting the Pakistani people on our side. He calls for the use of the surge tactic in the border region and working to win hearts and minds in the region.

Obama says he meant that if Pakistan wouldn't act to take out some top level AQ people, he would.

McCain talks about how he isn't the bomb-happy guy Obama is making him out to be. He brings up his vote against sending Marines to Lebanon in 1983. He also talks about voting for Bosnia, Kosovo and the First Gulf War. He also opposed the Somalia operation. Brings up some more stories about meeting people who want us to finish the job in Iraq.

Obama breaks out the fact he has a bracelet from a soldier's mother too. Are they going to compare who made their suits next? By the way, the way he pronounces Pakistan, Taliban, etc. is really annoying. He sounds like Kim Cattrell.

McCain says "buddy, if you're so concerned about these things, how come you never went?".

Lehrer back in the picture with a question about the Iranian threat.

McCain says Iran can't be allowed to get nukes. He brings up how destabilizing it would be to the region and how screwed Israel would be. He also thinks it would start a Middle East nuclear arms race. McCain goes back to his "League of Democracies" idea, which would be cool if it meant we could kick the UN out of NYC. He also blames the Russians for running interference for the Iranians. He talks about how shitty the Iranian economy is and how we could cripple them with real economic sanctions. He's also concerned that the Iranians are the ones who supplied the insurgents with weapons and training. McCain also brings up Obama voting against a bill declaring the Iranian Republican Guard a terrorist group. Too bad he won't bring up the fact that one of Obama's biggest bundlers got all cozy and cuddly with Ahmadinijad this week.

Obama's turn now, and says that he thinks the IRG is a terrorist organization, but didn't vote for it for some idiotic reason. I think he's blaming us for the Iranians being nuts. He does say that they shouldn't get nukes and wants tougher sanctions. He doesn't think we can do sanctions without the Russians and Chinese on board. Why he thinks it's in their interest to stop an Iranian nuclear weapon I have no idea. They are the ones providing them the technology and they are all on the same side. Now we get back to the direct negotiations b.s.

McCain comes back saying Obama would meet with the Three Stooges of totalitarianism without precondition. He makes the point that you don't reward their bad behavior by sitting down with these idiots.

Obama talks more about talking. Brings up the fact that Bush sent someone to negotiate with the Iranians recently. What he doesn't mention is that those talks, and all the talks held with Iran in the last few years, were a miserable failure. He brings up the DPRK example, but fails to mention that every negotiation we've had with them has been a failure as well.

McCain takes a shot at Obama's stupid presidential seal, which is awesome. Also points out that Kissinger didn't say that the president should meet with the Iranians, just lower level diplomats. Also points out Albright did a real great job negotiating with the DPRK.

Lehrer brings us to the issue of Russia and how the candidates see them.

Obama says the way Russia is running now is a threat to stability. He also says that the former Russian states should be allowed into NATO. He doesn't think that we should take a cold war posture with them though. Well, I almost agreed with him.

McCain brings up the fact that Obama called for restraint from both sides at the start of the Russian-Georgian conflict. He talks about not trusting Putin, but not wanting to start a Cold War 2.0 either. By the way, the way he brings up the places he's been they need to change the name of the game to "Where in the World is John McCain?".

I think they are both on the same page on this one. But now Obama tries to talk about economic stuff again.

McCain talks about energy again. My question is why the hell doesn't anyone talk about increasing refining capacity? It doesn't matter how much we drill if we don't increase our ability to process it.

Hey, McCain finally brings up the fact that the bill Obama is so proud of regarding loose weapons was passed in the mid-90s and that his contribution wasn't groundbreaking at all.

Lehrer asks about the possibility of another 9/11 attack.

McCain says that he thinks it is less likely now than right after the attacks. He brings up working with Lieberman to get the 9/11 Commission going. That's not something I'd brag about Johnny. He also talks about training, working with allies, etc. He barely mentions shoring up the border.

Obama talks about needing to shore up transit, ports and stopping nuclear proliferation. He also mentions going after AQ more in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He also talks about "restoring America's standing in the world". Yeah, it's all our fault.

McCain says that failing in Iraq would let AQ have the country.

Obama goes back again to the "where's bin Laden?" thing. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't be shocked if he's being eaten by maggots in a cave somewhere. How he's gone from stopping another 9/11 to the economy I have no idea.

McCain goes back to the experience factor.

Obama brings up his pops, talking about how he tried to get to America in the 1960s. Obviously our system didn't rub off on him since he went back to Kenya pimping socialism.

McCain closes us out talking about his work in closing the Vietnam chapter in our history.

Overall Impression

Well, the new format certainly makes these things a lot easier to sit through. I think both of them came out of this okay. Obama looked and sounded good, but was really lacking on specifics. McCain was great with the specifics and managed to keep himself under control, although it was shaky in that department during the first 30 minutes. The whole debate was really a rehash of the campaign we've seen so far: judgment vs. experience. While I would lean towards McCain on this one due to willingness to talk specifics alone, I don't think he did enough to win it outright. Next Thursday is the VP debate featuring Caribou Barbie and Clueless Joe Hairplugs, which should prove to be either the greatest VP debate of all time or a horrific trainwreck. Or both.