Not Much of a Debate, But Obama Still Wins

Last night in, Oxford Mississippi, the first of three Presidential debates took place, even though many in the political world had doubts it would even happen. Earlier in the week, Senator John McCain said he was suspending his campaign to go to Washington to solve the bailout issue that was gripping the nation by its collective balls. He vowed that he would not resume campaigning until the bailout issue was resolved, and true to the Republican spirit, he lied. He continued to campaign; holding a fundraiser in New York, while his laughable Vice Presidential nominee cress-crossed the nation holding fundraisers and events, apparently she also missed the memo to stop campaigning too. But after four days of ‘not campaigning,’ and muddling around the floors of the senate, John McCain announced that he would debate, and restart his campaign, even though it never really stopped. He then lied again. He would leave the crisis in Washington, even though he vowed not to leave only a few days earlier, and thus McCain would become a “Maverick”, a Debater.


So the stage was set, and at nine o’ clock eastern standard time, the Senators from Illinois and Arizona met in Oxford, not the good one in England, but the trashy one in Mississippi; to bull shit to a national audience. The debate style was set up by the McCain camp to be a sort-of ‘town hall’ type forum. From the start the debate seemed unorganized, and neither candidate wanted to sling the mud first. The debate started with the economy, Senator Obama laid out a platform to help right our country’s economic woes, with plans of re-regulation and stimulus by taxing the richest 5% of American’s, while reducing the taxes of the rest. McCain seemed uneasy from the start, and was unable to spout off much more than ‘buzz words’ and ‘party line’ jargon. Senator Obama also was uneasy with the format of the debate at the beginning, but easily adapted, and made direct correlations between John McCain’s plans for the country, and the Bush Administration’s failings of the past eight years. Senator McCain tried to repute his own voting record, by calling Obama a liberal, and blaming the country’s problems on Obama and liberals in Washington, falling to acknowledge the fact that, Republicans helped in the De-regulating of the markets, and in turn allowed banks to run ape shit and make ridiculous risky loans, that in turn, ended up burning all of their asses.

The debate then switched to foreign policy, and McCain tried to put on his war vest and prove, if you could name, he could bomb it. Senator McCain said we would not hold talks with Iran or anyone that doesn’t meet US preconditions. This was a pretty outrageous statement, considering that even the Bush Administration has sent ambassadors to Iran to begin talks. Obama showed poise and knowledge on all the foreign issues that were brought up, and while McCain tried to link Iraq with 9/11 (even Bush has admitted there is none), and shift focus away from the fact that there was no reason to bomb the hell out of Iraq in the first place. Senator Obama tried to shed light on the real conflict in Afghanistan, where cross border skirmishes between US and Pakistani troops are making everyone in the region piss their panties. Sen. Obama discussed how the focus must remain in Afghanistan and that we need to remove ourselves from the slaughter in Iraq. McCain tried to get Obama to admit he was wrong about the surge; Sen. Obama would not, refocusing the conversation on the lies that Americans were told before going into the war in Iraq. Senator Obama pointed out, once and again, that Iraq posed no threat to America, and that there was, and never were, weapons of mass destruction. McCain stayed on the party line, and kept up the same old, “fight them now, or we’ll be fighting them forever,’’ line. Seems like we will do both if McCain’s elected. My favorite part of the debate came when John McCain became so angered at the Sen. Obama, that when Obama was talking about the absurdity of not talking to foreign leaders in Spain, McCain was overheard saying “Horse Shit,” twice. This wasn’t surprising; actually I won a bet when he did it. Everyone knew that McCain’s temper was bound to boil over at some point in the night, and he was in the navy, so he must cuss like a ‘sailor.’

The debate seemed to lose focus for most of the night, and in the end, John McCain couldn’t look Barack Obama in the eyes. Obama, on the other hand, seemed to lavish in the moment, and looked McCain in the eye, each time he pointed out one of McCain’s false statements.

In the end, this was a great waste of time, in my opinion. The unorganized manner, of the so-called ‘town hall’ style forum really didn’t benefit either candidate. John McCain seemed oblivious to any of the issues, while Barack Obama tried to answer and interpret the topics thoroughly. The moderator Jim Leher is an outstanding journalist and news anchor, but that did not seem to translate well when it came to being a moderator. When the last question was posed, and answered, I guess, by both candidates, the night ended, and the two combatants shook hands.

They both then proceeded to get as far away from one another as quickly as possible. The cameras faded out, and the pundits began to spin.