I'm not much for politics (I'm only watching to play a drinking game), but what do y'all think so far?

My friends, it wasn't the best debate we've seen. I'd give the edge to Obama but of course I'm biased. Still I don't see how McCain's verbal flubs will help with the people. I thought the last answers by both men expertly summed up why I like Barack and think McCain is out of touch with most of America (and can't inspire anyone under 40).

Fort Bend Owl Wrote:My friends, it wasn't the best debate we've seen. I'd give the edge to Obama but of course I'm biased. Still I don't see how McCain's verbal flubs will help with the people. I thought the last answers by both men expertly summed up why I like Barack and think McCain is out of touch with most of America (and can't inspire anyone under 40).

I'm with you completely (including the personal bias, I have to admit).

Overall there wasn't much new. McCain made an interesting move with his plan to use $300 billion to buy back troubled mortgages from homeowners. I'm not qualified to judge Obama's response -- that this was already included in last week's bailout package. But even if it was, politically speaking McCain came up with an interesting way to package the bailout in a way that may seem a little more appealing to voters.

I thought Obama made his best arguments yet on the connection between the Iraq war and our current myriad problems, and in drawing a parallel between Republican support of loosening bank regulations in the past and McCain's plans to do the same for health care (fair or not, I think this deregulation line of attack is a vulnerable area for the Republicans).

I thought maybe the oddest moments in the debate were the times when McCain called out Obama, and then later repeated it, for his earmark that funded $3 million for a planetarium in Chicago. Hey, I'm on McCain's side in the earmark debate -- sometimes it's appropriate for the feds to give funding for local projects, but the under-the-table way it's being done is reprehensible (though, as Obama says, fixing that isn't going to make much of a dent in our economic problems). But couldn't the McCain team find something more frivolous than a planetarium in Obama's repertoire of earmarks? To me, a planetarium is one of those types of things where government funding is not only ok but needed. They're highly educational, they'd never survive on the small fees they charge for elementary school kids' field trips... I'd assume their only hope for existence is some combination of government funding and private donations. An earmark may not be the best process to get that funding, but I'll take a planetarium over the bridge to nowhere (that Palin supported until it became a national disgrace) any day.

Anyhow, an ok debate... but I didn't learn too much about either candidate that I didn't already know.

Going forward... I agree with George Will's recent argument -- the most effective strategy for McCain to eat away at Obama's lead is to get the message across that a Democratic presidency in combination with (presumably) significant Democratic majorities in both houses is not what a lot of Americans want (I have to admit, as a free trade Democrat even I'm a little nervous about that, though I'd much rather give one of the houses to the GOP than the Presidency). In the meantime, I'm happy to see McCain keep hammering on the character front, because I don't think this is an election cycle where voters have much patience for petty attacks in light of the economic situation.

I only got in the for the last 20 minutes or so (I recorded it), but I noted in that in at least two of Obama's responses, he suggested more spending. For Pakistan, he recommended more non-military support and then in response to the question about russia, he said we needed to give more financial support to Estonia, Georgia, etc.

Where is all the money coming from? I don't think his financial plans held water before the events of the last two weeks, and there is no sign that he is materially changing them, unless, of course, you cynically believe that they are just campaign rhetoric. I guess that make me a cynic.

How is he going to fund all he is promising on the backs of a tax increase on 5% of the people?