I think I'm gonna need a second tv in the living room. Can't watch Politix & Phils @ the same time. See how I sacrifice for you? (checking Phils on the net [should break out a radio] {rough game, too})
This is most certainly the best preview of what you will see during the debates that you are going to get. After the conventions there's gonna be three debates, and ideally, we will see some strong performances from both candidates.
McCain is just getting started as I type, and so long as he doesn't provoke my yelling contradictory replies at the screen too much, I think we can hope for some substantive debates come fall.
Wow! McCain just claimed his worst moral failure as his failed first marriage. Touche' good sir, in that the drum has been beating on that since Johnny Edwards got that chick pregnant. (And yes, he did get her pregnant. He shoulda just admitted when he took the big hit about the kid, rather than continuing to perpetrate a lie.) But it's nice to see a candidate tackle a personal issue head on, sorta. Notice he did not admit infidelity, though when you've married your current wife only a month after divorcing your former wife, infidelity is easily inferred. Still, good for him.
(I bet, the sitch is that Edwards had sworn to his wife, up and down, that the kid ain't his, and that he had ended 'all of that' well before she got pregnant. Stuck in this skewed timeline, he is now tied to carrying the lie all the way through until that brat is preening his silky brown locks and raving about his "millworker" granddaddy.)
notes on the debate. not all carried through to logical confusions:
Drill now? Really McCain? I get it, but come on. You know better than to play this harpsichord...
Caleefornia??? Come on!??
He does redeem himself when talking about other energy options like hydrogen, solar, wind, nuclear, so that's good.
Say CLEAN COAL! Say CLEAN OIL! Note he doesn't mention either of these. I missed Obama's opening questions, but I bet, if asked, he didn't mention these most important of issues either.
Everybody is in somebody's pocket. (But this is cynical. Ater all, that is the misguided thinking that led me to vote for Mr. Ralph Nader in 2000. Had people known the trajectory that the country would be taking, only 10 months later [and really, from day one of the W. White House] they would have seen the candidates for what they really were. Gore: a droll, effective administrator, with a flair for prescience and occasional mild exaggeration. Bush: an ideological, passionate, nepotistic and nepotized extravaganaire
intent on exacting revenge on a man who had, to be fair, (at least allegedly) plotted to kill his wife, father and mother, and two brothers,
and who would hand over the reigns to decades old neocons like Rumsfeld & Cheney, and who would allow and encourage his top officials to find ways to bend the law and rape the constitution where they see fit.
All that being said, I would still LOVE to have a beer with the guy!)
So Democrats and Republicans are not the same. Ironically, my friend Mr. Nader, still, after all of these years manages to speak most strikingly to my needs and concerns. Still, Mr. Obama has consistently struck a similar chord as Mr. Nader on much of these issues, and I will be happy to vote Democratic in the fall.
Really though, I am still holding out for Paris & Rhianna.
"McCain My friend(s)" count: 4-5
McCain circumspectly alleges Obama represents "class warfare and redistribution of wealth."
Obama, on the other hand, lays out what he has said consistently every time I've heard him speak of taxes, which is that only those earning $250,000 will see an increase in taxes.
McCain's answer is doublespeak for supporting the absurd Bush tax cuts. Of course, McCain doesn't need doublespeak, since, despite his initial opposition on the basis that "giving tax cuts to rich people isn't appropriate" (paraphrased) he now openly supports said cuts for the most wealthy Americans. For McCain to discuss, disparagingly, the concept of "redistribution of weatlth" (as code for higher taxes on the wealthy) is ironic, considering the fact that in the past eight years, the gap between rich and poor has gotten as wide as before the Great Depression.
And note, in linked article, the ways in which this has happened.
Orphans!
The best Question of the night came from Rev. Rick, who wants them to set up a Presidential Emergency Commission to take care of the global "orphan" situation, which both candidates agreed to support. At the time, I felt that this was a great idea (and with 100+ million orphans worldwide, something really should be done) but in retrospect, it is kind of a gimme question for the candidates. DO YOU SUPPORT ORPHANS? How's about the troops? Would you be willing to kiss my pregnant baby?
"to the gates of hell to get Osama!!!!" says McCain.
Sure, buddy, "to the gates of hell." Did you take that line from the W. catalog of empty Al Quieda retributory threats?
(We saw Step Brothers tonight, which was OK, and began with a classic, quality W. quote "Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream.")
McCain reinforces his homophobic opposition to "gay marriage." [I actually had to come back and edit this to add Obama's similar "man and woman" answer, although he lamely brings up "civil unions" and kind of gives a half supportive answer.]
Weak answer on Supreme Court. Picks the four most liberal justices and names them as the ones he wouldn't nominate.
"Proud of Prez Bush for nominating Alito & Roberts."
Obama was prodded on Roberts. His answer of Clarence Thomas was better and more difficult. He disagrees with Scalia but respects his intellect. Also pretty good answer.
McCain calls himself, in reference to religion, as "saved and forgiven." I like this well enough, for what it is. But I can't help but recall the mob hitman I saw interviewed on TV who said he had no fear of "going to hell", because he had gone to reconciliation for his sins. There is something awe inspiring about this capacity for (self?) forgiveness, and I do like that. But I think if I killed someone, or numerous someones over a period of years, cold heartedly and on order, it might, perhaps, take a little more than six Hail Mary's and three Our Fathers to make me feel at peace in my spiritual equanimity with life. But there is something comforting in it, I suppose.
There is a great article on the Vatican Science Institute in this month's Discover Magazine...very enlightening. Mad props to the forward thinkers in that particular building in the church. Would link to it, but the article is not yet online.
Tonight was the second time this week I have heard McCain recount his merciful captor wrist story, where the guard shows him mercy and later reveals himself to be Christian, on Christmas. As McCain said "for a minute, we were just two Christians worshipping together." That's nice, but I had to laugh and chortle: "yeah, for a minute."
The arisal of the McCain biography in his stumping is a sign of things to come, I bet. Look for McCain to cut back, ever so slightly, on the attack ads, only to renew them with vigor during the coming convention and beyond. For now, he will be focusing on his biography, I think.
(pic unrelated: spazzatorium)
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