I wonder how a man who successfully bilked the system can expound on saving it from further ravaging by politicians and honchos of financial firms. I missed that part, but am eager to read what Obama did say on the mortgage-mess. How he can say that a higher capital gains tax will save the stock market is also a mystery to me. He is trying to be all things to all people, and in typical, old-fashioned, moldy Democrat style, attempting to pit “rich” against poor and middle class Americans. Hypocrite John Edwards already did that act, and failed.
When we tuned in, having missed the first forty minutes or so, Senator Obama was on a tirade that seemed to be going somewhere, and ended on a tired cliché–it constituted circuitous double-talking. I intend to get the transcript to remind myself what it was, because it wasn’t memorable. The thing I noticed most was that he wouldn’t mind the implorings of Jim Lehrer, and continued ignoring him as he went overtime for at least sixty seconds!
Another disruptive thing was when Sen. Obama kept trying to interrupt Sen. McCain while it was his turn to speak. This is the first instance that I can recall in a national presidential debate wherein one of the participants was that rude. Bill Clinton debating President George Herbert Walker Bush comes in a close second on the rudeness and disrespect front.
Memo to Obama: we are NOT in a “defining moment in our nation’s history”. That’s not applicable here and now; President Reagan used that phrase in his 1993 speech, referring to our part in the fall of communism and the opening of the Berlin Wall. He used this line erroneously, apparently just desperate to do so because it was originally a Reagan speech component, and then uttered yet another one, “the shining beacon (originally “city”) on a hill”. He ought to stop trying to subliminally evoke Ronald Reagan. We’re not falling for it!
McCain showed the sardonic wittiness that he is known for in Washington, D.C. He got two zingers in at Obama, saying that nobody could possibly be against alternative fuel, and alluding to Obama’s presumptuously having had a presidential seal designed for himself a priori, in a response to a rhetorical question.
Obama’s sneering, arrogant body-language, interrupting his opponent, and looking sarcastic while McCain spoke, will be lost on most Americans under fifty, in this new climate where disrespect and cynicism are de rigueur. So, on over-confidence and oratory prowess alone, Obama will be deemed the winner (shades of the Kennedy-Nixon debate). Forget about substance. No one cares anymore.
To Be Continued
Happy 74th Birthday, Wilfred Brimley!
P.S., it’s not that I am overly sensitive to comedy in general. In fact, I used to watch the I-Man on MSNBC in the morning, and I did appreciate the Cardinal (aye, bejeezuss!).
