McBama the Debate

October 7, 2008
McBama the Debate [Originally known as
Server Crashed!, subsequently updated]

This was not the right time for computer issues. Much of my comments on the debate are now old news and I'm going to leave them out. So, just some short observations:

Cutting to the chase ... John lost. The polls apparently agree with me, not that I much care. It was a lousy debate anyway.

Debate? Did I say debate? The way these two publicly agree on everything at these face-offs, they have to announce it when they come up with something they have the slightest dispute over, "Uh, audience, pay attention now because this is an issue on which I and the other Senator, yes, that one*, have fundamental differences." This line queues the audience to know that at least one of them was going to mangle the facts or misstate the other's position (or both ... and probably by both).

*[Btw: What a stupid two words for the pressosphere (my newly coined word for the mainstream press and the, mostly eastern, blogosphere who are no so tightly tied in with them that they have become them) to get carried away about! It shows how incredibly little of substance was actually debated! There was no racism or even a putdown any more than there would be if he was pointing at him and saying "Senator Obama". The comment was an attempted putdown, but not the way he identified him. They were extemp on a live stage ... I'm sure in McCain's mind he was saying it as though answering a question from the audience -- something to the effect of "which Senator are you talking about". McCain is not the smoothest extemporaneous speaker and a lot of what he "says" never actually gets from brain to tongue in time and the tongue isn't sitting around waiting since there are lights and a timer and a nagging moderator telling them both to hurry. But his failure of mangling thoughts and sentences has nothing to do with racism.]

But such tepid debating! It's as though Obama won't attack McCain because he knows the man is widely perceived as a war hero ... that at the age "Barry" was busy partying up a storm at Occidental [how many bizarre coincidences can one campaign have? A black man that is not from the U.S. black culture searching for his identity happens to go to a college called "Occidental"? That can't be accidental! Sorry ;-)], and basically partying up a storm and "experimenting" with coke and other drugs to make himself feel even better than good, McCain was being viciously tortured in a bamboo cage because he, as an Admiral's son, would not cut a 30 second ad for the Viet Cong. It is hard to attack someone's integrity when they are willing to "worse than die" for their principles. Also, (partly from his war wounds, partly because of very real chronology) McCain looks like an old man hobbling around the stage. Barack knows respect of elders is respected and that it would appear unseemly to rip into this crippled old man who can't get a complete sentence (subject, verb, object) out on any subject.

And McCain, although he tried to be a little tougher with Obama (and if he is to have any chance in this election he has to get a lot tougher real fast), is scared to death that anything negative he says will result in accusations of racism [see "that man", above], so, largely he pulls his punches.

The only good debate so far was the veep debate. It was heads and shoulders above the two presidential ones. We might all be ahead if we swapped the positions of president and v.p. on both tickets!

In fact ... at the moment, I'd vote for Palin over McCain. I'm furious with the man. I expected Obama to be, "with serious misgivings and concerns because it emanates from the Bush Administration", generally in favor of a massive governmental intrusion into the financial markets given current conditions. He is, after all, as McCain keeps telling us, the most liberal left-wing Senator in the nation.

But there was no excuse for McCain to back that plan! None. Zero. Zilch. The fact that he took time off of campaigning and went back to help work on it and it comes out with all kinds of extra goodies added ... and McCain's strong backing ... is infuriating. That is not the John McCain who stood up to wasteful governmental spending and who argued in favor of letting the markets work. That isn't the McCain that is the party's nominee because of his maverick "won't be led by the nose" attitude over the decades.

There was only one possible reason that McCain backed that bailout and that was because he thought it would be political suicide not to. And I'm sure many people told him that. Maybe they were right. Maybe Obama would have jumped on it and said it showed how he didn't care about "us" ... the mainstream average American. Well, I'm sure Obama would have said that.

But I don't believe it. Neither would McCain if he weren't running for office. The McCain of old would have climbed on the top of the bus and screamed to the heavens that the government was throwing our hard-earned money into the bottomless pockets of the corporations. And he would have been right! That money isn't going to do Joe six-pack any good! I nearly fell out of my chair when I heard McCain praising the bailout. He can't outflank Obama to the left! That's crazy. And either he is a total fraud who only cares about winning ... or he got some really bad advice and made a really bad judgment call to follow that advice. Neither of which speaks highly of him as presidential material.

Now for populism, his clever little "the government will buy up all the bad mortgages and give Joe six-pack good ones" may have gained him some votes. But it was at the cost of his economic soul. The feds are now going to go directly into the housing business and take over all the subprime loans that brought down the financial markets in this country?!?

Does he have any idea how much this would cost? And what a stupid idea it is? This is more governmental involvement in stuff that is none of its business than a national health care system ... by far! I can almost make an argument in favor of the feds getting a health care system worked out ... the way the insurance companies are structured now we are so far from a market economy in medical care that it wouldn't be much of an intrusion if the goverment took over. [Please note I said "almost" :-) I am still strongly opposed to an Obama type ... or a Hillary type ... plan.]

The bailout won't work! If it works at all, it will be way too little and too temporary of an effect. The stock market certainly agrees with me. [There's a vote that actually means something!] But it is idiotic to do it and since it won't work we will have to stay involved and keep dumping money in and in a few years maybe we'll dump triple the amount we have to date and have an economic "surge" and try to win the financial meltdown war that way. My cynicism is showing. But we had no more excuse to jump into the financial markets than we had to jump into the war with Iraq ... specifically: none.

But just like Iraq ... once in ... you can't just leave. McCain was flat wrong in backing the invasion of a country that was not harming us. Morally (and from just about every other perspective), that was a terribly flawed mistake ... and I said so loudly long before "shock and awe" hit. But McCain is right that you can't put a timetable on pulling out if you want to avoid scenes like the begging desperate scramble of people who, moments later would be dead, trying to get into the last of the helicopters leaving Viet Nam. That scene will be burned into the national consciousness for, hopefully, forever. But Obama's plan for Iraq would result in essentially the same type of situation.

But much like the war in Iraq ... once you start the feds taking over the housing industry and bailing out all the stupid bad loans that were made by stupid, greedy people ... you turn economic Darwinism on its head.

How do you cure a heroin addict's withdrawal ... why, according to Obama and McCain you do it by giving them a huge bunch of heroin! The bailout will not work! There is absolutely no excuse for it.

[In fairness, it was McCain two years ago who led the fight to reform Freddie and Fannie ... which fight was ultimately defeated. And the big 1999 deregulation bill that Obama blasted McCain for backing ... was hugely pushed by President Clinton (who says the current mess would be a lot worse if it had not been for that bill!) Similarly a huge backer was Clinton's Secretary of the Treasury, Robert Rubin who is now Obama's top economic advisor.]

But none of that excuses McCain's support of massive corporate welfare out of the pockets or you and me.