My interest level in the presidential election has waned significantly from, say, the beginning of the year when we could come into class and talk about the variety! and change! and reform! that each of the candidates promised. And make fun of the the crazy third party people. Of course, here in Austin, Obama is the new party drug, Which is cool, because I think I’m leaning towards Obama myself (it’s better to have a candidate who at least supports most of the things I support than someone who supports none of them and has a certain Alaskan governor as his vice presidential nominee — I think that’s reasonable). Even if the words “Change,” and “Hope” don’t have any concrete meanings, at least they inspire something better in people, which is more than I can say for McCain.

While the first debate between McCain and Obama was entertaining, and the vice presidential debate was all sorts of hilarious (I almost want to make a wall of Sarah Palin quotes, but it’s too easy to make fun of her), the second debate really got on my nerves.

• Neither of the candidates really answer the questions (Obama did make an effort, but he went back to his stump speeches quite a bit) — I realize this is a staple of (presidential) debates, the idea that questions are optional and that people have only come to hear you say things you have said to them for the past year.
• McCain was all kinds of condescending. And not even in the hilarious gaffe way. I wanted him to spend his time bolstering his foreign policy and general political experience, which is the most significant edge he has on Obama. Instead, I just heard a lot of belittling and bickering, especially in the latter half of the debate. This one quote which had me thinking:

  Well, you know, nailing down Sen. Obama’s various tax proposals is like nailing Jell-O to the wall. There has been five or six of them and if you wait long enough, there will probably be another one.

  But he wants to raise taxes. My friends, the last president to raise taxes during tough economic times was Herbert Hoover, and he practiced protectionism as well, which I’m sure we’ll get to at some point.

  John McCain (Transcript of the debate)

  What exactly does that quote mean? Is McCain supporting protectionism or is he supporting Hoover? Because, in the wise words of Jonathan Coulton, “Hoover screwed the pooch in the Great Depression.” If that’s the stage that we’re at — and I certainly think we’re on some kind of brink — Hoover isn’t a name you want to be throwing around, not for good credit anyway.

What cracked me up the most during the presidential debate was the much-publicized “That one!” comment that McCain threw at random in the middle of the debate. The context is below:

By the way, my friends, I know you grow a little weary with this back-and-forth. It was an energy bill on the floor of the Senate loaded down with goodies, billions for the oil companies, and it was sponsored by Bush and Cheney.

You know who voted for it? You might never know. That one. You know who voted against it? Me.

John McCain (Transcript of the debate)

Now, I don’t think of that as particularly offensive — a bit crude, I’ll admit — because I started cracking up when I heard that. This is what came to mind immediately:

I sincerely hope that the next debate will be a more serious discussion. I really wish the candidates had used the town hall format to speak directly to the voters instead of dancing around, throwing things at one another. Mostly words. Sometimes cheese.

Now, Wednesday is Blog Action Day, and the topic is “poverty.” which means that I’ll be updating a few more times this week at least. That has me excited. I missed writing commentary so much.

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johnny said:

8AGzMb Thanks for good post

Posted on December 30, 2008 1:16 AM; Permalink