A Presidential Rant

First, I don't see how anyone can think "their candidate" came out a winner tonight. Both Obama and McCain managed to sound, look and act anything but presidential. When they could have clarified how they were actually going to improve things, they only clarified how the other candidate was going to ruin America. When asked a direct question, they glazed over a direct answer and instead found a way to insert what they had already repeated 15 times in the prior 20 minutes. When asked repeatedly to follow the rules they'd agreed to, they continued to break them and then tattle on the other guy when he broke them. They even managed to piss off Tom Brokaw. 

Out of all the smart, experienced, qualified, proven, well-spoken, straight-talking people that could have made a run for it, how did we end up with these two? 

Second, can somebody please stop talking about "who won the debate?" The problem here is that campaigning has almost next to nothing to do with leading a country. But that's how we choose leaders. Whoever raises the most money, whoever runs the most ads, whoever favors the least polarizing positions, whoever knows how to debate best, whoever can spar and interview best gets to be President. 

Will either of these guys ever debate as President? No. They will be the audience of many debates, and they'll then have to be decisive, but they won't have to debate themselves. Sure, it's an impressive skill to have - that of debating well - but debates, at least in this case, shouldn't be about winning. They should be about communicating your position in a forum for the nation to see, and then the nation decides. 

Here are some things I'd like to know about each candidate that DOES have to do with being President:

• Who will be on your cabinet? 
• What will you do in your first 6 months in office?   
• What are your goals over your four-year term (and don't be subjective with me)?  
• How are you going to fix the economic problems and NOT tax us?   
• Since voting records seem to be so important, walk me through every vote you've cast over the past four years, and tell me why you voted the way you did.   

The cabinet and inner circle especially has a huge influence over a President's term. Refer to Donald Rumsfeld and Karl Rove. 

I've said before that I'll be voting for McCain, but I think Obama will win. That's probably still true, but, man, McCain makes it hard for me to vote for him. The only thing that he's got going for him is that every time I start to think that maybe Obama is the better choice for America right now between the two, my tongue swells up and I start to get that burning feeling of brewing vomit in the back of my throat. 

As for the issues themselves, here's my quick take on the biggies:

On the economy:

• America needs more money. Taxes are how America makes more money. I don't mind paying more taxes if it will fix the economy. So tell me you're going to tax me, and why. 
• The government is not going to fix our economy. In capitalism, capitalists create change. That means businesses, the private sector, is going to get creative in finding a way to fix this and also capitalize.   
• We need to confess we are way over our heads in debt, and acknowledge that debt = bad. Maybe Dave Ramsey needs to walk the White House through the Total Money Makeover.   
• We Americans are not the victims here. Yes, the government has been irresponsible, but so have we. I signed my mortgage. I use credit cards, and get car loans, and sign up for furniture that I can pay out for the next five years. Plus, we have all prospered during this time, too. Let's fess up and take a little ownership.   
• We, society, are going to have to sacrifice. You don't get out of a mess like this without getting dirty. Let's face it, acknowledge it, prepare for it and then dive in and get it over with.    

  On healthcare:

• It's definitely not a right, but it's more than just a privilege, too. 
• Shouldn't we start by cracking down on the pharmaceutical industry, making sure they are a) charging fair prices for their medicines, and b) making sure they make medicine that cures, not just covers up symptoms while prolonging the issue. Same attitude goes for hospital and doctor charges.   

On foreign policy:

•  I don't know . . . . I am scared of Russia, though.  

 

 
  

Comments

[Frank]

Nice entry here Duncan. I quite agree with you. I'm most certainly voting for McCain, the lesser of two evils. There are two things that scare me about an Obama presidency. One, He is a far left democrat who will have a democratic congress at his dispossal. Who know what kind of garbage might get passed by congress and signed by Obama. Second, there will most likely be more than one supreme court justice seat up in the next 4 years. If Obama gets in and appoints liberal judges (again, much easier to do with a democratic congress), the long term effects could be severe. I'm pulling for a miracle McCain comeback, but I've pretty much resigned myself to a Barak victory. My two cents.

[cwd]

Obama Biden Laden is not going to win - The pollsters haven't polled any rednecks. Be scared if Obama does win - be very afraid.

Check out what he has to say about his girls having an abortion.

Get ready to sell your house, pay a realtor 6%, and then pay a 28% tax to the government on your profit.

Get comfortable with Communism.

Be ready to not have any retirement money once the Asians figure out the IOU's have nothing to be paid with, and Hussein adds another cool Trill on top of the debt.

You'd better start reading McCain's Lipstick.

[Brett]

Frank - interesting point. I think I heard Michael Medved the other day saying that McCain should make a bigger deal of how he could offset an otherwise unbridled Democratic Congress.

As for the rednecks, they aren't polled because they can't read the questions.

[John Mark Harris]

Here we go...

America needs money, not the government. FEWER taxes means more money in the hands of americans (america). The government should not give money to people, simply provide the freedom to make it.

The only system in the history of the world that creates enough wealth to help people pull themselves up out of the darkness of poverty is capitalism. Free market = free people...

The government is - mainly - to blame for this mess. The single biggest reason for this mess is Fanny & Freddy. The reason they failed is BECAUSE of the government interference. You can't create an organization expressly designed to lend money to high risk borrowers and then complain when that organization fails. Fanny & Freddy give 0% down loans to people a truly free marked would never allow. Forces others to "keep up" and the government keeps giving them money to do it. Eventually, they fail, and we all pay the price.

We always say (at least I do) that the government should balance its budget like families have to. In stead of the government spending money like families do (not spending more than they have) families started spending money like the government - "If I want it, I get it..." Anyone who buys something (even a home) and can't pay for it shouldn't get to keep it. That's the way it goes. You can't have stuff you can't pay for - the united states isn't ABC and the government isn't Extreme Makeover Home Edition.

Companies that over extended should have fewer people investing in them, they're not successful. Look for the companies that didn't and invest in them.

Healthcare... Business, MUST be. There is one key factor why the best and brightest will go into the health industry, they can get paid. Free Markets will make the best healthcare system on the planet (it already did). It's like a football that makes it to the playoffs as the result of a first class running back and then they switch to passing for the big game. If you make good money, great money, by designing and researching drugs and medicine, people will do it. Government just needs to be sure people don't steal the research (intellectual property) - but artificially making the companies charge a "fair price" simply means the products will not be as good and the companies that make the drugs won't be able to invest in the R&D needed. You can never "fix" prices to make them "fair." Governments don't fix market problems, they make them.

In terms of foreign policy: Whatever it takes, we need the biggest, baddest, scariest, deadliest military on the planet. We need the kind of power that only madmen will provoke - and then we make examples out of them. We should be caring, benevolent, freedom-loving people (and we are, that's who we are) but when someone says "bo" wipe them of the map, period.

[Jack]

why would you be afraid of Russia?

and I love hearing the same BS about Obama and communism and the scary left...it's the same BS that all the liberals were spilling out about a Bush presidency in 2004. It's an idiotic argument and makes you look really stupid just like anyone who compares Bush and Hitler.

It's the same fear crap that doesn't hold up past the initial scare.