Everybody on board the Say Nothing Express. What used to be about "straight talk" and "hope" has instead become a sad charade. Barack Obama has gone into "three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust" mode, making sure to cover up the football and not let John McCain have anything easy. McCain, for his part, took half-hearted jabs all night.
All those talks in high school civics urging us to get involved in politics, all those political science seminars spent bemoaning the political ineptitude of the American people, all that time spent wondering what American would look like were we more connected to the political process ... and this is what we get?
Though Bob Schieffer did a bang-up job, commanding more authority than any debate moderator to this point, he wasn't able to "nail" the proverbial "Jell-O to the wall" on the candidates' positions. Until some moderator in some far-off galaxy finds the gumption to really go after a candidate, the American voter will continue to get an hour of televised slop, three times an election cycle.
No offense, Sen. McCain, but 10 town halls on this intellectual level would have been beyond brutal.
In terms of quotable moments, McCain did win the night. Obama was answering far more than he was offering.
McCain, however, had a very nuanced and interesting answer to the issue of Supreme Court judgeships, speaking eloquently about the primacy of "qualifications" over ideology. (He did say, however, that Obama voted against Justice Stephen Breyer -- who was confirmed in 1994, far before Obama's term in the Senate.)
Then there was this bit of maverick genius: "We need to know the extent of your relationship with terrorists, we need to understand the extent of your connection to ACORN."
We're not entirely sure whether McCain has made former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers and the Association of Community Organizers for reform now "the centerpiece of his campaign," as Obama put it, but the point has been belabored beyond belief. As Obama pointed out, if Ayers was such a "terrorist," how is he sitting on boards concerning the civic life of Chicago with university presidents?
Incredibly, what appeared to be Obama's biggest whopper -- that 100 percent of John McCain's ads were negative -- is actually a point of fact. A recent University of Wisconsin-Madison study shows McCain is, at this moment, running solely negative advertising across the United States.
Maybe, somewhere out there, Joe the Plumber is probably watching one. Because, as anyone who watched the debate knows, Joe the Plumber outshone even Schieffer as the star of Wednesday night's show. After all the battles over who will stand up for Joe the Plumber and who will "redistribute" his wealth, it will be interesting to see who Joe sides with come Election Day. Godspeed, Joe.
The editorial board is composed of David Grant, David McIlroy, Laurel Colella, Sally Bull and Jackie Peters
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Actually, the Wisconsin study shows that 100% of McCain's ads have had a negative tone in the last 7 days, not throughout the campaign. Obama has spent more money on advertisements (an equal portion of them negative) than any other candidate in history, and he has run an equally negative campgaing. As for Obama's tax cuts, they need to stop being called "tax cuts." What he's proposing are massive tax increases followed by refundable tax credits, refundable meaning that even if you dont pay income taxes (roughly a third of taxpayers do not) you are eligible for these "tax cuts." In my book, a tax cut is when my marginal tax rate drops from say 25% to 21%. That is a tax cut, which puts more of MY MONEY in MY POCKET. I dont want to give the Obama administration more of the money (and I dont make much) I work 50-60 hours a week for so he can give me credits for what he thinks I deserve it for. I'd rather get to keep more of it outright to decide what I want to do with it, rather than the government. I agree with some of Obama's points and I think he is certainly an admirable person, but I can't vote for someone who wants government to operate on that magnitude.
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The CT's lack of coverage of the presidential election, the senatorial election, local elections, the economy, and just about any other national issue with any relevance has been really embarassing. After four debates, massive plunges in the Dow, and unprecedented global economic coordination, the CT has printed nothing but a few pithy editorials and some local focus issues. There should be massive spreads on the candidates, their positions, and how their positions affect VT students. The CT has ignored its' responsibility as a member of the press of educating Tech students (many of whom are apathetic) about a major election.
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Thank you Dan for expressing the CTs lack of coverage. I agree 100%.
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I'm not so sure a favorable reference to Joe the Plumber is warranted. He was clearly an antagonistic McCain supporter when he confronted Obama, and now comes off as a racist with his reference to Obama as tap-dancing like Sammy Davis, Jr. What?, a Michael Jackson reference wasn't available? Why not Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly? McCain did the greatest Nixon (at his worst) impression that I've seen yet. Unfortunately, McCain doesn't have Nixon's intellect. But I'll miss the old guy when he rides off into the sunset on November 5. Almost as much as I miss his brethren from the balcony of the Muppet Show.
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I'm Mike the Carpenter and I'm undecided. I'm available for interviews after 4:30 p.m. mon-fri. and on weekends when no football is on tv. I'm not voting for any of these yahoos because they haven't come to my neighborhood and answered my critical questions, such as: why Obama ran for office in Illinois instead of his home state of Hawaii; why McCain owns 14 houses but lives in a bus; why Biden's teeth are so white, why Palin wants to shoot my dog from a helicopter, and why they all want to tax me to death after I get rich off of scratch tickets. Please call or send me an e-mail to my blackberry that I'm constantly checking. Signed, Undecided Mike the Carpenter
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This "editorial board" is the biggest joke ever. Here's to hoping none of you have careers in journalism.
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After the election, you'll hear a sound. That sound will be the sound of a nation of idiots simultaneously orgasming when Obama is elected.
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Clearly, "Concerned voter" is only concerned with itself. If there was concern for the country, it would be happy that a leader that puts the country first is being elected, instead of a successful duping by an "election first", flip-flopping, soul-selling, shell of a former maverick and his vacuous running mate. That sound will be a sigh of relief that the voters were smarter than expected.
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Only a fool would believe that either of these clowns is 'putting the country first' in this election. Obama seems to put class warfare first, which invariably is detrimental to the nation because we are a nation of different economic classes. Encouraging fighting among the classes necessarily creates socioeconomic friction which has the capacity to bring the economy to a grinding halt. McCain has offered a fairly vacuous campaign hinged around his uncanny ability to enrage both liberals and conservatives with his stances on particular issues. Both men are more concerned with advancing their own careers than they are with improving the nation - so the choice we have is a terrible one.
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