THE FINAL DEBATE, HO-HUM!
Dave Cunningham / October 16, 2008
Ho-hum! The final presidential debate of the 2008 election season is done. It was uneventful with two exceptions.
First was Joe Wurzelbacher (aka Joe Plumber) who got his fifteen minutes of fame. His phone should be ringing off the hook this morning with business offers.
Second, John McCain blundered into another misspeak when he said, “And I just said to you earlier, town hall meeting after town hall meeting, parents come with kids, children — precious children who have autism. Sarah Palin knows about that better than most. And we’ll find and we’ll spend the money, research, to find the cause of autism. And we’ll care for these young children.” Problem is, John forgot that Sarah Palin’s child has Downs Syndrome, not autism.
She and her husband must have cringed at these comments, although you won’t hear it from them.
Fortunately, this will exceed the ho-hum stage when reconfigured for Saturday Night Live this weekend. I wonder who will play “Joe Plumber.”
The candidates also threw around some big money numbers; $750 Billion here, $3 Trillion there. It seems like only yesterday we were appalled by the $10 Billion being spent each week in Iraq. This begins to look like chump change.
We are promised health care insurance, improved education, and aid to defaulting homeowners – Cool! A question that comes to mind, though, how are we going to pay for the bold programs that were promised when we are spending beyond our means to bail out the banking system? But, what do I know?
Ho-hum post-debate polls have Obama continuing to hold a comfortable lead. We know anything can happen with 19 days left in the race. If nothing changes, we will have our first African American president and, if we’re lucky, some changes that will favor the middle class for the first time in eight years. These are good things.
Seriously though, this is like watching the seventh game of the World Series, top of the 9th / 2 outs / full count / with the home team ahead by 6 runs. It’s boring. I’d be heading for my car right now.
Wrapping up, do you ever wish that we could have a real debate, with all the candidates contributing ideas? What new ideas might emerge? Why are debates controlled by an election commission of two people who can decide who’s in and who’s out? Speaking of debate, this was not one. Go watch your local high school debate team if you want to see what a real debate looks like. Why are our candidates so afraid to face off in an honest debate of the issues? If this is so scary, how will they deal with real problems?
I’m going to take a nap now. Later, dudes!
Front Runners, LLC 