Presidential Debate: John McCain’s “that one” comment.

Workout notes I slept in late (until 4:50) and so ended up racewalking 4 miles in 52 minutes. Swim tomorrow; maybe a short run after work today.

The Debate and the “that one” moment

John McCain has caught some flack for the “that one” comment:

There was also a bad moment for Mr McCain when he referred to Mr Obama in a dismissive manner as “the one” – a phrase some commentators seized on as a racial slight. Talking about a Bush administration bill, Mr McCain gestured towards Mr Obama and said: “You know who voted for it? You might never know. That one.”

Confession: I admit that I wasn’t bothered by this at all; to me it was a bit of a ham-fisted attempt for rhetorical flourish (“guess which of these two Senators voted for it? THAT ONE and not THIS ONE”) and that this attempt fell flat.

My wife didn’t see it as a big deal either.

One other comment: I knew that McCain was having a bad night when I found myself saying “oh, he (McCain) is doing ok”. If I think that a Republican is doing ok, then the Republicans are going to hate him.

Note: about that 2005 energy bill (which liberals hated): Obama voted for it for the same reason that Harkin (Iowa), Durbin (Illinois) and Nelson (Nebraska) did: ETHANOL. These are Senators from corn growing states and they negotiated ethanol subsidies into the bill. That is why they backed it, pure and simple.

You Decide: Who Won the Debate: Obama or McCain?

• L.A. Times poll
• NBC poll
• CNN poll (scroll down, on right)
• AOL poll
• Wall Street Journal poll
• Guardian poll
• The Drudge Report poll
• Townhall poll
• Fox News poll

Ok, some might say that internet polls are all but worthless but at the moment, we have a lead in all but the Drudge and Wall Street Journal (broken); Even AOL has us up a bit.

Some cool screen shots (from here)

Live Blogging the Presidential Debate (Town Hall)

Obama up first; an elderly voter asks what are they going to do for them?

Obama gets to the middle class: tax cuts for the middle class, help in staying in homes. He doesn’t focus on the elderly; he also talks about Bush.

McCain: he talks about energy independence? Taxes low on all (?) Americans? Talks about the debt? Now he talks about home values; they decline and says that the treasury buys up all bad mortgages and then renegotiate the bad loans.

Moderator: who would you appoint as Secretary of Treasury? McCain mentions Warren Buffet and Meg Whitman; talks about trust and confidence.

Obama Treasury Secretary: says that it isn’t enough to help those at the top. He mentioned Buffet. He says that we have to steady housing prices.

The next question: “bailout” question. Mentions that taxpayers should be the first to be paid back. Now he attacks Freddie Mac and Fannie May: blames the bad loans (rather than the bundling of them) and attacks. Says Obama got lots of money; needs to stabilize Freddie and Fannie.

Obama: here is what is in the rescue package. talks about making credit availabe so people can make payroll. Corrects McCain. First talks about deregulation (bundled loans); Obama talks about writing to Paulson and Bernake (Fed Reserve Chair). McCain’s bill didn’t get passed. Mentions that McCain’s campaign chair was a Fannie May lobbyist.

Moderator: asks if the economy will get worse before it gets better? Obama says that the regulatory system is 20′th century and not 21’st century one.

McCain: says “it depends” on what we do if the economy does better or not. Says Obama’s name wasn’t on the letter warning of the crisis.

Question for Obama: How can we trust either of you with our money when both parties got us into this crisis.

Obama: I understand your cynicism. Blame to go around; mentions that we had a surplus when Clinton left. Mentions that the debt went from 5 trillion to 10 trillion. He mentions that McCain voted for 4 out of the 5 last budgets. He mentions investments and mentions cuts and that cuts outweigh new projects.

McCain: Mentions that the system is broken; says that he has taken them on; mentions working with Feingold on campaign finance reform.

He mentions that Obama is liberal, liberal, liberal…mentions right wing groups. Obama voted for earmarks including the planetarium in Chicago.

Energy: drill! Nuclear Power! I know how to fix this economy.

Moderator: priorities: health care, entitlement reform, energy.

McCain: won’t prioritize; says we can work on all at once. He says that we’ll have to work across the aisle (Joe Lieberman?) Build a whole bunch of nuclear power plants. We can, yes, we can! We have to do them all.

Obama: he says that we have to prioritize. Energy: today. He mentions high gas prices. He mentions the moon shoot. Health care: priority number 2; mentions how it hurts business and then mentions education. He talks about tax cuts for the wealthy that McCain proposes.

Sacrifice: what sacrifices will we ask of the ordinary Americans?

McCain: we have to eliminate programs; he mentions defense spending (the tanker deal where he gave it to a foreign company?) He mentions competition for projects. He recommends a spending freeze (except for defense and some veterans programs).

Obama: He starts off with 9-11 and mentions that the country was ready to sacrifice. One missed opportunities: Bush told people to “go out and shop”. Energy: there will be the need for individuals to conserve energy. He talks about nuclear waste (said “energy” instead of “waste”). He talks about American made fuel efficient cars. He talks about young people in the Peace Corps (doubling) and a young person’s service corps.

Moderator: how to break the habit of too much credit?

Obama: we have to set the example (in Washington). Mentions McCain’s fixation on earmarks (18 billion). Mentions McCain’s plan to give the very rich more tax cuts. Talks about tax fairness. He disagrees with an across the board freeze; says it is unfair.

McCain: Goes back to Hoover as the last president to raise taxes during tough times. (Really). He claims that Obama’s tax increases will apply to 50 percent of all small businesses. (false). He talks about his refundable tax credit for health plans (5000 for a 10,000 dollar plan).

Moderator: huge unfunded obligations; Obama didn’t get a chance to rebut some of the claims. Social Security?

Obama; says we have to take on entitlements. But we have to get back to tax policies. Revenues coming in: Obama will provide a tax cut for those less than 250,000 a year. Small business: small percent make more than this with 50 percent tax credit to buy health insurance.

With good tax policies then we can be in a position to deal with social security and medicare.

McCain: I’ll answer the question. Social security isn’t that tough? He knows how to do it; mentions Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neil. He says that he isn’t popular with his party at times; mentions form a commission then vote “up or down”. Now he returns to taxes and mentions “rhetoric and record”. McCain says to look at the record.

Question for McCain: Congress moved fast during the economic crisis. What about jobs and the environment?

McCain talks about greenhouse gases and that they lost the vote on their bill. He brings back nuclear power; he mentions reprocessing nuclear fuel. (it still creates waste, as does uranium mining)

Obama responds: Says it is an opportunity. He talks about energy and mentions that he agrees with nuclear power as part of the mix. He says taht he has been there 26 of those years and that he voted against alternative fuels 23 times. He mentions that we have 3 percent of the oil reserves and use 26 percent of the world’s reserves.

He also talks about exporting clean energy technology to other countries.

Moderator: Manhattan project? Or should we spread out the funding rather than one major project.

McCain: says he voted against the 2005 energy bill that Obama voted for (ETHANOL…Illinois grows corn). McCain talks about drilling (10 years from now?) He says that Obama approved (?) storage and reprocessing of fuel.

Health care Should it be a commodity? Obama: talks about the problem. We have a moral commitment. His plan: if you have health care and you can keep it and the government will work on price reduction (technology, records, etc.). If you don’t, you can buy US government insurance (no pre-existing conditions). Slams McCain’s health care plan; talks about taxing the benefit taxing and taking away the ability of states to regulate protections.

McCain: mentions high cost; he mentions online records, community centers. What is at stake: Obama talks about government and Obama’s mandates. McCain talks about 5000 dollar refundable tax credit which can go across state lines. He claims that 95 percent will have increased funds (preexisting conditions).

Moderator: is health care a right, a privilege or a responsibility?

McCain: a responsibility but slams mandates.

Obama it should be a right. Makes it personal (his mom dying early and arguing about preexisting conditions). Small business: not a mandate but 50 percent help. He does mention mandates for kids; McCain voted against CHIP. He mentions government should crackdown on insurance companies that cheat. He mentions that insurance companies will find the easiest place to set up shop.

McCain gets in one more dig (size of the fine?)

Foreign Policy

Economic impact on national security.

McCain: starts out on American exceptionalism and says he has the experience to know when to intervene and mentions that he was against sending Marines to Lebanon. He says that Obama was wrong about the surge and that Obama doesn’t understand.

Obama He mentions that McCain was wrong to go into Iraq; accused McCain of cheer leading. He actually mentions the budget. He mentions Iraq having 79 billion dollar surplus.

Both agree that US is a force of good in the world.

Obama mentions the strain on alliances and on economy and this can’t keep up.

Moderator: Obama doctrine and McCain doctrine: when should we use force when we don’t have a national security at stake.

Obama: if we have the ability to intervene in genocide or ethnic cleansing. But he mentions national interest but he mentions that we have limits. We have to be able to work in concert with allies; he mentions Darfur. We have to be in position to lead.

McCain: he goes back to Obama’s “date for withdraw” (note: Obama mentioned that he’d have to go by conditions on the ground). He says we must do whatever we can but tempered with our understanding our limitations. He mentions Somalia. He says we need a “cool head” (does McCain want to go there?)

Talks about “defeat” again.

Question for Obama: Pakistan: do we always honor their borders?
Obama: says we have this problem because we went into Iraq prior to finishing Afghanistan. He mentions that Al Qeada goes back and forth across the border. He says we have to change our policies with Pakistan (be tougher on the dictator), encourage democracy and if, we have actionable intelligence then we “take them out” even if Pakistan doesn’t cooperate.

McCain. Talks about Teddy Roosevelt. Lies about Obama. Says that Obama is talking loudly and announcing that we will attack. Now he gets back to the Soviet Union vs. Afghanistan; he doesn’t mention that we funded the Islamic extremists there; acts as if we didn’t.

He says to help Pakistan to work with us. He says: “to use force”.

Obama wants a follow up: “if Pakistan is unable or unwilling to hunt down Bin Laden, then we should”. He mentions “bomb, bomb, bomb Iran”, etc. He mentions that the reason that we are unpopular in Pakistan because we weren’t supporting democracy.

McCain Says “not true”? He says that he knows with old veteran when he sang about “bomb Iran”. He says that he knows how to get Bin Laden; accuses that Obama is telegraphing his punches.

Developments in Afghanistan British says that we can’t win; we need an acceptable dictator.

Obama: Will have to make Iraq take responsibility, increase troop levels in Afghanistan, and work with the current Afghanistan government. Dictatorship is not necessary; needs to be more responsive.

McCain Admits that Obama is correct on some things.

He says that we need the same strategy (surge? surge?) (psst: different situation) McCain has confidence in General Petraus.

Question for McCain How we can apply pressure on Russia without starting another cold war?

McCain Says that a cold war is not a worry; doesn’t like Putin (KGB eyes); says that Russia has acted badly (e. g., Georgia); warns about Ukraine. Says we should advocate for Ukraine into NATO (like Georgia is).

He mentions pressure (G-8).

Obama The resurgence of Russia is something we have to deal with. He agrees with McCain on many of the steps. We need to provide more than moral support. They need concrete assistance to rebuild their economies.

Obama said that Russia had Russian peacekeepers in disputed areas; that wasn’t a stable situation.
Mentions 21’st century challenges; says we reactive than being proactive.

He talks about energy; more independence will help.

Moderator Yes or No: evil empire?

Obama: Bad behavior
McCain: Maybe; depends on what we do.

Question for McCain: Suppose Iran attacks Israel what do we do.

McCain: we won’t wait for UN security council. Mentions Iranian nuclear weapons potential. Talks about the President of Iran and that Obama would meet with him (Obama didn’t say that but never mind). Talks about the “league of Democracies” to get the Iranians to abandon the quest for nuclear weapons.

Obama Says that Iran can’t be allowed to get a nuclear weapon; mentions that Israel is our greatest ally in the region. Says that we won’t take military options off of the table. He mentions carrots and sticks; says we should never get there to begin with. He says that we should use sanctions and gives an example.

He says: yes, use diplomacy and yes, talk to our enemies.

Last Question

What don’t you know and how will you learn it?

Obama: respond with humor. He says that the Presidency is about facing the challenges that you don’t expect. Talks about the opportunity that the country gave him. Talks about sacrifice. Goes off of the question.

Says we can’t keep doing the same things that we have been doing if we want different outcomes.

McCain: he doesn’t know what is going to happen both here and abroad. Now he goes off question for his closing statement.

He says that he has spent his whole life serving the country and he knows what its like for hard times.

Conclusion

McCain did not melt down; he did well. But so did Obama; Obama did very well tonight! Bottom line: we need change and McCain is about the past.

Internet polls: currently MSNBC, CNN and the Chicago Tribune internet polls have Obama winning at 85 percent. The CBS snap poll has Obama winning 39-27 (a scientific poll, unlike the internet ones).

CNN’s snap poll: 54-30 Obama.