The second debate
Oct. 7th, 2008 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ionelvI'm still waiting for an honest in-depth discussion about China in particular and free trade in general. Mentioning that we owe the Chinese and the Petro-states lots of money without mentioning that this situation will only get worse and without offering any real solution to this problem is not nearly enough and it is unforgivable.
Dissapointingly scripted from beginning to end. McCain lobbed another Hail Mary (the individual mortgage bailout) and sounded a little shrill and repetitious while Obama kept on message and kept rebutting the same attacks from the first debate.
Both dissappointed with their teflon ability to dance around a straight question without giving a straight answer. Perfect example: is health care a commodity? Since both would've had to answer yes based on their platforms, they just punted and restated their plans.
On the environment and green jobs, McCain offered nuclear power as the solution! WTF?
And the maverick keeps feeding illusions of grandeur by repeating "We will succeed and we will bring our troops home with honor and victory and not in defeat." Pulling out of Iraq is realistic and inevitable (the Brits had the good sense to do it, again). Saying and doing otherwise is continuing the involuntary extension of military service (it's involuntary servitude, right?) and spilling more American blood to shore up a shotgun wedding dreamed up by the Brits long ago while still high on the fumes of their crumbling empire. Newsflash for "my friend": the terrorist masterminds are in Waziristan.
McCain did score and did stake his unabashed support for free trade on this charge: "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." I have to admit that Obama does cover trade in his platform, but it's just weasily in its attempt to convince his supporters that he protects the American worker by "pressur[ing] the World Trade Organization to enforce trade agreements" while tacitly fully supporting free trade. That's hot-steaming bullshit served with a smidgen of cool whip on top!
McCain closed that "we need a steady hand at the tiller", but it looks like we're getting just another hand in the till: one through taxes on the rich which will shift even more jobs and capital abroad, and the other through perpetual war and tax breaks for his sponsors.
Dissapointingly scripted from beginning to end. McCain lobbed another Hail Mary (the individual mortgage bailout) and sounded a little shrill and repetitious while Obama kept on message and kept rebutting the same attacks from the first debate.
Both dissappointed with their teflon ability to dance around a straight question without giving a straight answer. Perfect example: is health care a commodity? Since both would've had to answer yes based on their platforms, they just punted and restated their plans.
On the environment and green jobs, McCain offered nuclear power as the solution! WTF?
And the maverick keeps feeding illusions of grandeur by repeating "We will succeed and we will bring our troops home with honor and victory and not in defeat." Pulling out of Iraq is realistic and inevitable (the Brits had the good sense to do it, again). Saying and doing otherwise is continuing the involuntary extension of military service (it's involuntary servitude, right?) and spilling more American blood to shore up a shotgun wedding dreamed up by the Brits long ago while still high on the fumes of their crumbling empire. Newsflash for "my friend": the terrorist masterminds are in Waziristan.
McCain did score and did stake his unabashed support for free trade on this charge: "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." I have to admit that Obama does cover trade in his platform, but it's just weasily in its attempt to convince his supporters that he protects the American worker by "pressur[ing] the World Trade Organization to enforce trade agreements" while tacitly fully supporting free trade. That's hot-steaming bullshit served with a smidgen of cool whip on top!
McCain closed that "we need a steady hand at the tiller", but it looks like we're getting just another hand in the till: one through taxes on the rich which will shift even more jobs and capital abroad, and the other through perpetual war and tax breaks for his sponsors.
