Presidential Debate #3: McCain Wins, but not by enough

Once again I thought McCain had a clear, but certainly not an overwhelming victory. However, once again, most pundits and the uniformed American public think Obama won. The obvious reason for this is because Obama is a smooth orator and can talk his way out of anything. I beg everyone to look at their voting records and still tell me Obama won. Besides we do not vote on the best debater we vote on the best candidate. This makes it nearly impossible for McCain to win this upcoming election. He needs another miracle of some kind. Let’s look at the debate topics:

The Economy – McCain proposes tax cuts for all including the wealthy and all corporations. This is obviously the best choice in a recession. Obama wants to spread the wealth with socialized tax plans of taxing corporations and the wealthy. Why do the Democrats and most people in this country want to burden corporations and the wealthy like they are evil? Remember corporation employ people, if you continue to punish them they will be forced to take it on the consumer and their employees to remain profitable. It is commonsense.

The Deficit – McCain has proposed a spending freeze to get spending under control. Obama has proposed nothing concrete on how he will control spending despite having proposed a trillion new dollars in spending. Obama mention one 15 billion dollar program that has to go. It is strange how Obama has continually said the 18 billion dollars in earmarks that McCain fights against is only 0.5% of the budge and not a big deal, but he only has the nerve to only mention 15 billion in cuts. I am curious, am I the only one hearing this guy contradict himself?

Negative Campaigning – I thought McCain won this point as well. Although he let Obama off the hook for Ayers, Obama still failed to answer his 832K contribution to ACORN. Obama also did not repudiate the charge made by supporter John Lewis that said McCain and Palin were in the mold of George Wallace politics of bigotry, racism, and prejudice when given the opportunity. I found this surprising since it makes it look like Obama is using the ‘race card’ as a crutch. This is extremely disappointing, especially in a man who says he can transcend race in this country. Again, am I the only one seeing Obama continually contradict himself?

Their VP Choice – I thought this topic was a tie. Obama did not go after Palin, but even though McCain said Biden was qualified to be President he pointed out where he was wrong in the past on Foreign Policy which is suppose be his strong suit.

Supreme Court Nominees – This was clearly McCain’s best topic. He pointed out how Obama voted against Republican nominees whereas McCain voted for liberal choices in the past. He clearly said and his record indicates that Roe vs. Wade is not his only litmus test for a Supreme Court nominee, but Obama and his voting record indicates that it is. This narrow and reckless thinking. McCain also pointed out Obama’s tendency to vote “Present” on tough topics to avoid controversy. On this topic McCain was able to show how liberal and partisan Obama is.

Free Trade – Once again McCain was very strong on this issue pointing out that Obama nixed the Columbia free trade agreement. Obama explained he did not like that it did not protect Columbia workers, but agreed it will help the U.S. No bill is going to be 100% acceptable for any politician, but to openly choose that he cares more about Colombian workers than U.S. workers is a huge mistake. Obama also referred to NAFTA as being to lax on the environment and other issues and blamed Republicans for that. However, NAFTA was brought in by Clinton and the Democrats. Obama has in the past wrongly blamed NAFTA for jobs going overseas. This is not only wrong, but reckless. It shows he has no idea on how to decrease or trade deficit.

Health Care – I thought this topic was a push since McCain did not respond to Obama’s claim that his plan would force insurers to drop patients. He had an opening since Obama’s plan would also be open for insurers to drop patients. Obviously, McCain has the best plan. Citizens without care get 5K to go get their policy they want. Obama’s plan forces citizens without care to take what the government offers. Are we Americans that stupid and incompetent that we want the government to make all our decisions for us? Are we really that helpless that we want government interference on every decision we must make? Americans used to be proud, but now we are so lazy and incompetent that we cannot even do the most mundane task without someone helping us. Do we really trust the government to insure us and keep costs low? The same government that could not keep Frannie and Freddie from going belly up. The same government that has used up our social security. The same government that has trillions of dollars in debt. We are so naive and we never learn our lesson that government interference is another disaster waiting to happen. Obama claims that McCain will tax health care benefits and give the money insurance companies. What is wrong with this? Nothing, McCain has to pay for the plan somehow. On the flip side, Obama has yet to say how he will pay for his plan. I find it curious that “Joe the Plumber” will be rich enough to be taxed more, but will not be fined for not providing health coverage to his employees. Obama also claims he will lower the health insurance costs of those that have health care. How does he plan to do that? He has not given specifics other than taxing the wealthy and corporations. I give kudos to McCain for mentioning obesity and for saying we need better fitness programs in our schools. Obesity is the single main cause for our sky rocketing health costs. At least one candidate recognized that fact.

Surprisingly, this is the issue that most people think Obama wins and pushes him over the top in the debates. It is not surprising. As I make calls for the McCain campaign, everyone that gives me sob story is Obama. They are the ones that want the government to help them. Most are pitiful and have no ideas or plans on how to help themselves. I certainly have empathy, but I am not going to feel sorry for people who do at least try to help themselves, and EXPECT the government to bail them out. It is unfortunate, but this country is going down the tubes fast.

Education – I think Obama has the better plan. However, this is one issue that McCain caught Obama on. The fact that Obama said vouchers did not work, but he agreed with McCain it was working in DC (who arguably have the worst school systems in the U.S. – Thus, if vouchers work in DC they could work anywhere). Because of this McCain won the point. However, I think Obama is right about parents being more responsible for educating their children and he is also right about improving preschools. That is the key to bridging the socio-economic divide. Neither candidate offered much in the way on how they would reform tax dollars going into education. We need to close schools that are not getting the job done and move those students into schools that are working.

As far as college education is concerned, I am tired of hearing about how unaffordable college is. This is not a new issue, it has been this way for as long as I can remember. I also think the so called 'elite' college education is over rated. People can get an excellent education at minimum cost at community colleges and then attending state schools. I had student loans galore and lived in poverty and I got no assistance to attend college and I was able to get by. I worked 30 hours a week and averaged 20 credits per semester in engineering and got by. I started working at age 12 and paid rent at home. My work load caused my studies to suffer in high school so I did not get any scholarships. The bottom line is anyone who puts their mind to it and works their ass off, can go to college and pay off their debts. Unfortunately, our pride and work ethic amongst our Generation Y youth is non-existent, they are spoiled and expect rewards without putting in any effort. Everyone has a sob story, the end result is if you use it as an excuse and blame everyone else for your tough time, or do you use it as motivation to better yourself. Our only mission in life is to better ourselves and become better human beings. If you are not working towards that you have no business complaining and asking for help.

It is not even close, but we Americans are too stupid to look at their records. Instead, we are influenced by an eloquent speaker that looks very good on stage. McCain looks bad on stage and is not a great speaker – hence he must not be a good choice for President. Is this how we base our decisions, petty things like appearance and orator skills? Obama is fooling the obviously gullible American public. I wonder how we would look if we were 72 and had been to hell and back. McCain looks pretty good for 72 considering all he has been through. We should give him the benefit of the doubt. He should look worse than a 47 year old Obama.