My Take on the Debates

So I am officially old. I spent a Friday night glued to the TV watching the presidential debates - and I actually enjoyed it.

It definately wasn't a slam dunk for either candidate. Obama started off very strong, but McCain eventually came back to hold his ground. I think most people have their minds made up regardless of the debates, but I don't think that the candidates managed to sway those crucial independent votes who don't quite know who to vote for yet.

I thought I would point out some of the things that stood out to me:

1. Foreign Policy: McCain came down on Obama because Obama thinks that the US should sit down and attempt relations and diplomacy with hostile countries (Iran, Korea, etc..). He said that the use of sanctions to "punish" them is clearly not working because those countries are getting stronger. The U.S. no longer has that clout, because in a global economy, sanctions do not affect those countries as much as they used to (just because we wont buy their goods, doesnt mean that other countries won't). McCain states that speaking to the leaders of those countries will seem like we are legitimizing them and we should continue sanctions until they back down and agree to our terms (disarming, etc..). I fully agree with Obama on this and I feel that he did a much better job convincing his argument.

2. The Middle Class - I think McCain did a horrible job when it came to relating to the middle class. There was no mention of this on his part during the entire debate. It was a little depressing. He did talk about giving small businesses tax breaks. "Small business" sounds like it benefits the little guy, right? But then I thought about it. I used to work for a winery that would qualify as a small business. The owners lived in La Jolla in a multi million dollar house. I'd be surprised if anyone that worked there made more than $30k/yr. More tax breaks would only ensure the owners get a little richer and possibly add a few more minimum wage jobs. The tax breaks would be better suited to go to workers, not the businesses. This is an area where I thought I had more conservative republican views, but Obama won me over on that issue too.

3. Iraq - I was sucker and fell for the whole need to invade Iraq thing too. Lets admit it. We were wrong, we made bad decisions and used our military inappropriately. We should have been in Afghanistan and possibly Iran, not Iraq. This is where I agree with Obama. He even stated that our invasion of Iraq has caused Iran to get stronger (Iraq and Iran were enemies). McCain is still unwilling to admit that we screwed up.

However, we messed up. We can't just pull out and leave Iraq in shambles. We broke it, we fix it. It was a costly mistake, both fically and the human toll it took. Obama seems to want to establish a timeline and get out ASAP so we can move on to other pressing issues. I don't necessarily think thats realistic and possible. McCain might have the upper hand in handling the current situation over there.

Neither candidate was committing to anything regarding the financial crisis we are in. Im very disappointed that we are bailing out all these companies. The CEO's are giving themselves billion dollar bonuses, yet the taxpayers have to bail out their failed businesses?