The Choice Is Yours

As did a vast majority of the country (hopefully), I took the time to watch the first of the 2008 Presidential debates. It was a welcome change to not have one clueless candidate, and the other simply unable to generate a complete sentence. So, since you didn’t ask, here’s my .02 on what I saw…

First and foremost, I will say that I am firmly on the fence as to who I am going to vote for in 6 weeks. As usual, both candidates uses phrases and numbers that were nothing new to anyone following the elections thus far.

That being said, truckloads of accolades go to Jim Lehrer for attempting to get the candidates to actually have a DEBATE with one another! For years, it’s been more of a stump session as opposed to actual debate. Lehrer did a fine job of redirecting Obama and McCain towards one another. Hopefully, it will only increase at the rest of the debates.

There was a theme that was present thoughout the night that I’d like to bring up for discussion. It seems that, much like a large amount of the population, Obama seems to think that if we “catch” Osama BinLaden (assuming he’s still alive), somehow, this will bring down the entire Al Qaeda network. To me, that’s like saying if I knock over a telephone pole, it will knock out AT&T’s service across the country. Sure, BinLaden is the face of the group, but if you really think it though, the capture/death/whatever of BinLaden would more likely re-energize his followers as opposed to demoralize them.

***THIS PARAGRAPH HAS BEEN REMOVED BECAUSE I NEED TO KEEP MY JOB AT THE MOMENT...IT WAS ABOUT OBAMA'S IDEA TO HAVE A LAPTOP FOR EVERY STUDENT...FOR THE CONTENT OF THE CENSORED PARAGRAPH, EMAIL ME***

One thing that I found, for lack of a better word, was the tiff over who is the more fashionable and trendy. This came up when McCain mentioned that he got one of those silly silicone bracelets from some Iraq casualties’ Mom. The opening to Obama’s next statement was pretty much, “Oh, you’ve got a bracelet for a dead soldier? Well, I’VE got one too!!” I was equally put off my both of them on this…it’s not that I don’t care…oh wait, yes it is. Both candidates came off as spoiled teenagers trying to one-up the other with their trendiness....

So in short, neither McCain nor Obama was impressive enough to sway me to their side. Obama had lots of facts and statistics, but lacked any solid ideas for change. McCain seemed quite sure of himself, perhaps to the point where one could seriously question whether or not he’d be able to listen to the ideas of others.

Hopefully, one of them will fair better during the next debate…


Favorite comment of the evening: “There is no doubt, as President, I’m gonna have to make some tough decisions.” -Barack Obama

Oh…and someone needs to tell John McCain to stop clutching that pen in his right hand all the time…it makes him look like Bob Dole…