watching this tonight. and by watching, i'm really watching bob barr watch the debates and make responses and critiques of mcbama's answers. [URL]http://www.mogulus.com/reason[/URL]
Anyways, i'm gonna hopefully do a run-down of how things progress.
9pm: Matt Welch Speaks, "leader of free minds and....what used to be 'free markets'.." heh.
9:01pm: Barr makes brief statement. Pretty interesting setup. simple. I don't know if this has been done before. Discusses the cost of our overall foreign policy. 600 billion for defense budget? Hmm.
9:04pm: Obama goes on the attack right off the bat. McCain starts talking about Kennedy and starts thanking the university. Works the crowd by speaking like it's a one-on-one conversation. McCain's Republicans?? Really dude? His answer was pretty vague. I guess i shouldn't expect any substantive answers from either candidate at this point.
9:10, Obama says that regulation is necessary to some degree, that it can't be eliminated. McCain says he want to vote for it with some caveats. Then starts, somehow, to add his Vietnam record to the question, "will you vote for the bill?". I think McCain is trying to appeal to everyone with this. Can't blame him. republicans are really against this bill, and mccain knows this. I think that's why he called it, "his Republicans".
9:13, McCain says we definitely need regulation. He trusts the american worker. Which is opposite of what this bailout is about. Barr cuts in, "this makes absolutely no sense". At this points it's hard to focus on what McBama is saying because barr keeps cutting in on the answers and questions. perhaps this wasn't the best way to do this. But, i guess that he's doing it live is more important.
9:16, McCain goes on the attack against Obama. good retort. Barr says that cutting out earmarks wont' change the spending habits. Barr says the problem is the trillion dollars McCain wants to spend, not the 17 million he wants to take out of earmarks. Obama says some clinton-esque stuff about building the economy from the lowest worker up. Not cool. the future of this country doesn't turn on the work of janitors.
9:21, if McCain keeps this up, he probably won't gain anything, but he certainly won't lose as much (if any) as some pundits have been thinking since he made several wacko decisions this week.
9:25, this is goin south for both of them. They're both sounding like Palin. Shit. I hope my prediction on McCain wasn't too quick. Barr hasn't said this yet, but so far, it seems there is very little that McBama disagree on.
9:28: Obama says we have to start competing. McCain says we have to start cutting our spending. Again, opposite of what he's doing right now. I like the answer, but be consistent dude. He's talking about the defense budget, but he doesn't seem to want to actually reduce it. "I know how to do this". Good. Moderator chimes in, "none of you are saying anything about dramatic reform". HAHA. This is great, I like him whoever he is (lehrer?).
9:33: fuck you mccain. you just started talking about cutting defense budges, and then he starts waffling on it. "freeze everything but the defense budget". He wants to avoid doing any cutting whatsoever. Then he talks about giving money to vets. Really? Bald-faced lie if I ever saw one.
9:35: government makes a profit Obama? Does that make it ok? Obama fights back...tax cuts for people who don't need it... If I was an uninformed voter, that's a pretty strong statement if I'm hurting int he pocket book. Good thing I know better. McCain calls for spending cuts, once again, despite calling for spending freezes. Barr comes out and knocks both them out with some substantive answers based on tax figures (which apparently are fresh out of the calculators). "of the three candidates who want to cut spending, it is me Barr who has fought for it". Not sure about that, but I know he's for great budget cuts. When will they start talking about Entitlements???
9:39, McCain reuses Ms. Congeniality line again. I hate the repetition. McCain says the lessons of Iraq are that you can't have a failed stategy. "And we will come home with victory and honor....now that we will succede and our troops will come home, we will have a stable ally and a stable democracy in the region..." Interesting. I'm not sure how 'stable' iraq is or will ever be.
9:44: "john, you want to think that the war started in 2007". Wow. PWND. McCain was right about the surge working, any large increase of troops is always going to help. But Obama points out McCain's flaws from right out of the gate in 2002. McCain says obama doesn't understand the difference between a 'tactic and a strategy'. I should take a shot everytime McCain says "winning". But I don't want to kill myself.
9:47. McCain and Obama are boxing. This is good. McCain comes out strong, Obama ducks and hooks. McCain says he's not ready to cut aid to Pakistan. My question is, what have all those billions of dollars we've sent to Pakistan done? What result? Nothing. It's been a waste. McCain's implicating the influx of huge amount of troops who need to be sent to Afghanistan. I absolutely hate how these two appeal to the people by saying "commanders say this, or that, blah blah blah".
9:56: I'm not sure what Obama just said, but the LP's were laughing it up. SOmething about McCain's stance on north korea. Barr starts talking about the policy of georgia, poland, etc... and how to deal with it.
10: "I've got a bracelet too". That's a nice "fuck you". I love how obama keeps saying, "the question is" It's so...law school to me. heh. IRAC your answers man! hehe. Barr Actually agrees with Obama on this point he was making about the importance of acting wisely not to put the troops through weak-sauce military campaigns.
10:02. Iran question. McCain: "it's an existential threat to Israel and the region". "A LEAGUE of Democracies" ??? Is that like, a league of nations?
10:10: Obama's right, Iraq deterred Iran, and now that we destroyed that check in that region, and then isolated them, they've grown militarily. I hadn't looked at it in this perspective. Interesting. Obama goes after McCain on Spain. McCain responds with tit-for-tat. Then talks about....he's pandering to the jewish vote. Ok, pandering aside, what works? Who even thinks preconditions are effective? They weren't with North Korea. Is his whole premise that we shouldn't meet with other countries who trash talk and threaten thier neighbors?
10:19....audio cutting in and out. can't hear anyone.