Okay, the final presidential candidates debate is tonight, Wednesday, October 15th, 2008. If you haven't made a decision by now, I don't expect you've really been paying attention to the state of the world, and have been sitting on your brains. How could you not? But: if you haven't chosen because you were shipwrecked on an island, or exploring Mars, you should turn on your TV at six p.m. Eastern Time in the U.S. and have a look at Obama and McCain. The past and the future are going to be there.If you are already firm in your selection, it probably won't change your mind, but it won't hurt to see what the two men have to say and how they say it.
Every election, there is blather about how it is the most important one in years or decades. This time, it's true. Our country has been in the toilet and swirling widdershins for eight years. It's time for us to climb out and take a shower. We ought to be better than we are.
If you are a citizen of the United States of America, it is part of your obligation to engage in the process of voting. Cast your ballot. Be heard. Be part of the solution and not part of the problem. If you don't, you don't get to bitch if you don't like how things are going. If you don't think it matters, you are wrong. It does.
People need to pay attention to more than just the pap they are fed by the various media factions. I keep getting the Fox news blather parroted at me. I wish people would just pay attention and *think* a bit.
ReplyDeleteToo much to ask I suppose.
(widdershins - I love that word. doesn't get near enough play)
We saw the coup-de-Gracie tonight.
ReplyDeleteSomething very bad needs to happen for them to pull this one out. Mccain looked like a sad, angry rat with a sore pair of mumps.
Only one of them looked REMOTELY presidential and it wasn't the angry old gray-suited hardliner.
I feel sorry for mccain. I also think he's a first class asshole and it's what cost him the election: he drove off voters tonight. The polls are going to be very unkind tomorrow.
I'll vote; been doing it for over forty years. But once again, my vote won't count. Living in the heart of Bushland here in Indiana means the winner-take-all system will most likely give my "vote" to the very people I don't want to see in power.
ReplyDeleteWorg --
ReplyDeleteI deleted your most recent post. Steps too far over the line for me, sorry.
McCain doesn't seem to know the difference between "autistic" and "Down's Syndrome," give what he had to say last night, but I do, having a grandson with autistic tendencies and another one with Down's. I find humor in a lot of places other folks don't, but not this arena ...
On the debate -- from a note I put up on Barnes's blog:
ReplyDeleteTo use a boxing metaphor, McCain came out strong, throwing a lot of punches, but he ran out of steam after twenty or thirty minutes, and Obama won on points.
If you want the title, you have to soundly beat the champ, and that didn't happen.
CNN's poll rated it 58% Obama, 31% McCain, and when you adjust for slightly more D's than R's in the survey, the I's put Obama ahead.
In all three of the polls, taken among people who actually watched the debate, Obama's number have steadily climbed, and McCain's have either stayed the same or gone down.
Obama is three-for-three. He stayed calm and cool, and for folks who want a steady hand and a guy who doesn't get riled easily, that's a big win. McCain tried to get a dogfight going and couldn't.
(Somebody ought to point out to McCain that there is a difference between autism and Down Syndrome, too, since he apparently doesn't know there there is.)
Most of the D's are going to vote for Obama. Most of the R's for McCain. There are more D's than R's. If the two men split the I's down the middle -- at the moment Obama is ahead with I's -- then Obama wins. Simple math.