DisDain McCain
Like so many Americans I was really looking forward to the first Presidential debate this past Friday September 26, 2008. I set the DVR to record in case I missed something. Of course I set it wrong and missed half the debate but that’s not my fault… really. Anyway, I’m watching Jim Lehrer speak and describe the set up for the evening. “I made up all the questions and no one has seen or heard them until tonight.” Great! Both Obama and McCain would have to answer blind questions. We get to see how they react, answer and deal with things when they can’t see it coming. No prepared answers, no TelePrompTers. I like that. Looks like it’s going to be a great political evening with the both candidates showing their true self. Now we’re going to see who has the mustard and who doesn’t.
As the night moves along Jim Lehrer tells both candidates to address each other. He does this many times trying to get a dialog going between the two. In short Obama did and McCain did not. Barrack Obama tried to speak directly to John McCain on many occasions. McCain on the other hand never… NEVER once even looked at Brarack Obama. John McCain ALWAYS spoke about him as if he weren’t there. I’m not sure if that was a tactic that his handlers told him to adopt or not. I always had great respect for John McCain when he WAS a maverick in the senate and even lately after he sold out his “maverick” status to get the nomination. I watched John McCain say he was going to run a respectable campaign against Barrack Obama then watched as his commercials got more and more negative and stretched the truth far and wide. Yes Barrack Obama did the same thing but he didn’t ride in on his white horse like McCain did. Then he chooses Sarah Palin as his running mate simply to satisfy his religious base. If he were STILL the maverick, he would have chosen one of the two people he wanted to, Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge. But no. He sells out and goes for such an obvious political choice that even his republican friends were shaking their heads. I let all that go. It’s the way every presidential campaign has gone for a very long time. The McCain uses the economic crisis as a political tool. EVERYONE involved said they didn’t want that to happen. NO ONE wanted to insert presidential politics into the resolution process of the bail out discussions. No one except for John McCain. I guess his failing numbers in the polls changes his character. Then comes the debate and John McCain acts with such disdain and disrespect for Barrack Obama. It was pathetic. It was gross. It was shameful. He even looked like he was enjoying it. One time he actually turned his back toward Barrack to answer a question!
Listen up John McCain! As far as I’m concerned you have lost all credibility with your actions during this campaign. The debate Friday night was the absolute last straw. What ever you were thinking it would look like you were wrong! You looked like a child. You want to call Senator Obama an elitist and you act like the biggest snob on the planet! Mr McCain, you owe Barrack an apology. You owe your supporters an apology. You owe the American people an apology. Your actions and demeanor are not fitting of a man of your position. You should be better than that. I guess you’re not though are you? You keep spewing how you’re the one who can reach across the isle and work with everyone. Yet you can’t even look at the other man on the same stage as you? You are pathetic John McCain. You have shown how shallow you are and what depths you will go to to win this election. Very sad, especially coming from the John McCain I was voting for in 2000. Where did he go? Please tell us, where did THAT John McCain go?
Barrack Obama was poised, respectful, well spoken all evening. I think he did miss an opportunity that evening though. As John McCain dug a huge whole for himself by his disdainful ignoring of Barrack, Senator Obama should have said something like “John, you can ignore me here on stage, not look at me, speak like I’m not even here, BUT know one thing sir. I AM HERE and I’m not going anywhere.” That would have slammed the lid on McCain’s campaign coffin and nailed it shut. If I saw it I know Barrack saw it and probably wanted to say something. If he did and decided not to, maybe he thought he was taking the high road. Maybe he did. I can’t hold my tongue like that. Good thing I’m not running for president.
Monday, September 29th, 2008
