It ain't over?

Yes, I watched the debate. I wanted to write “it ain’t over ‘til it’s over,” and then, “well, it’s over.” But I guess I can’t really claim that (even though I personally think it is over). There will still be some who think McCain did well, those like Pat Buchanan who always claims McCain wins on points, and others who seem to truly believe that McCain won. But it remains true that most observers think Obama won. I’m not sure winning and/or losing is really very relevant for these contests. I thought McCain did much better than I expected him to do. But I thought Obama did fine as well. As in the other debates Obama kept his cool, didn’t make any mistakes, and looked very Presidential. McCain was not so steady, at times seemed a bit angry and/or upset, and did a lot of what I thought was faked tight-lipped smiling. He was more aggressive than Obama but of course he had to be. Again, I doubt that anything much changed. Those that are supporting McCain/Palin are so far gone that nothing is going to change their minds, whereas Obama’s supporters stay about the same and slowly increase. I don’t know how many viewers understand just how often Obama could have ripped McCain apart, but resisted doing so. This was especially true, I thought, on the question of running mates. Some seemed to think that McCain’s statement, “I’m not Bush, if you wanted to run against Bush you should have run four years ago,” was an important moment during the debate. I suppose some will continue to say so but I thought it was obviously kind of meaningless as it is not something that would have ever happened in the first place, and McCain does represent Bush no matter how much he tries to deny it. When the issue of Ayers came up (the moderator made certain it did) McCain tried to make something of it but failed miserably. Obama merely said the truth of the matter and that was that, McCain dropped it, as did the moderator. It was interesting, however, that while McCain was claiming Obama’s campaign started in Ayers living room, Obama said that was a lie. But it was not pursued. I thought it should have been. If it is indeed a lie, and McCain/Palin have been repeating it endlessly, Obama should have been allowed to dispel it. Anyway, the accusation went nowhere. The questions I thought were good ones for the most part, but they were never pursued in detail which would have helped the viewer a lot more than they did. I thought this was especially true on the subjects of health care and energy. McCain, for example, said we need 45 more nuclear power plants. Neither the moderator or Obama remarked on this which might have been devastating given the controversy over the cost of such plants, the enormous sums of public money that would have to be spent on them (as the private sector refuses to fund them), and the incredible dangers they pose (which McCain dismissed very cavalierly as not a problem). Obama didn’t even mention nuclear energy (I don’t know if he deliberately ignored this or not). In any case nuclear power is an extremely controversial issue that McCain treated as if it were not much more than building a service station. If any minds were changed I would guess they were changed in favor of Obama. The one big mistake of the evening was made by McCain, when Obama was talking about abortions and the life of the mother. McCain basically just made light of the woman’s health issue, indicating that the pro-choice crowd always talked about the life of the mother which, he said, could mean anything. I don’t think making light of women’s health is going to endear him to most American women. As McCain’s reputation on women’s issues is not very strong to begin with, this terrible faux pas will certainly not help. Similarly, McCain sticks to his support of Palin, even though she is clearly dragging down the ticket. He seems to think everyone likes her, especially women. He obviously is confusing the right-wing base with the rest of the world and is apparently not much in touch with reality on this matter. I wonder if he really believes what he says about her or if he feels he has not other option now. Anyway, all the debates are mercifully over, there are only a few days left until the election, and then, glory be, it will all be over (at least momentarily as the next campaigns won’t start until the day after the swearing in ceremony).

I voted early today. I told everyone I voted for McCain. I explained that after listening to the McCain/Palin supporters I finally understood what was actually happening: Barack Hussein Obama is actually a distant cousin of Osama bin Laden. Thus he is both an Arab and a Muslim. He is here under a fake birth certificate in an attempt to take over our country, in collusion with those black helicopters that are coming in from Canada to steal our lawn chairs. The lawn chairs are going to be traded to Bolivia and Venezuela for cocoa leaves that will then be processed into cocaine and sold to black people in Los Angeles and other places, which will encourage them to vote for Obama. Once in power Obama plans to take away everyone’s guns, thus making us helpless against the crazed Muslim hordes that are waiting offshore in their armada to invade. Obama’s father, although born in Kenya, was not really a Kenyan. He was a descendent of the great Prestor John, who was himself a secret Muslim who lured Europeans to Africa under false pretenses and then fed them to his armies of giant black Amazons. Osama bin Laden is in charge of the heroine traffic from Afghanistan, but Barack Hussein Obama wants to also control the cocaine trade so he can afford his harem of beautiful white slave women. I know it’s complicated but it makes perfect sense (if, that is, you are a right-wing lunatic who lusts after Sarah the moose-eating barracuda).

LKBIQ:
“An immense river of oblivion is sweeping us away into a nameless abyss.”
Ernest Renan