What a waste

I watched the debate. What a farce. What a waste of time. What an incredible bore. After listening to two full days of what it is Obama had to do to win, and what McCain had to do to win, and whether McCain would attack Obama, and whether Obama would attack McCain, and whether the format favored McCain, and on and on, we finally saw the debate itself. Basically a nothing. I am quite certain that no one’s mind was changed, we did not learn anything new about either candidate, and the election status quo was undisturbed by anything of note. It was so uneventful I didn’t even bother to listen to the comments. I think I can pretty much guess what they will be in general. Pat Buchanan and others of that ilk will think McCain won, but a somewhat larger number will think Obama won. Obama will be seen as having been more Presidential, in the sense of being calm and collected in the face of provocation. Not that there was a whole lot of provocation. Some will take McCain to task for not having been more provocative, and especially for avoiding the reality of his having Palin label Obama as a terrorist and such. On the one hand McCain is having his VP candidate play the role of attack dog (which she seems to delight in), but he passed up the opportunity to confront Obama to his face on the subject (probably out of the fear of backlash as his own record on terrorists is much worse than Obama’s lack of any such record). The first part of the debate, on the economy, I thought Obama did better. The next part, on Foreign Affairs, I thought they were both pretty dismal. McCain still talking in his ridiculous fashion about victory and how he knows what it is like to send troops into battle (I wonder what troops he ever sent into battle), and how he knows how to win (I don’t know what war he claims to have won), and the usual nonsense. He kept insisting that Obama wanted to attack Pakistan when he knows full well Obama never suggested any such thing. In fact, I would bet that McCain would be just as likely, if not more likely, to pursue bin Laden into Pakistan if the opportunity presented itself (even though he insists that Obama’s statement to this effect means he wants to invade Pakistan). But they both have the ridiculous idea that somehow we should send more troops to Afghanistan (which is like pouring human life down the drain for no purpose). I thought McCain was somewhat subdued (for McCain). This is probably due to the criticism he has received about having such a short fuse and such.

The questions were themselves not very provocative. Apparently they had been picked by Brokaw out of thousands that had been submitted. Most of them were pretty obvious and the answers were predictable. Only one of them I thought was genuinely stupid and should not, in my opinion, been allowed. This was towards the end, by an ex military man, and had to do with a hypothetical attack on Israel by Iran (what would they do in the even of such an attack). As there is no reason to suspect that Iran will ever attack Israel, and of course if they did both McCain and Obama would have to say they would help Israel, it was a question that would have been better left ignored. But they agreed that Iran should not be permitted to develop a nuclear bomb (which they may or may not be doing) as this would be apparently the end of the world. Again, there is no reason to suppose that would be the case. The Iranians are not stupid, if they did have a bomb they would not rush out and bomb anyone with it, anymore than any other nuclear power would do. Nor would they just hand it over to terrorists anymore than anyone else would. If Iran is developing a bomb you could hardly blame them. Pakistan has one, India has one, Israel has dozens. I think it might be argued that Iran having one might be a good thing as it would bring about a better balance of power in the Middle East. But generally speaking I think it would be better if they didn’t have a bomb. But then I think everyone would be better off if no one else had one either, including the U.S.

Sarah Palin certainly is a pit bull in lipstick. And like many pit bulls she is vicious and out of control. When you incite your audiences to yell “treason,” and “terrorist,” and “kill him,” I think you are going to far with your hate speech. She seems to revel in it. I suggested previously that she might well be part of the reason McCain would lose the election. I still think so. Either she and McCain are too dumb to realize this, or they really believe this kind of sleaze will work. As it doesn’t seem to be working they probably ought to give it up (but then what else would they have to do with no positive record of any kind). If the third debate shapes up to be no better than this one they should just cancel it and save us from any further waste of time.

LKBIQ:
Whoso neglects learning in his youth,Loses the past and is dead for the future.
Euripides