Well, last night I lay shivering on my bed trying to fight back the mother of all colds, downing Chicken Soup and hoping that I'd be feeling better for tonight's epic birthday festivities. And don't worry, I'll be back soon for one of my annual birthday posts where I go all emo and get refelective. But for now I'll withhold the cheesy song lyrics and whatnot and throw in my quick 2 cents on last night's big Presidential Debate:
- Objectively, I thought it was a great debate. While things occasionally got testy, the first head-to-head meeting between Obama and McCain was mostly a sober, well-contested affair that placed the focus on the issues and showed the clear differences between the two candidates in a number of key areas. I give McCain credit - he displayed an energy and persistence, a level of focus, that I haven't often seen from him in debates. However, to me, Obama easily went toe to toe with his more experienced opponent. Especially in the area of foreign policy - Obama hit McCain hard, clearly laying down his case for why he had displayed better judgement when it came to the war in Iraq and how best to deal with allies and adversaries - including North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran. Obama had a clear case of precedent backing up his premise - he pointed to the failure of the Bush administration - the lack of diplomacy, the misguided and mismanaged war in Iraq - and elegantly showed why McCain's policies would in essence lead to more of the same. No matter how much McCain wants to tout the effectiveness of the surge in Iraq, he still never produced a single justification for the war in the first place. In fact, he actually ADMITTED that he had been wrong about taking focus off of Afghanistan and missing the potential opportunity to nail Bin Laden and dismatle Al-Queida. McCain's continual evocations of the Nixon and Reagan eras showed his experience, but also belied an outdated attitude. McCain was so focused on not "losing" the war in Iraq that he never stopped to ponder the wisdom of the war in the first place. I cringed whenever McCain talked about not losing the war as if it were simply a game of football - and Obama had a great counter to that bad logic, when he explained that a soldier is always out to "win" a war and accomplish a mission - but that doesn't reflect on the wisdom of the mission in the first place.
I do think Obama could have hit McCain harder on the economy, but I guess its long been Obama's style to let his opponents defeat themselves in some respects. And the current bail-out plan is not exactly something that either candidate was especially eager to talk about. It's still too early to know exactly what its ramifications will be, and neither wanted to speculate on which parts of their agenda will suffer due to fallout from the current economic crisis. But, I think McCain did look a bit foolish in constantly citing earmarked bills as his big, great item that he intends to reform. Pretty much every politician promises to eliminate earmark spending, but Obama is right - even if you eliminate all earmarks and porkbarrel items - that's still merely putting a bandaid on a gaping wound. The reality is that McCain is still in favor of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and still opposed to universal healthcare, and still has yet to prove that he's committed to saying "screw you" to the big oil companies. So while Obama could have been a bit more relentless in his economic attacks on McCain, I think McCain may have been his own undoing.
Again, I give McCain some credit - he was focused and cunning in the way he went after Obama on certain issues. But Obama was, as usual, cool, collected, and able to deflect a lot of McCain's criticism with relative ease. And it helps that, plain and simply, Obama finds himself in most cases on the right side of the issues. And this debate focused on foreign policy - which is supposedly McCain's biggest area of expertise. When the subject turns to social policy, healthcare, the environment, and technology ... well, McCain may have missed his one big chance to dominate a debate. And as for the upcoming vice-presidential debate ... wow, that's going to be some must-see TV. If Palin's interview with Katie Couric is any indication, Palin is going to be out of her element.
- Finally, I'd like to say RIP to the great Paul Newman. One of the great actors, and the rare Hollywood role model, the world of entertainment has a giant void without the great talents of Mr. Newman. While I've yet to watch some of Newman's best-known films, I look forward to eventually going through his award-winning catalogue. I do know that even in his later years, the man who became an icon with Cool Hand Luke and The Sting was still stealing scenes in movies like Road to Perdition and Cars - movies which made younger fans of my generation a fan. I was lucky enough to see Newman in person on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and I was floored that even in his 80's, Newman challenged Jay to a race around the NBC Studios, where Newman zipped around a custom race-track like he was born to drive. The fact that Newman did so much charitable work with his food products, and was such a solid personality, despite being a Hollywood star, is a testament to his greatness.
- Alright, time for some birthday celebrations~! I'm taking my vitamins, saying my prayers, and ready to kick some ass!
Here's to my last post as a 25 year old. Yikes!
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