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Presidential Debates 2008
Presidential debates and the Vice Presidential debate. Barack Obama & Joe Biden; John McCain and Sarah Palin debate the issues of our time. Do they really understand the realities of sustainable environment, renewable energy? What about the feasability of an ecnomic system based on growth in a limited system? What about the effects of the boomer bubble on the healthcare and social security system. Performance based education? National Security? Who is willing to say what we don't want to hear about what needs to be done? That is where the integrity is.
The 2008 US Presidential Debates
The 2008 Presidential debates are collected below. We encourage all voters to listen carefully to what these candidates are saying and work to understand the meaning behind the words.
All voters need to try to reduce their own bias and interpret realistically the core meaning of the positions of our candidates. It is difficult to drop ones bias but that is our challenge. The issues at hand are too important for us to allow our own bias to overly influence our decisions. In other words, we must question out own preconceived notions and think beyond individual bias and group think. What will really work in the long run?
Think long term. Realize that short term, or election cycle thinking, will hurt us all in the end. Think about the sustainability of our nation, it's economic system, energy, health rather than healthcare, responsibility, earning ones way rather than entitlement, of the rich, or the poor. America needs to get back to work.
We have legislated corruption in to the system to favor corporations rather than communities, profit rather than value, standard of living rather than quality of life. If you want to know where values went, they were forfeited for the sake of undue, unearned profits by the overreach of CEO's and politicians that were caught up in the bubble of short term thinking
Which candidate is more willing to make tough decisions that we may not like, but may be necessary? Which candidate is willing to say, not what makes us feel good, but what is needed in order to address the long term problems of energy, environment, education, economy, healthcare and security? Which candidate has the vision and the strength to get us on a better path, not just the feel good path that will lead to larger problems later?
We must not pretend there are easy answers anymore. We need to get real, and we need to get real fast.
The 2008 Presidential Debates
First Presidential Debate
Second Presidential Debate
Third Presidential Debate
Vice Presidential Debate
Truthiness? And other thoughts...
These debates tell me nothing about either ticket because all four of them might as well have walked on stage with "PHONY" written on their foreheads. It's the standard act of politicians to promise a national audience far more than they can dream of realistically providing. I cannot stomach the blatant pandering and lies from the four (no more than I can take another "You betcha!" or reference to a certain pipefitter from Ohio whose name rhymes with Blow), but he (or she) who panders best wins, unfortunately.
Taking the word of the candidates in these debates at face value, I would give the edge to Obama-Biden; both of them appeared more poised and professional than their counterparts who looked contrived (McCain) or overwhelmed (Palin). Obama's proposals sound organized and cohesive when contrasted to the melange of ideas espoused by McCain, et. al.
- However, when you sit down and wonder how Obama plans to actually ENACT any of these
- with even a shred of success (with a Democratic supermajority looming in 2009, Obama will be a de facto dictator whose will shall be done by an obedient legislature) -- McCain appears to be the person who America needs right now more than we would really like to admit. His platform has several black marks in my book: pro-life (or more specifically anti-choice), pro-Iraq War, pro-Bush tax policies. However, the Democrats were the ones to get us into the current economic mess with their policies on expanding home ownership to those with bad credit and enabling shifty loans to transpire, as well as having been responsible in the 20th century for the worst government programs in existence today (Social Security, Medicare/aid, etc.) I feel an Obama presidency will drive us into a deeper recession rather than mitigate the damage already done. Pelosi and her cronies on the Hill care more about scapegoating an easy target (Bush and the GOP) for the recession than for standing up to take the blame and acting swiftly to counter the mistake.
In summary: if I had to choose between the two, specifically based on the debates, McCain. But since I refuse to be shepherded into one of two pre-selected camps, I am most likely voting the Reform Party ticket (Ted Weill-Frank McEnulty).
Performance
I think that all of the candidates did well in presenting themselves, but my biggest problem was the way that they all looked so plastic. In my opinion, Boden was the one who looked the most fluid, but he still wasn't acting"natural" and was visibly uncomfortable.
It also bothers me that McCain and Obama are unable to think in anything other than extremes concerning the economy. Either we create jobs and unjustly tax the rich, or we leave people in a jobless environment and wait for the trickle-down to reach people.