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This Tuesday’s second presidential debate marked only another opportunity for the candidates to throw mud and taunts at each other. I find that John McCain was more inclined to take a stab at Barack Obama rather than answer the question posed, or at least answer it clearly.
Like every debate thus far there were statistics taken out of context, accusations that were not fully true and the debate lacked an essential element; I did not find it that informative.
It would appear that John McCain is trying way too hard to appeal to the American voter; his American-isms littered the air with an emotional stimulus rather than an intellectual response.
McCain has employed “cronies” into his outstanding vocabulary and this term is almost as passé as this gentlemen himself. He uses cronies to describe the Obama campaign and how it is the “second-highest recipient of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac money in history.”
First, campaign contributions cannot come from companies. Second, what McCain doesn’t tell you is that he too has received money - $21,550- from “Fannie and Freddie [employees].” For those that are more interested in the numbers: this accounts for .03 percent of Obama’s total campaign fundraising efforts.
The financial crisis was, with just cause, a major proponent in what little debating occurred. McCain pointed the finger at Obama and “his cronies” for the loans that were distributed to homeowners that couldn’t afford the payments. This is also not fractionally true.
What really started all of this happened back in ’92, most of the problems we are dealing with today stem from President Clinton. He urged Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to give those loans to banks and mortgage lenders, and to give them with adjustable interest; this way they could pay less now and this way the American people could get back on their feet.
The result was the financial crisis we are all facing now.
In the name of all things holy if McCain says that Obama “voted to raise taxes 94 times” I will personally call his campaign office every day until Election Day, November 4, and correct them on this statement. Obama mainly voted for tax rate raises for people making over $1 million (11 votes), and a large chunk of the votes (53 votes) came from non-binding (as in they will expire in due time) budget lines. Lastly, 23 of these so-called votes against tax breaks ultimately had no bearing on tax increases at all.
This is a prime example of McCain’s ignorance, or ability to completely turn around a conversation. Ultimately this left Obama with little time to defend himself against the multitude of attacks launched by McCain and adequately answer the question posed.
McCain in his infinite wisdom decided to mislead the American public by misquoting Obama’s health care plan, and he even added some more appeal to his plan by doubling the numbers. McCain said in the debate that his plan calls for “every American to get a $5,000 tax credit.”
Unfortunately this is not the case, McCain’s plan involves a $2,500 tax credit for each citizen, and the $5,000 figure would be for married couples. As for the middle class, the overall tax proposal by John McCain would actually indebt each middle class citizen by around $700.
The second question of the public forum came from a gentleman named “Oliver.” McCain said, “Alan, I bet you have never heard of [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] before this crisis.”
So in effect, McCain has insulted the intelligence of a constituent and tried so hard to identify himself with Oliver, but failed in the long run; maybe it was the Alzheimer’s kicking in.
One of the most politically incorrect and factually incorrect statements that John McCain made during the debate was when he said that he “stood up to President Reagan, [his] hero” and told him that sending Marines into the peacekeeping effort in Lebanon would do nothing.
I can believe John McCain would have done this, but he wasn’t elected into the Senate yet. Three months after he “stood up to his hero” McCain would be elected to the Senate. It’s ok though, because we all know that the Maverick would have stood up and said something, but then he was like you and I and didn’t have a real voice.
To conclude this needed clarification for McCain’s proposals and outlandishly incorrect statements, I’ll focus on the closing statements. A well posed question by Tom Brokaw would end this debate, “What don’t you know and how will you learn it?” John McCain graciously said, “What I don’t know is what all of us don’t know.” The pomposity of John McCain leads me to find him not on “our” level; he comes off as the traditional politician that is only out to make himself look better.
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