US Vice-Presidential Debate … I know who I thought won…
Well, I just watched the Vice-Presidential debate. As far as I’m concerned this debate goes to Biden. (And I don’t he like him as a candidate — and you know that if you’ve read my earlier political rants.)
While Palin did much better than I expected after the disastrous interview with Katie Couric — at least she was coherent. Palin consistently didn’t answer the question that was asked. She gave pretty standard blah-blah-great to be an American-blah-blah answers that were obviously prepared and rehearsed. How do I know that? Because when she got thrown by a question she pretty much just threw out the usual catch phrases or turned and did more on energy.
Biden on the other hand, consistently countered with “facts” — you know those things that can be check. He listed what the Obama/Biden ticket planned to do on each of the major issues. He continually corrected misinformation delivered by Palin that has been corrected over and over and over and yet still the Republicans keep throwing it out there. (Check the Facts on CNN on statements made.)
Biden also made it clear that a vote for McCain/Palin is a vote to continue the Bush policies that have gotten this country in so many problems for another four years. Biden also continually set the record straight on the “fact” that McCain, as much as he wants to play himself as a maverick, has consistently supported and voted for Bush’s policies. That is not a maverick — that’s a team player. Voting for McCain is a vote to continue doing what we’ve been doing for the last 8 years. I don’t think there’s an American alive that thinks they’re better off now than they were eight years ago — unless they’re rich and/or own a big corporation.
Biden also, and to my mind finally, stood up and explained how McCain’s $5,000 health tax credit and taxing of the health benefit paid by your employer — is going to be a huge tax increase for the lower and middle class that have health benefits. This has been needed to be said for quite a while and I think he did it clearly and concisely. I’m hoping people got it this time.
Overall, Biden dealt with facts, plans, and specifics. Palin simply said those things that make us feel good. She’s the Republican cheerleader. This country doesn’t need to feel good. It needs to get the work done to bring up back up to the the strong nation that we once were.
In case no one is paying attention, let me point out something I’ve noticed over my lifetime. Every time we have a Republican President our economy takes a nose dive (usually not as drastic as the current one) and the deficit rises alarmingly. Then we change to a Democratic President and the economy stabilizes and usually starts getting stronger. Then people go back to the Republican’s who promise that if we take off oversight and reduce regulation then everything will be even better and those darn Democrats only want to give things away and tax people. So, the parties change again and down we go on the economic slide.
This nation can’t afford four more years of these policies that are destroying this nation. We need a change. I think that Obama/Biden are our best chance to regain some of the ground we’ve lost. They are the party of change. Don’t listen to the feel good speeches of the Republicans, look around you, look at what they want to do, check with the CNN fact check area, check other independent and non-biased fact checking sites on the web (you’ll be surprised at what you find).
This is going to be the most important election we’ve ever had because if we don’t act to fix our problems and have a president who will actually make the hard decision so that this country can move forward, we’re going to go down into economic chaos and ignominy. I want my country back. I want to live in the America that was a beacon — and continuing the current administrations polices is NOT going to get us there.
Why is the image of the DVD cover for Canadian Bacon? If you haven’t seen the film, it’s a hilarious (and very scary film). The basic plot is the cold war is over. Jobs in the military sector are being lost and the economy is having problems. So, to fix the problem — the President and his cabinet decide they need to have an enemy to get people’s fear levels up and fuel the military sector and the economy. The Russians refuse to be the bad guys so they decide on Canada. Check it out. It used to be just funny — now, with the current administration’s perchance to raising the population’s fear levels — it’s kind of scary (and a bit predictive). Watch it, it’s a good film with lots of great actors (most of them Canadian).