Final Presidential Debate is now over….
I just finished watching the third and final presidential debate. As far as I’m concerned Obama won it again. It seems, based on the early polling, that most of the people who watched thought Obama won also. He won overall and then on several of the other questions they asked.
It was clear throughout that Obama was calm, cool, collected and very presidential. He didn’t get rattled even when McCain attacked him. Obama even took the high ground when asked if he thought Palin was qualified to be President — unlike McCain who attacked Biden as being unqualified to be President.
For those of you who didn’t watch the debate, parts of it or even all of the debate will probably be up on YouTube very soon. One of the things that I notice listening to the pundits after the debate is how our personal filters affect what we see and hear. It seems that unless a candidate says what you want them to, then they didn’t say anything substantive — this isn’t really a party thing but a people thing. I’m sure I’m as guilty as the next person of allowing my filters to affect what I hear and see. Some people said Obama was aloof and cold while McCain was open with his thoughts on his face, then some said McCain seemed ill-at-ease, tense, or at times angry while Obama was calm and collected. Each viewer needs to decide for themselves what they saw. I understand that some stations didn’t show the split screens so that you could see both candidates — watching the one answering the question and the other reacting to what was said. To me that was the key in this debate–watching the reactions of the candidates to each other.
Now, while the debates didn’t change my vote — it did confirm that I’d made the right choice. We get to vote on November 4th. I hope every citizen of this country will take their citizenship seriously and vote in the election. Democracies are only as good as the people who make it up and the responsibility they take to fulfill their part of the bargain. We need to serious consider the candidates and decide who will be best, not for the short term or for our party but for America right now. This country is in dire straits and we need a leader who can help us solve these problems and set us up for the future. For me, that’s Obama because I don’t believe we can stand four more years of the policies that have gotten us into the morass of economic problems we currently face. We need change, and frankly — while he talks of being a maverick, I haven’t heard McCain say one thing that he would do differently than what is being done now.
The image at the top of the post — Independence Day. A great science fiction movie where aliens invade the Earth and the US helps to coordinate an attack that save us. The President (Bill Pullman) in that movie faces some hard decisions and realizes that he’s made some mistakes. Even thought the country is being destroyed, he keeps his values and moral compass and tries to rectify his errors and do what’s best for all the citizens and the world. The speech before the big battle is very emotional and stays with you. So if you haven’t seen it — take a look. Amazingly enough Hollywood has given us some strong presidential role models (along with the ones I hope never to see in real life).