Political Pool

Whose ready to jump in? This blog is more or less about my political thoughts and impressions of the first debate etc. I know it's a few days late but oh well.

First, as the camera focused on the stage and then moderator Leher (who I really dig by the way) I have to admit I got butterflies in my stomach. Is this the sign of a true dork? Most probably. We recently watched a space balls cartoon of a clone army and when the engineer typed in the words "dark army" he made a typo and entered "dork army." You should have seen the clones. I was one of them I'm sure.

Second, I was irked that the candidates didn't follow the moderators advice to "talk to eachother." This seems to be the problem these days. Blame blame blame and talk about the past without talking to eachother about how to fix the problems.

Third, I'm totally a respect kind of gal. I admit to being annoyed when I hear kids call adults by their first names. I respect every parent's right to decide how to teach their children how to address adults so I never correct them when they call me Jen but yes I get a twinge of annoyance. So on that note I have to say that I felt Obama should have addressed McCain as "McCain" or senator or other title. Not by "John" and especially not by John because McCain was addressing him as Obama or Senator Obama. My thoughts are to always use a title when speaking to an elder or at least mirror the way you are being spoken to. And yes, Carter has been taught to say Mrs., Sister., Aunt so and so or whatever title applies (so and so's mommy counts as a title too) :-)

Fourth, McCain obviously doesn't understand health care. Probably because he is a veteran and so he had coverage and didn't ever have to worry about going without insurance. His $5,000 rebate for families to use for health care is nothing. Mainly because money cannot buy you insurance if you have a pre-existing condition. If you get denied you can offer all the money in the bank and you still will be declined insurance. Trust me, I know on that one. Matt, Carter, and I were all declined coverage when we applied for insurance (me because of my arthritis, matt because he was born with 1 kidney, and carter because of his asthma). There needs to be a baseline coverage for everyone. Have more money then go ahead and buy extras but I firmly believe that we should all have a basic health care plan. Besides, it will save us money overall if people get preventative medicine then if they don't get care and wind up having a catastrophic illness that medicaid ends up having to cough up for.

Fifth, I thought Obama let himself get pushed around and I don't like that. I want a president who will go toe to toe and I just didn't get that impression. I specifically didn't like how immature he came across on the whole Iran issue.

I was particulary irked when I watched the after the debate coverage. I watch CNN which said Obama clearly won. I switched over to Fox which said that it was obvious that McCain had won. Isn't there anyone who is willing to go issue by issue and be fair about which candidate did better on particular issues? I feel like the people who were decided on Obama heard what they wanted to hear and likewise for McCain voters. What ever happened to unbiased analysis?

I'm so mad at our congress right now after seeing our stock market plunge 777 points today and those yahoos pointing fingers back and forth. Yes Pelosi should NOT have gotten on her soap box right before the vote and said inflammatory things that she had to have known were going to antagonize the republicans who were already voting for something that they are inherintly against. It was a completely stupid thing to do and I have to wonder if she did it just to have the vote fail so she could once again blame the republicans. Then again, the republicans should have done what they needed to do despite the inflammatory speech. If you don't agree with her then take your supposed high road then. I hate the idea of the bail out but I also hate the idea of a depression. Choose your poison. I'd rather have the bail out than have people with wheelbarrows full of devalued dollars in line for bread. It sucks but all we can do it move forward and put legislation in place to prevent this fiasco from repeating itself. Even then we could be so far gone that in 2 months we are in the same position and needing to bail out more companies. I think I understand the risks. But I think the bail out is our only viable option at this point. I'm open to entertaining others though! I'm digusted with both parties and yes I'm still undecided. The only thing I know is that I'm already excited about Thursdays debate. I'll be the dork on the sofa with my bowl of popcorn and the butterflies in her stomach.