Debate the III

(This video is Obama's actual conversation with Joe the Plumber. I only wish it included Joe's response! Did Obama's explanation convince him? Did he think it was BS? I'm sure they'll hunt this guy down and find out ... if they haven't already. UPDATE: From CNN.com: Although Wurzelbacher wouldn't say who he is voting for, he did say that Obama's tax plan doesn't sit well with him.

"Redistributing the wealth, as far as my hard work, that upsets me," he said. "That's not right. That's not American." )

An unofficial poll of my facebook friends status messages showed that the numbers were significantly down for this debate. I'd say for the first debate, 80% of the messages had something to do with the election. Last night, I'd say maybe 10%.

What does this mean? Probably nothing, it's facebook statuses for goodness sake, but if I were to count them as a legitimate indicator of what my friends are thinking, I would say it means alot of them: 1. Didn't watch the debate or 2. Have made up their minds so they feel no need to comment further.

I do have a status lingering this morning from a facebook friend that says, "Finally! John McCain won a debate!" I don't know if this person is a supporter or not, but to that I say, 

"Que?"

The CNN.com poll (with 400,000 votes) has Obama winning 72% to McCain's 22%. Now you could argue CNN is a more liberal outfit, but a quick google news search confirms much of the same, even if by a smaller margin (50-30 and so on). Even the Boston Herald has Obama at a whopping 80%.

Meanwhile, in the Werschaible household there was a lot of exasperation ... towards McCain. A lot of "Is he serious?" and "Why is he yelling" and "What is that THING on the side of his face, and is it growing?!?!?!"

The last thought is a low-blow and it surely wouldn't have any impact on my vote (but side note: don't Michelle and Obama, when they were up on stage hugging each other, just look more AMERICAN than John and Cindy McCain? I feel the strong family love there, the middle class roots. Meanwhile, Cindy McCain is on the Michael Jackson skin tone plan and I'm afraid if the two touch each other, they'll crumble.)

But again, looks are not important! (Ha!)

The issues: I felt like McCain was directly lying into the camera about Obama's policies. I get this tax break scenario and it doesn't mean Obama wants to raise "your" taxes. My taxes will be cut, something like $1000 compared to McCain's plan of about $300. That sounds good to me!

Heath care: I was wavering a bit last night, pointing out to Jeff that I don't pay anywhere NEAR $12,000 a year for my heath coverage, and I pay it all out of pocket. So was the McCain tax credit really that awful for someone in my position (even though I'll jump on Jeff's insurance in a year when we get married)? Jeff pointed out (duh) that I pay so little because I'm young. Right. $5000 isn't going to cut it for those out of my age bracket.

Joe the Plumber: Again, like I said during the VP debates ... this is insulting. I am not Joe the plumber, in fact, why are all these idiot analogies focused on the middle class man? Maybe I'm reading into it a little much but aside from the Lilly Ledbetter example, I didn't feel like we spoke AT ALL about women's issues. And maybe you don't feel like women's issues should be a focus. But if we're talking about children, and we're talking about Joe the Plumber and Joe Six pack, shouldn't the equal pay issue be a little more in focus?!

Sure, Roe v. Wade is a women's issue. One that both candidates only feigned passion for. I could feel it on both sides that this was a "this is what we have to say issue" as opposed to a "this is what we really believe" issue. And maybe this is a good thing, maybe the government is slowly realizing women don't like it that much when men decide what they can do with their bodies. And since I still can't really decide where I fall, I'll leave this at that.

Affordable college education: This seems like one of those issues that comes up as "yeah, we DEFINITELY need to do something about this," but no one has a specific plan. This is a HUGE issue in my life. If you were to combine the college loan debt Jeff and I had, you could buy a house! They touched on it, I heard something about "in-state schools" which would have done me a whole lot of good. 

Other thoughts:

• CBS' Bob Schieffer did an AMAZING job with this debate. AMAZING. As disturbing as it was to once again watch three white men take the reigns AGAIN (was there not a woman qualified to moderate this debate?), Schieffer asked some fantastic questions that elicited the best responses of the three debates. I was very impressed. He asked a lot of the same questions, but the subtlety was in the phrasing. Kudos to him.
• Was it just me or was McCain playing the world's smallest violin on the rally stuff? Get over it, like Obama said, campaigns are tough. I won't argue that there are probably some not so nice things said about McCain along the way, but it was at least equally awful for Obama. Get over it. I didn't feel bad for you at all, and I think you made yourself look stupid.
• I was glad Obama got the William Ayers thing explained and, to me, squashed. I was more than satisfied with his answer.

My mom, an undecided voter, made a great point last night: "The qualities I used to admire in McCain aren't qualities I've seen him display recently."

One year ago, you probably would have found me saying something like "McCain wouldn't be that bad, he'd be WAY better than George Bush." McCain is a war hero, someone who does go against party lines, someone I honestly believe is a good person and four years ago he would have been a welcome change to Bush.

But I just can't vote for him. This country needs a uniter. Someone who is eloquent and poised. Someone who represents CHANGE with such an exclamation point! from his issues to his skin color. I'm ready to completely shake off the last eight years. I don't want marginal change and a slightly better guy. And I don't want THAT WOMAN a heartbeat from the White House.

I'm ready to vote.