There's a good reason why I'm not running for President. In a nutshell it's because I'm often brutally honest and cannot let a straight line or a chance at irony die. I would be vilified by the press and public alike that I was cruel to the person I was debating.
Case in point below:
John McCain (and I don't have a transcript in front of me so I'm paraphrasing here) basically said through his little ditty about the wristband he was wearing and his promise to the mother of a dead soldier not to let her son's death be in vain, were we not to "win" in Iraq, that the deaths could be viewed as needless.
Immediately it dawned on me that he'd participated in a war that was considered to be a loss, one he himself believes that we pulled out of prematurely. Logic would then dictate that it is his belief that those soldiers in Vietnam died in vain. I would have asked him that. "So John did the soldiers you fought with in Vietnam die in vain because of our military loss and withdrawal?"
I'm not quite sure, had someone asked him to explain that confusing conclusion, that he wouldn't have simply melted back behind his podium or begun flinging pencils at his opponent.
I also would have jumped on his remarks about his efforts after the end of the Vietnam War to reestablish relationships with that country and the relative peace that eventually ensued. I would have asked him why, even with our loss in Vietnam, the country eventually prospered and that what we perceived then as the scourge of communism didn't leave that place worse than we left it. How could a country as horribly divided as Vietnam during the war come together so quickly and become a functioning member of the world only after foreign influences pulled out and why would he believe Iraq wouldn't be able to do the same thing?
Obama did very well tonight and I'm glad I wasn't his debating coach. His style and respect for his opponent are his strengths.
But honestly, weren't there times tonight when you just wanted to jump onstage and say "Barack, can I field this one for you?"