I was jotting notes during the debate. Thought I'd share. I am starting to hate debates ... because they're not. They're fakey, false set up events designed to flatter the moderator and suppress the electorate. I don't think Americans could handle the kind of dialogue in which Lincoln and Douglas engaged. What pantywaists we are.
- Brokaw sucks; what a jackass - thinks his little moderator post gives him the right to determine the scope of the conversation; clock-watching asswipe that he is. His corrective comments seem always to follow Obama's answers -- I think his bias is real and apparent. Could this be his last gig, please? Maybe he and Gramps McCain can open a little greatest generation crashed airplanes museum or something.
- Town hall? By what stretch of the imagination? More like a mausoleum. Might as well have had cardboard cutouts in those chairs. Just another way that the system forces us to feel fricking non-existent. Forces us to behave like good little children and not respond. Forces us to listen and not speak. This is the attitude they have inculcated in us so that we will stomach illegal wars that kill our kids and other people's kids, so that we will acquiesce when our money is given to Wall Street crooks and high rollers and other inventors of fake value and Ponzi schemes, so that we will nod numbly when we are told we must be eavesdropped upon, surveilled, and hounded at every opportunity. Brokaw makes it obvious that he thinks he is a member of the "important class" of people -- he takes as much time for his own prattle as he likes. Will our next president make decisions based on Brokaw's minute long periods? You would think so watching Brokaw chafe when Obama rightly demands time to answer McCain's lies.
- McCain lies. Like a rug. Incessantly. Like gumballs tumbling from a broken machine. He has so much disrespect for the American people and for the concept of truth that he will say anything (and conversely, omit anything) that helps him get closer to that oval office. Watching him spew falsehood after falsehood with no compunction whatsoever makes me certain that there is no more dangerous person right now than John McCain. McCain has some psychological problems. He obviously needs to win to satisfy something lacking in himself. On the other hand, Obama seems to want to win to lead this country to a different place. McCain the hot dogger airplace pilot and crasher of jets, the lackluster student, the hothead asshole, the ... well, one fears just how many wars he might get us into if left to his own devices.
- Obama is smart. That's only the half of what I love about his presentation tonight. Here is a guy who respects the American people enough to try to explain why John "Mr. Deregulate" McCain's interstate health care scheme does not serve people's interests. He mentions the credit card company haven of Delaware as example. He is willing not only to lead, but to teach. Damn, we need this kind of president right now. McCain, conversely, is a sleezebag of misinformation.
- If I hear "my friends" or "in harm's way" again during this election cycle, I will shoot myself. "Maverick" also. Oh, and also "also" [from you-know-who]. Someone who says "my friends" all the time probably has very few.
- McCain is scary. Let's see what he has in store for us: more wars, more deregulation, more health care company rape and robbery, more stupid discussions of earmarks that he will gladly pass on as president. Let's add nuclear power -- managed by Halliburton? -- and let's hope we're not all nuked inside of 24 months. Plus, drill. Everywhere. Move your wheel barrow and that lilac tree -- your yard may be next. And don't forget, we are all Georgians now. Can't have a retro presidency without a little Russia hate. Boy, there was no war like the Cold War -- a perfect Republican war that produced hefty profits for GOP hacks without the daily sting of actual deaths to create bad public relations.
- Anxious to see audience reaction feedback. Obama has a calming effect. McCain makes me feel nervous, edgy, afraid. Fear, fear, fear. McCain elicits a visceral reaction in me that screams "get away from this guy -- he's gonna start a fight and leave you to take the punches."
- Last question from the internet -- from, says Brokaw, "a state you're both strongly contesting - Massachusetts." Really? Massachusetts? Brokaw, you suck, you thin-lipped, thin-skinned bastard.
- McCain closing. He feels our pain. It is so hard to hear he "knows what it's like" from a guy who owns multiple homes and cars, and has sucked off the government teat for decades. When he has cancer, he gets free treatment. When I get it, I will die.
- Did I mention that Brokaw sucks?