More on last nights debates

As you probably gathered from last nights post I was so unimpressed with the debate that I had time to begin surfing pictures of Bollywood actresses, but there were a few things that struck me.

1. McCain was trying to hard to drive points home and get digs in.
2. Obama doesn't really know what he is talking about on either foreign policy or the economy, but he is a smooth enough talker that he sounds like he does. That is what carried the economic portion of the debate for him.
3. McCain's health care plan is a loser. He needs to scrap it now in light of the recent Chamber of Commerce report and come up with a new one. The easiest change in my mind would be to scrap the plan to tax employee health benefits and to make health care costs fully deductible on your taxes. Obama's plan isn't any better - Even the Dems on the Fox News panel last night admitted that the Massachusetts plan it is based on has been a budget buster.
4. Obama has a habit of inflating his importance when it comes to government policy. Last night he claimed to have warned about a Russian invasion of Georgia in a statement he released in April of this year. That didn't sound quite right so i went and looked it up. Here is what he said:

Ukraine and Georgia have also been developing their ties with NATO. Their leaders have declared their readiness to advance a NATO Membership Action Plan, MAP, to prepare for the rights and obligations of membership. They are working to consolidate democratic reforms and to undertake new responsibilities in their relationship with the Alliance. I welcome the desire and actions of these countries to seek closer ties with NATO and hope that NATO responds favorably to their request, consistent with its criteria for membership. Whether Ukraine and Georgia ultimately join NATO will be a decision for the members of the alliance and the citizens of those countries, after a period of open and democratic debate. But they should receive our help and encouragement as they continue to develop ties to Atlantic and European institutions.

"NATO enlargement is not directed against Russia. Russia has an important role to play in European and global affairs and should see NATO as a partner, not as a threat. But we should oppose any efforts by the Russian government to intimidate its neighbors or control their foreign policies. Russia cannot have a veto over which countries join the alliance. Since the end of the Cold War, Republican and Democratic administrations have supported the independence and sovereignty of all the states of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and we must continue to do so. President Putin recent threat to point missiles at Ukraine is simply not the way to promote the peaceful 21st century Europe we seek.

Hardly the prescient moment he claimed.
5. McCain missed a few golden oppurtunities to reach over and pull out Obama's heart and eat it. Mostly on Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac stuff, but also one on Afghanistan - Tom Brokaw (the moderator) asked:

The senior British military commander, who is now leading there for a second tour, and their senior diplomatic presence there, Sherard Cowper-Coles, who is well known as an expert in the area, both have said that we're failing in Afghanistan.

The commander said we cannot win there. We've got to get it down to a low level insurgency, let the Afghans take it over. Cowper-Coles said what we need is an acceptable dictator.

To which Obama replied:

I'll be very brief. We are going to have to make the Iraqi government start taking more responsibility, withdraw our troops in a responsible way over time, because we're going to have to put some additional troops in Afghanistan.

Gen. [David] McKiernan, the commander in Afghanistan right now, is desperate for more help, because our bases and outposts are now targets for more aggressive Afghan -- Taliban offenses.

We're also going to have to work with the Karzai government, and when I met with President Karzai, I was very clear that, "You are going to have to do better by your people in order for us to gain the popular support that's necessary."

I don't think he has to be a dictator. And we want a democracy in Afghanistan. But we have to have a government that is responsive to the Afghan people, and, frankly, it's just not responsive right now.

At that point McCain should have come back with "Well the brits said the same thing about Iraq and look at it now. We have turned the corner and are winning. Gen. Petraeus, who engineered that turn around, has just taken over a position of responsibility, where he has the command and will really set the tone for the strategy and tactics that are used."
6. McCain's suggestion to buy mortgages and renegotiate will probably end up being very popular but expect Obama to claim credit for the idea soon. (The McCain camp credits Hillary Clinton with the original idea)