Interesting Excerpts from the 2nd Presidential Debate

I prefer to read transcripts of debates - it prevents me from having a merely visceral reaction to the candidates, and more importantly, it gives my now sluggish mind time to identify the merits and demerits of each candidates' ideas. I'm pretty much set on voting Obama, but I'll try to be nonpartisan in my critiques and accolades. So, without further ado, here are some quotes I found noteworthy from the 2nd Presidential debate.

source: Transcript from CNN

QUESTION: With the economy on the downturn and retired and older citizens and workers losing their incomes, what's the fastest, most positive solution to bail these people out of the economic ruin?
McCain: "Now, I have a plan to fix this problem and it has got to do with energy independence. We've got to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don't want us very -- like us very much."
**First off, McCain's plan for energy independence is certainly not the fastest solution to the economic depression. But I won't take off too many points for that one, because Obama's solution was also a long-term one, and it's unfair to ask for quick speedy solution to such a complicated situation. But McCain's 2nd line really caught my eye. Of course, what he meant was the money we spend on purchasing oil from Middle Eastern nations. But couldn't that statement apply just as well to US involvement in Iraq, which costs us hundreds of millions of dollars every single day, and with minimal tangible benefit to the average American? If McCain really doesn't believe in investing money in hostile nations, then why is he still pushing for indefinite US intervention in Iraq?**

QUESTION: Well, Senators, through this economic crisis, most of the people that I know have had a difficult time. And through this bailout package, I was wondering what it is that's going to actually help those people out.
McCain: "...One of the real catalysts, really the match that lit this fire was Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I'll bet you, you may never even have heard of them before this crisis. But you know, they're the ones that, with the encouragement of Sen. Obama and his cronies and his friends in Washington, that went out and made all these risky loans, gave them to people that could never afford to pay back."
**I can't believe McCain used the words cronies, and accused Obama himself of playing some pivotal role in the decisions of financial institutions. Not to mention his own recently exposed history of having his "cronies" profitting from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.**
Obama: "...let me tell you what's in the rescue package for you. Right now, the credit markets are frozen up and what that means, as a practical matter, is that small businesses and some large businesses just can't get loans."
**At the risk of sounding already biased, I'm glad the Obama's opening statements showed that he understood why the hell the government was bailing out us in the first place. As McCain himself admitted, economics is NOT his own strong point.**

QUESTION: "Are you saying to Mr. Clark (ph) and to the other members of the American television audience that the American economy is going to get much worse before it gets better and they ought to be prepared for that?"
Obama: "No, I am confident about the American economy."
**Personally, I think this was a mistake that could come back to bite him later. It very likely is going to get worse before it gets better, and Obama should have just said that.**
McCain: " I think it depends on what we do"
**Again, a more realistic response. I respect that. As McCain said this, Obama was probably kicking himself for pandering to naive optimists."
QUESTION: How can we trust either of you with our money when both parties got -- got us into this global economic crisis?
Obama: "...I think it's important just to remember a little bit of history. When George Bush came into office, we had surpluses. And now we have half-a-trillion-dollar deficit annually. And so while it's true that nobody's completely innocent here, we have had over the last eight years the biggest increases in deficit spending and national debt in our history. And Sen. McCain voted for four out of five of those George Bush budgets."
**Again, just like McCain's "maverick" line, this one is getting old for me from Obama. Yes, we know you think Bush sucks, and you want people to see that you're from the other party and you want change. But I think a more effective tactic would be to just point out McCain's voting record - which does approximate Bush's. After all, Bush is old news, and you two are both campaigning with a motto of change.**
McCain: "Do you know that Sen. Obama has voted for -- is proposing $860 billion of new spending now? New spending. Do you know that he voted for every increase in spending that I saw come across the floor of the United States Senate while we were working to eliminate these pork barrel earmarks?"
**McCain's answer, on the other hand, misses the point. The question does not imply that we should not spend - what matters is where we put our money. And though McCain goes on to claim that he's cut down on spending, he mentions no specific legislation and neglects to mention that he's approved spending Iraq that would overshadow that chump change by billions.**

QUESTION: "As president, what sacrifices -- sacrifices will you ask every American to make to help restore the American dream and to get out of the economic morass that we're now in?"
Obama: "I believe in the need for increased oil production. We're going to have to explore new ways to get more oil, and that includes offshore drilling. It includes telling the oil companies, that currently have 68 million acres that they're not using, that either you use them or you lose them."
**WHAT??! Did Sarah Palin just gain possession of Barack Obama's lips?? How can he say that, and then just a few questions later, say, "So what that means is that we can't simply drill our way out of the problem."??**

QUESTION: [paraphrase] What is your plan for fixing Social Security?
McCain: "Social Security is not that tough. We know what the problems are, my friends, and we know what the fixes are. We've got to sit down together across the table. It's been done before. I saw it done with our -- our wonderful Ronald Reagan."
**Oh really? It's not that tough, we just gotta talk about it? We haven't done that already? And Ronald Reagan is the solution to all our problems? Oh boy. We're in trouble.**

QUESTION: "Do you believe health care should be treated as a commodity?"
**Both politicians gave stereotypical fluffy and dodgy responses to this question, which I thought was a very important one, from a philosophical and policy standpoint. That was unfortunate. However, McCain did say offer this gem of wisdom about the health insurance policies of most Americans: "All of those people will be covered except for those who have these gold-plated Cadillac kinds of policies. You know, like hair transplants, I might need one of those myself." Is he really not aware that the health insurance coverage gaps people are complaining about aren't the hair transplant types? Or that even rudimentary health services can come out to astronomical sums not covered by many insurance companies?**

QUESTION: "Should the United States respect Pakistani sovereignty and not pursue al Qaeda terrorists who maintain bases there, or should we ignore their borders and pursue our enemies like we did in Cambodia during the Vietnam War?"
Obama: "What I've said is we're going to encourage democracy in Pakistan, expand our nonmilitary aid to Pakistan so that they have more of a stake in working with us, but insisting that they go after these militants. And if we have Osama bin Laden in our sights and the Pakistani government is unable or unwilling to take them out, then I think that we have to act and we will take them out. We will kill bin Laden; we will crush Al Qaeda."
McCain: "You know, my hero is a guy named Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy Roosevelt used to say walk softly -- talk softly, but carry a big stick. Sen. Obama likes to talk loudly. In fact, he said he wants to announce that he's going to attack Pakistan. Remarkable... By working and coordinating our efforts together, not threatening to attack [Pakistan], but working with them, and where necessary use force, but talk softly, but carry a big stick."
** First off, McCain totally and deliberately misinterpreted what Obama said. Second, what the hell exactly is carrying a big stick if not using military force to enforce your will?**

QUESTION: "If, despite your best diplomatic efforts, Iran attacks Israel, would you be willing to commit U.S. troops in support and defense of Israel? Or would you wait on approval from the U.N. Security Council?"
McCain: "I want to make sure that we put enough pressure on the Iranians by joining with our allies, imposing significant, tough sanctions to modify their behavior. I think, joining with our allies and friends in a league of democracies, that we can effectively abridge their behavior, and hopefully they would abandon this quest that they are on for nuclear weapons."
Obama: "I believe that we should have direct talks -- not just with our friends, but also with our enemies... When we take that approach, whether it's in North Korea or in Iran, then we have a better chance at better outcomes. When President Bush decided we're not going to talk to Iran, we're not going to talk to North Korea, you know what happened? Iran went from zero centrifuges to develop nuclear weapons to 4,000. North Korea quadrupled its nuclear capability. We've got to try to have talks, understanding that we're not taking military options off the table."
**I never did understand why McCain considers it such a bad thing that Obama wants to talk to hostile leaders without preconditions. We don't have the upper hand here, and everyone except conservative Americans seem to realize that. We don't have the right to be making demands of hostile nations, and as Obama points out, the outcomes have not been good when we've tried that. The "league of democracies" that McCain talks about is impotent and irrelevant to religious fundamentalists, and I certainly can't imagine why it'd compel them to abandon their quest for power.**

For a funnier and possibly more insightful commentary on this debate, I refer you to this facebook post by an acquintance of mine.