Tonight I was at one of my many doctor’s appointments which was pretty typical. The appointment was for 4:45 and the doctor entered the room almost an hour later. Now, I don’t want to leave the wrong impression. This doctor has been a godsend to me. I gladly wait, because the reason you wait is because he genuinely cares about his patients and he takes the time necessary to treat them. As I wait for him I know that somebody else is getting everything they need without regard for what time it is. I also know that I will get his full attention when he is in the room with me and I greatly admire him for that. Additionally, I know that when he “fixes” something he does it expertly and just as I try to treat each student in my class according to their needs, he does the same thing. Considering I have had situations where a doctor was casual and careless, this is more re-assuring to me than I can put into words. I only bring this up because the result of my leaving his office after 6:00 tonight was that I listened to the vice-presidential debate in my car instead of watching it.

Listening to the debate really made it more interesting, I believe. I could only imagine the body language of the participants based on the tone of their answers. Prior to the debate, I had read in several sources that it would be a mistake for the democrats to underestimate Sarah Palin. As I think back to what I heard, several thoughts come to mind. First, it really sounded as if the moderator was a bit frustrated by the debators unwillingness to directly address the questions. Also, it seemed like the debators must have had some idea of what the questions would be because almost all of the answers from both of them seemed a bit too “canned.” Finally, my sense was that the republicans would be shouting for joy because Palin did not seem to make obvious blunders, as have been evident in the couple of interviews she’s submitted to prior to this evening’s event. What will be interesting will be how the answers are debunked post debate and whether or not a vice presidential debate actually means anything anyway.

I have heard reports, again from multiple sources, that McCain has exhibited stroke like symptoms on at least one and maybe more occasions of late. Of course, it that is true then it makes Palin’s responses that much more important. One thing I noticed was that she seemed to want to answer most of the questions posed to her while I was driving with answers relating to energy. She seems to be portraying herself as an expert on energy, doing this while expousing McCain’s energy policy that he put forth in the Saddleback interview; drill, drill, drill! I find it interesting that the public must have fallen for that one because the dems have pretty much caved on the issue – tonight Biden said something like, “of course, drilling is important.” Following that up with what I’ve found to be the consensus folly of that argument that any drilling will produce results in a minimum of ten years and the amount of oil will go onto the world market and hardly make a dent in what we are paying at the pump. Of course, if we fall for the drill, drill, drill approach that will just put off our transition to “clean” energy that much more. It would be refreshing to me to hear someone say Bull S#@* to that approach without worrying how many votes it will cost. Just call it what it is.

I really wasn’t that impressed with Biden’s debating prowess when he was running for president in the early primary season, and he did nothing tonight to make me feel any different. He had the opportunity to look into the cameras and say to the American people that McCain has supported Bush 90% of the time and look at where that has gotten us. Depite their rhetoric of being “change agents” their election to the White House will guarantee more of the same irresponsible economic policy and virtually isolate us from the rest of the world – which is watching this election closely. There is a plethora of evidence that if McCain wins this election our economic standing in the world is in serious danger. That is not to say that significant change must be made should Obama win, but he will get a period of grace that the European countries, the Asian countries, and the Middle Eastern countries won’t give to McCain. The dollar is in jeopardy as the world’s exchange currency. Now, I don’t profess to be an economist, but the things I’ve read about what will be the result of the Euro taking the place of the dollar is a bit sobering.

One way or the other, we are in for change. The idea that we can just go on borrowing our way out of every crisis has finally reached the dead end road. Palin continued the republican mantra of tax breaks for the upper echelon of Americans as “vital” to our economy and therefore to our national security, and I was totally disappointed that Biden had no significant rebuttal to that ridiculous claim. If we can’t convince Americans that the “trickle down” philosophy is empty at this point, then we aren’t very good debators. Recently, I’ve even talked to several republicans who are fed up and are going to vote for Obama. It was almost like Biden didn’t want to offend anyone. We not only need to offend some people, we need to hold them accountable.

Also, so far in the the campaign and also in this debate, I’m not hearing much as to the importance of restoring our constitution and holding those who have violated it responsible for their actions. Now, I didn’t hear the entire debate tonight, but it would have been refreshing to hear the two candidates positions on torture and whether or not Bush administration officials should be investigated for violating the Genevea conventions, I didn’t hear anything about the violations of the FISA bill. Would Palin support criminal prosecution of anyone found violating American’s right of privacy under that law. Should the politicization of the justice department be investigated and should members of the executive branch be allowed to ignore supeonas? I would have liked to hear why Palin encouraged members of her own staff, including her husband, to ignore supeonas in Alaska. It would be interesting to hear her legal justification for such actions – she would probably answer by going into a diatribe about how she is an expert on energy.

After listening to this debate I have to say that I hope neither of these two politicians ever become president. The stark reality is that Palin would be the most likely to be put in that spot should McCain prevail in November. I hope Americans think their vote through clearly prior to casting it. Tonight, probably the main thrust of Palin’s performance was a continual kind of dumbing down of her rhetoric, I suppose with the idea to appeal to the people she referred to as “Joe Sixpack.” She sounded about as far from “Presidential” as I can imagine someone in that position could sound. The thought of Sarah Palin as MY PRESIDENT makes my stomach quiver. It’s not really her fault – even though she is obviously overly-ambitious – McCain picked her. McCain is gambling that the American public and especially American women are stupid. I sincerely hope that John McCain loses his gamble!