Today was another interesting day to say the least. Last weekend I came close to a big mistake. Trying to outthink the greedy Wall Streeters and “jump in” while the market was at the bottom, I almost switched a significant portion of my non-significant retirement funds out of the savings account I was once ridiculed for having into a couple market accounts thinking that a big jump would happen. I did this on Saturday. The account where my money is stored (hopefully) wouldn’t process the transaction until Tuesday – I discovered this after completing the transaction. A night of sleeping on that thought brought me to my senses. Monday was going to be the big jump, the market is open on Monday (Columbus day – a topic for another day’s discussion) despite the banks and the post office being closed, and Tuesday would likely be a reaction to whatever happened on Monday. Well, the big reaction didn’t happen until today (Wednesday) but I’m very thankful that I chose to cancel the transfer of funds because I would have lost almost 10 percent of what I had invested in one day – as today the market dropped over 700 points. These wild swings up and down are very reminiscent of the 29 crash, and gives me a very uneasy feeling about the next few years. All this makes the election, and made tonight’s presidential debate that much more important to me.

I watched this debate, the first of the three that I was able to see in its entirety while it was happening, very intently with some fellow teachers. I purposely put myself in an environment that was friendly to my own political persuasion because this election atmosphere has become so intense. I wanted to be able to react naturally to whatever might be said. And I did think John McCain gave his best performance to date, although the grumpy old man comments of the previous two debates which I was unable to watch until long after they happened and my mind had been “polluted” by the pundtis were still relevent this evening. I think the difference in the three debates was the performance of the moderator. He asked some excellent questions that forced both candidates to be more specific than ususal and to talk to each other about their own vision and also what their campaigns had been actually saying. This forced the Ayers issues out in the open along with the so-called ACORN issue (although McCain’s involvement with ACORN was not discussed due to Senator Obama’s continued reluctance to do a complete “tit for tat” with McCain and his surrogates). It forced Obama to talk about the tone of McCain’s ads (although McCain unbelievably continues to imply that Obama is the one running a negative campaign), and it gave Obama a chance to bring up the toxic nature of the audiences at McCain rallies where the rhetoric has been so “suggestive,” the “battle cries” of members of the audience have been so divisive, and therefore it was implicitly suggested that McCain will have to “own” anything untoward that might happen, as Obama framed in the phrase “God forbid” when each candidate talked about their VP selection’s qualifications to be president.

It was precisely at this point in the debate (the talk about VP selections) that I felt Obama was much too nice and missed a golden opportunity. It is my opinion that the selection of Sarah Palin was as reckless a selection as McCain could have made. SHE IS CLEARLY FAR FROM QUALIFIED TO BE PRESIDENT! Although with each passing day it is apparent to me that president is exactly where her ambition lies. McCain is 72, he has had multiple battles with skin cancer, including a section of skin from his face that was removed during the campaign a month or so ago for a biopsy, of which I have not heard the results – thus making Palin’s qualifications more a pertinent issue than would otherwise be so. In response to the moderators invitation to comment on Palin’s qualification Obama very politely said something like “that is up to the voters to decide.” I really felt he missed an important opportunity. I realize the tight rope he would be walking over any “honest” assessment of Palin’s qualifications, but I felt Obama could have said something like “John, regarding Sarah Palin, there have been many news accounts that she spoke at the Alaskan Indepedence party’s convention earlier in the year and that her husband either is or has been a member of this organization which desires Alaska’s succession from the Union and is affiliated with organizations such as the John Birch society, a white supremist organization. I know that you, John, would not tolerate someone associated with such a fringe organization, so I would like to give you this opportunity to put all those rumors to bed right here, right now.” It certainly would have been interesting to hear McCain’s response.

McCain also opened the door for Senator Obama to bring up McCain’s campaign manager’s ties to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac after McCain continued the phony republican argument that those two companies caused this economic meltdown and implied that the democratic party was therefore somewhat culpible. Obama could have given McCain an opportunity to refute the (irrefutalbe) contention that because McCain’s campaign chairman has collected approximately 2.5 million dollars from Freddie Mac and Fannie May (Mostly Freddie Mac, I believe) in lobbyist fees for a “connection to Senator McCain” in the fight to reduce regulation, that if the derugulation of these two companies are to blame for the economic meltdown then McCain shares a good portion of the blame, just as he did in the last round of bank failures (remember the Keating five?). However, Obama chose to pass up these and other opportunities by continuing his calm, patient, and respectful demeanor, which I believe is one of the main reasons he has surged in the polls during the previous few weeks.

Most people are rejecting the almost aimless and seemingly tireless, but always scurilous, nature of John McCain’s meandering message. They are being more turned off the more they find out about Sarah Palin. McCain is trying to hide his philosophy (and hers), and its parallels to the Bush regime, in a maize of one liners using cutezy catch words and phrases such as “maverick” or “agent of change” or “country first.” Slowly but surely the country is seeing through the McCain/Palin fasad. The economic crisis is real and every day more people realize that everything they have worked for over the previous few decades is at risk. Retirement accounts are slowly disappearing. Jobs are disappearing and the rate at which they are disappearing is accelerating. McCain/Palin are trying futily to separate themselves from the republican party that is not going to be able to lie it’s way out of this one. I often times remember a group put together by my brother in law who lives on the other side of this great country from me, shortly after the misadventure in Iraq had begun. They were going to sell bumper stickers which showed the faces of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld under the words “No More Lies.” Well, I believe the American people are finally figuring out, in numbers sufficient to change the direction of this country, that the republican platform is based on lies and they’ve had enough. There are still people out there who buy into the “Limbaugh syndrome” and they are the ones who refer to Obama as “Hussein,” call him a terrorist, yell out “kill him” at rallies, all the while believing what these republicans are saying without double checking anything. In my sixth grade classroom these people would have a hard time succeeding, because we teach even 11 year olds to fact check the information they get from multiple sources. It is easy to hear what you want to hear, and I understand that for someone who supported Bush there must be a sense of guilt that prevents them from facing the truth as to what he has led us into.

McCain mentioned Herber Hoover tonight, in a way that even implied that the faulty party of the thirties, the years of the great depression was the administration who followed – which was of course Roosevelt and the “New Deal.” My first though upon hearing that was “Oh boy, they’re (the republicans) going to blame what is about to follow on Barack Obama.” It sounds to me like they are going to “hibernate” into a state of denial until such time that they can reinvent themselves and attempt to bring their “trickle down” theories which have made so many of them filthy rich back onto the main stage. I really do hope and pray that the American people are not dumb enough to fall for this nonsense a third time. Barack Obama said tonight that he will institute a policy of “pay as you go.” I don’t think that will be possible at first seeing as how he will inherit a deficit approaching one trillion dollars due to this bailout (which is what I really wanted to talk about tonight). However, I along with millions of other Americans – I believe – will be expecting a fiscally responsible approach to restoring our economy with a “bottom up” approach. McCain, tonight, did a great job of exposing the republican party for what it is, the party of empty rhetoric.