Another night when my best intentions were to just go to bed and “let the sleeping dog lie.” Boy that saying brings alot of thoughts instantaneously to my mind. I listened to debate #2 in the car (well, part of it anyway) and I just have a few comments. First of all, I totally realize that Obama will have his hands full, almost beyond the imaginable, should he prevail on November 4th. Things are getting so bad that I can almost envision the scenario where he might want to lose, because the next president will inherit an unbelievable mess. I almost get the feeling that McCain would just go on acting as if nothing was wrong. There is no guarantee that Obama is going to be able to turn things around. I believe that one thing Bush has accomplished is to put America in a position where whatever lies ahead, it will be drastically different than what we’re used to. I’m just wondering if the republican attack dogs will blame the next four years on Obama or Clinton. And I’m wondering if we are really ready for “real change” because I believe “real change” is on the way whether we like it or not.

I just had to mention a couple of things regarding to debate #2 that I heard tonight (when I got home I watched a couple minutes of punditry, and of course the republican pundit thought McCain had won and the democratic pundit naturally thought Obama had won. That being said (of course in the 40 minutes I listened to, Obama seemed easily the winner – I was saying things like I can’t believe he said that to some of McCain’s comments), one thing McCain said that was unbelievable to me – and I’ll be very curious as to how it is picked up, if at all, during the post debate days by the so-called national media. I’m sure I heard McCain refer to Obama as “that one.” In the first debate he wouldn’t even look at Obama, and there are reports that in the senate he refuses to shake Obama’s hand. This is coming from a man who voted multiple times against a holiday for Martin Luther King Jr. It’s almost to me like McCain is saying “I can’t believe I’m losing this election to a N#@%*$! “That one” – if I heard him right, well if the American people don’t get the message from that – I don’t know what it will take. Maybe if McCain calls Obama “boy” during the next debate people will understand where this man is coming from. Ughhhh!!!!!!

Additionally, McCain has this condescending laugh and giggle when he responds to challenges from Obama that is even worse on the radio when you can’t see him. I can’t remember the exact topic, but there was a point in the debate where Obama clearly “stretched” the rules to respond to charges about Obama’s tax proposals by McCain (charges that have been debunked multiple times, but McCain continues to make them) and McCain responded something like “(giggle, giggle)I’ll answer your question (clearly trying to “slam” Obama for using an unrelated question to rebut McCain) and then he goes off on a Palin like tangent where he talks about something that is not germane to anything – if I remember correctly he had a canned response that interjected Ronald Reagan’s name into the debate – and his response was so ridiculous that I spent about 5 minutes shouting to no one, because I was alone in the car, “I can’t believe he said that.”

I have to believe that even those people who don’t understand why they “don’t trust Obama” are thinking they’re going to have to give trusting him a shot, because McCain is so bad. I honestly thought I’d never live long enough to see a politician that was worse than Bush/Cheney (take your pick) – but McCain makes Bush look like a statesman. If McCain wins even one state in November, the people of that state need to have their heads examined. As I’ve said before in other posts, we need the republican party. But Bush/Cheney in cohoots with Limbaugh, Gingrich, Hannity, et al were enough to threaten extinction for republicans (and really, for all of us too) – and McCain is like the icing on the cake. It could take them a couple of generations to recover from this. I’ve listened to some republicans from the bloc in the house who voted against the “bail out” bill and some of them sound like true conservatives and I admire them for “bucking” their leadership – so there is hope to keep a two party system where there are legitimate checks and balances. But the Bush/Cheney/McCain/Limbaugh/Hannity crew are one bad, selfish idea after another. I keep trying to listen to their point of view, and I’m really getting tired of saying over and over again, “I can’t believe he said that!”

I have so many thoughts going through my head I don’t know what to write about. I just know that I need to write or it’ll be another sleepless night. I want to start by saying in my last post I wrote about the vice presidential debate from the perspective of only listening to it on my car radio while I was heading home from the doctor’s office. Also, I only heard about half of the debate. Since then I have had the chance to see almost all of it on video and it was almost more than I could stomach. Especially after listening to John McCain at a rally shouting out something like, “Did you see Sarah Palin last night?” and as the republican crowd cheered, “How about that Sarah Palin!” and then one of those hideous giggles from McCain that would even put GW Bush to shame almost made me gag. And the republican audience he was speaking to just sucked it right up. We have big problems in this country! As one of McCain’s advisors said early on, “We’re going to make this campaign about personalities and not about issues.” As stupid as that statement seems, that is exactly what they’re doing and the republicans, starving for someone to cheer for, are doing the same thing they did in 2000 with GW. The fact that their candidates are incompetent seems to be irrelevent. You would think, considering the state of our country both economically and in its world standing, their own self-interests would lead them to want someone with a brain in the White House.

As I watched Palin winking at me as she answered something other than the question which had been posed, and doing so quite confidently (and repeatedly,I might add), I realized that she had been coached to just say anything and pretend like it’s meaningful no matter what was asked of her. And she had a quiver full of one liners that she shot out at random – like, “Say is aint so, Joe!” When I heard the references to “Joe six-pack,” “Hockey moms,” and other folksy bull s@#$ all the while with this unbelievable painted on smile, I realized that she was the perfect candidate to run with McCain. She might be new to the ticket, but she’s an expert at looking you in the eye and shamelessly lying, in a way that should make GW proud. Also, she definitely draws a crowd. The so-called republican base who got energized because she is definitely anti-abortion are coming out in droves and the democrats and independents are looking on, I think, just to see if what they’ve been hearing about someone completely incompetent running for vice president could possibly be true. Well, it is true and it is a bit scary thinking that the republicans have stolen two elections and knowing that if they pulled it off twice, they could do it again. That is why, to me, this election has to be anti-republican. We need two parties, but the only republicans I would consider voting for would be the ones who reject the Bush doctrine – both internationally and domestically.

The good news in that regard is that there seems to be a solid group of “conservative” republicans in the house that are willing to reject Bush and hopefully McCain/Palin. At least on the Wall Street bailout bill there were over 100 who voted against Bush/Paulson/Cheney/McCain (and I’m sorry to say Obama) along with about 60 democrats. With the economy in the shape its in, I can’t imagine why anyone would consider voting for McCain/Palin. Neither one has a clue about what is going on and we would end up with the likes of Phil Gramm and associates running the economy should McCain succeed in stealing this election. This bailout bill is just one more example of how low McCain will go. First he “suspended” his campaign so that he could return to Washington and “solve” the crisis. The result of that was the first plan (which he hadn’t read) falling apart. He even took credit for getting the republicans “onboard” before the original vote when they banded together to defeat Paulson’s initial proposal. He then supported the modified version that passed only because a bunch of “pork,” you know the earmarks he so detests, was added to the bill to “persuade” enough of the no votes to change their mind. I haven’t heard any commentary on the irony of that.

On top of his self-centered and disengenuous claims about his role in the economic crisis (that he helped create along with a plethora of republicans who believe that the government is the enemy) he continues to claim responsibility for the so-called surge in Iraq, which he says is leading us to “victory” in that occupation. Of course, he had nothing to do with the surge, other than the role of cheerleader because the thought of accepting that we made a huge mistake, like we ultimately had to do in Viet Nam, is unacceptable to him no matter if Iraq bankrupts our country and no matter how many more troops have to die for Bush’s blunder. Due to our economy being in meltdown the Iraq “war” has made it to the back pages of any newspaper that is still paying attention. Therefore, the public is pretty much unaware of anything that is going on over there. The thought of a hot head like McCain (he is really showing what a grumpy, tempermental “dude” he is as the campaign unfolds) and an air head like Palin (I appoligize to all my female friends for that last characterization, but I’m calling it as I see it) in charge of this war and the destabilized world that Bush has created should scare even the most rabid of republicans, let alone the rest of us.

The reduction of violence in Iraq, as far as I can tell, is the result of two distinct things, neither one of them related to the surge. First, in around August of 2006 (approximately one year prior to the surge troops being deployed) the Americans started arming and paying Iraqi Sunni’s to take the fight to Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. These were insurgents who had been killing American troops and now their attention was diverted to Al Qaeda. Secondly, somewhere around the end of 2006 Moqtada al Sadr ordered his Mehdi army to cease fire. The Iraqi government temporarily went after Sadr’s forces in Southern Iraq after the surge troops were in place, only to be soundly defeated, causing them to initiate a “cease fire” to a conflict that they had started. Whether the US, along with the Maliki government, like it or not, Moqtada al Sadr has a following of somewhere close to 2 million Iraqi’s or more. This lull in violence is very likely temporary.

As I’ve written previously, I believe it is a bit naive to expect these Sunni tribes to lay down their arms and accept a government ruled by Shia who are bitter enemies and want nothing more than revenge against those who supported Saddam Hussein for all those years and have so much Shia blood on their hands. If the US stops paying these “Awakening” Iraqis – again, they were killing Americans before we bought them off – I find it hard to believe they are going to just lay down the arms we gave them and go away. To me, it’s kind of like Bush’s management of our economy, just hoping that over time some miracle happens and they all live peacefully “ever after.” Additionally, Sadr is in Iran and within three years, by the accounts I’ve read, will attain the designation (I’m not sure if that’s the correct word) of Grand Ayatolla. I have no doubt that his intention is to return to Iraq after the US leaves (or before if McCain should somehow win the election) with the ultimate goal to institute a Shia led theocracy similar to Iran. Of course, when this happens, if the “battle” with the Sunni’s that we have armed to the teeth hasn’t happened yet, it will probably happen then. The ultimate result of Bush’s misadventure into Iraq will be a Iraq/Iran coalition that will totally tip the balance of power in the middle east away from the US’s interests.

We can’t afford “more of the same.” We can’t afford McCain/Palin in the White House. Even republicans should be able to see this. There are so many other reasons why, but trying to fix the problem in Iraq/Afganistan/Pakistan will require a completely different approach to our foreign policy. There is hope if Obama is elected, but he is going to have to be willing to make some tough decisions and he is going to have to act like a statesman. Returning the moral authority of our nation needs to be a top priority. He will have to be doing this while, at the same time, taking extreme steps to restore the fundamentals of our economy. He is going to have to be willing to challenge the American people to sacrifice. This idea that we just keep “cutting taxes” has to be debunked. The trickle down economists have brought us to the brink of bankruptcy as a nation and on top of that, Bush has nearly destroyed our military along with our standing in the world.

As I listened and watched Palin the other night, I thought maybe these people don’t “get” how bad things are. How could they possibly think that Sarah Palin has any idea how to solve these major problems. She couldn’t even connect the script she was given with the right questions. When she answered the question about what the McCain/Palin administration would cut due to the money spent on the Wall Street bailout with an answer about how she was an expert on energy and how Alaska had a lot of oil, or something of that sort, I actually shuddered. I hoestly can’t even believe that I’m having this discussion. The republican party, starting with Reagan and then with the two Bushes, along with a little help from Clinton (he went along with a lot of deregulating) have driven this country to the verge of bankruptcy. And the nomination of McCain/Palin in the face of all these crises has proved that the Republican Party is bankrupt.

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!