Most Recent Debates

I watched the two most recent debates, one between John McCain and Mit Romney, and other between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

It was an amazing study in contrasts.

There was a great deal of energy in the Obama/Clinton debate. It actually looked like a ticket. One older and more experienced and the other young, charming, and charismatic.

The other one was painful to watch. It was obvious that McCain and Romney greatly dislike each other and it showed. They didn't look like a ticket----it was more of a train wreck. What was incredibly distressing was that there were several instances where the 'straight-talking' McCain lied through his teeth. Joe Scarborough, a Republican, pointed out a series of flat out lies and was incredulous that McCain would even have ventured there.

There are some huge issues facing us.

First off, the wars. I keep hearing 'the war' and it's not one war, it's two. We have a large presence in Iraq and a not large enough presence in Afghanistan. The surge has worked. Of course. If you put more troops on the scene it will suppress the violence. Only a moron would have thought other wise. The problem has not yet been solved. If people recall (for those old enough) the Vietnam War ended and there was a peace agreement. After we mostly withdrew it started up again and was over very quickly. If we withdraw our troops next month or in ten years, same result.

We did mostly move the Taliban out of Afghanistan but reports are now coming that they are retaking regions. The Taliban are a truly evil, cruel group and our lack of ground forces in that region are giving them a great deal of opportunity to rebuild.

The wars are a big issue.

The economy is a huge issue. The price of oil and health care costs are catastrophic to people. The national deficit is massive and the debt is beyond comprehension. The modern day Republican Party, instead of being conservative and prudent, has become a party of complete freedom for corporations to do anything they want with a large dose of fundamentalism added for flavor. As a result campaigns are run against tax and spend Democrats (as opposed to spend and charge it Republicans) and against abortion and gay marriage.

Mike Huckabee is running against abortion, against gay marriage, against the IRS, and for Christmas. He seems like a very nice man, but how on earth is someone like this running for President????

It will be interesting, to say the least.