Hey, can I call you Joe?

I'm blogging through the Debate:
9:00 I'm glad Gwen Ifill isn't wearing a bathrobe like she was in 04. Possibly the only thing I remember about those debates.

9:03 yes the policies have been terrible for 8 years, Joe, but it has been the policy of letting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac run wild and buy up bad debt to allow people to get loans they can't afford. President Bush and the Republicans tried to tighten it up, and the Congressional Democrats blocked it http://beltwayblips.com/story/bush_called_for_reform_of_fannie_mae_freddie_mac_17/

9:05 Palin is on the mainstream Americans order with the soccer game remark

9:08 Thank you for calling Obama out on not being bipartisan, voting with the Democrats 98%. Maverick Count: 2. Stop winking, Palin. Nice job calling both candidates out for not answering the question, Gwen.

9:14 Biden is already on the attack. ANSWER THE QUESTION, SARAH! Oh wait, you can't.

9:15 WHY DO YOU HAVE TO MOVE ONTO THE NEXT TOPIC IF PEOPLE ARE SAYING STUFF AND ACTUALLY GETTING SUBSTANTIVE.

9:18 Dang, Sarah Tell Biden about being a patriot. That was phenomenal. She is surprisingly sharp. All that was missing was taking my breathe away with the maverick remark. Yes, I stole your line, Emily. Deal.

9:20 Didn't know about that McCain wanted to start taxing Health Care Benefits. Nice Bridge line.

9:24 Palin is looking pretty good with her shpeel about energy. Biden looks like he knows otherwise.

9:25 I was right

9:27 Please, Sarah, how do you want to change Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae? Tell us what is wrong and what needs to be done differently. Why can we not go in depth? So far, you've done an excellent job of saying nothing.

9:35 Sarah Palin supports capping carbon emissions. Sarah Palin should read my resolution. The apocalyptic doom one.

9:41 "I didn't hear a plan." So far, the most important line of the debate. As much as he killed me in the economic discussion, that is why I would probably vote for Joe Biden for President.

9:43 Barack Obama has not acknowledged that the surge has worked. What does working mean, Sarah? They're seeing progress, I'm sure they did. When they asked us to leave. If she could tell me what that meant, I would have been thrilled to listen.

9:47 Sarah says nucular. I thought we were done with that. Oh well.

9:49 Sarah Palin, you aren't winning anyone over by mentioning defending women's rights when you don't stand for the one that people that really care about women's rights really care about.

9:53 Bob Dole has a message for Joe Biden. Don't refer to yourself in the third person.

9:54 Tina was right. Sarah Palin gets much cuter when she doesn't know what she is talking about. Forge ahead? is that right? Maverick count: 4?

9:57 The surge principles from Iraq need to be implemented in Afghanastan. With what troops?

10:10 Answer the question about what would be different. Losers

10:11 Dear Sarah Palin, STOP TALKING ABOUT YOUR FAMILY BEING TEACHERS. YOU ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING. Thank you for discussing quitting No Child Left Behind. There is one way to fix education. Pay teachers, but make them earn it. Empower principals, but hold them accountable as well.

10:22 Wow, a bunch of Republicans and Joe Liberman endorsed the Republican. What a maverick!

10:23 I really want to know what McCain and Palin would do about healthcare. I hope someone will ask. If the answer is free market solutions, the next question MUST be is it a free market now, and is it working?

10:25 Biden's answer to the "have you changed" question was phenomenal. A) bring up the supreme court, reminding us of Palin's interview failure. B)I've been around a really long time. C) I've been important for a really long time. Ditto on the Jesse Helms comment.

10:28 Has either candidate revealed anything new? Bipartisanship is a great word, but tell me how. Cutting taxes and spending is great. Where are you going to cut spending? Social Security? Military? Palin's closing statement was completely useless. A whopping load of God Bless America's Bullshit. I'm glad that this at least isn't a Republican debate, so only had one Ronald Reagan reference.

10:31 The highlight of the conventions for me was Mark Warner's speech about technology and basic investment. Neither has really discussed this issue in this debate, and I don't think either has talked about any issue in as much depth as Warner had. I know they don't want to waste this opportunity to talk to everyone, but I really want to believe that I'm not the only person who wants to vote for someone who is smarter than me. If you can talk about something substantively, people will acknowledge that you know what's going on. I really want to hear something deeper than "blah blah blah middle class american blah blah blah"


Final thoughts (expanded from my post on Preston's wall):
I was very disappointed in the level of discourse. Outside of some of the discourse on Afghanistan, I did not hear a lot of real discussion of policy, anyone outlining new ideas. Palin talked a lot about spending, but did not say what she would cut. Transportation? Entitlements? Foreign Policy? No one talked about the status of Iraq. No one really tried to explain what Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are, and what roll they played in the current crisis. No one tried to talk about what the bailout is, and what it means to Americans. Who is getting bailed out? who does it help? Who does it hurt? I wish people would outline a plan for getting off foreign energy. They both talked about needing to get off of foreign oil, but how? What will it cost?

Neither candidate train wrecked. They both debated well in terms of appealing to voters. The main thing I am disappointed in, then, is the way we elect Presidents in this country. I'm so disappointed that it has come down to a beauty contest (no shot at Palin or anything). People want to understand who will help them in the most basic way, and then become content. Will you cut my taxes? Will you fight my war? Will you pay for me to go to the doctor? Will you worship my god exactly as I do? I wish we would let them, force them to go deeper than wallstreet vs. mainstreet.

I don't know how to fix that. I guess the best thing I could hope for is a shrinking of the National Government and an expansion of local governments. Let Politics happen locally, where votes matter, where people know each other and can see the effects of their ideas. All politics are local (Tipp O'neill?), but when we try and do local politics for 300 million people just doesn't work.

The NBC analyst just discussed some of the issues not discussed: NAFTA/trade, Social Security Medicare, jobs (auto industry bail-out?). I'll add basic technological investment. They spent five minutes on education (and most of that was discussing who knew more teachers). If we make education happen at the schoolboard meeting and not in Washington, I think we could fix things. Show me the teacher who is being paid peanuts for a phenomenal job. Show me the administrator who is being paid 100k to run a failing school. Let me decide how they are doing from here. I can't vote about what to do about a million teachers, but I can probably give you an opinion about three or four.

I still who haven't decided who to vote for, although I am leaning towards throwing my vote away. I don't have any faith in either party, and don't understand why we picked these two men to hold arguably the most powerful job in the world. I'd love to see Bill Gates and Warren Buffet announce their candidacy tomorrow. I know that is a fantasy, but it would be nice. I think I am going to start researching candidates for local and state issues, since that is where a vote matters more and actual changes can be made.

Final Maverick vote: too high.