![\"Rachel](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.planetwaves.net\/home\/homepix\/r_sign2.jpg?resize=165%2C40&ssl=1\" "\\"Planet")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u0412\u00a0Dear Friend and Reader,<\/p>\n
I hope the undecided voters out there have something on their Tevo to review, because the presidential debates are now over.<\/p>\n
Last night, at Hofstra University, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain sat on ergonomic swivel chairs at half an oval table, responding to questions from Bob Schieffer, the moderator. There were nine-minute segments, in which each candidate had a two-minute response window and a chance to talk to each other directly afterwards.<\/p>\n
By the end of it, I was convinced that McCain looked like a cross between a tortoise, the Grinch (the way his cheeks stick out) and a pirhana (all I see from this man are his bottom teeth). But let’s get to the issues.<\/p>\n
McCain has a $52 billion bailout bill to “save the economy,” and, if I heard him correctly, he wants to use $300 billion of that to buy home loan mortgages, because there are at least 11 million homes with bad mortgages (i.e. they can’t pay them) that average American’s need to be absolved from. In other words, once he throws in another $52 billion to the “$700” billion bailout package (reports are saying it’s going to, actually, cost trillions), he wants to take half of tax payers’ money so every American can own a home, which he says is part of the American dream. Maybe he should give us a couple of his?<\/p>\n
Obama’s $60 billion package (also over the course of two years and on top of the $700 billion one we have already is focused on creating jobs by removing tax breaks for companies that ship their jobs overseas, and adding one to businesses who keep their jobs in the country. He also mentioned a middle-class tax cut for those making under $200,000 a year, access to our IRA accounts, “without penalty,” if we experience a financial crisis, and for the long-term: a focus on energy policy, health care and the education system.<\/p>\n
Then Joe “I’ll never ask a politician a question again” the Plumber came in. That’s when things started to go off kilter. Over the entire debate, a reporter from CNBC stated during follow-up commentary, McCain mentioned Joe the Plumber 20 times. Apparently, JP not-Morgan wanted to buy this plumbing company he’d worked for his whole life, but couldn’t under Obama’s new tax plan, because the company grosses over $250,000 a year — unlike the majority of small businesses in the US — and so he’d be experiencing a slight tax increase. (This story was relayed by McCain in his usual frustrated, high strung, scary, i’d-slap-you-if-we-weren’t-on-national-television voice laugh.)<\/p>\n
Obama’s response was that his tax plan is going to help 95 percent of the population, and unfortunately, money has to come from somewhere. “No one likes to pay taxes,” he said, but we have to do it to save the country. Strange how McCain seems like the irrational teenager and Obama so often comes across like the voice of reason.<\/p>\n
The next segment reminded me a lot of couple’s therapy: it was a question about negative campaign ads and how they made Obama and McCain feel. McCain went first, saying how hurt he was, watching the football game and seeing those mean, mean ads against him. Then he excused himself from what 75 percent of the population is calling a negative campaign, by bringing up those town hall meetings again. If Obama had agreed to do the town hall meetings, then he wouldn’t have sicked Sarah Palin on him and launched campaign ads saying he “palled around with terrorists” and was “dangerous.”<\/p>\n
I’ve been in couple’s therapy before, and I’ve seen this problem in many long-term relationships around me. There’s an immediate problem: Suzie didn’t take out the trash when Bobbie asked her to do it. But Bobbie’s not just upset about the trash. He’s upset because 10 years ago, when they first bought the garbage cans, Suzie said that in a couple of years, they’d have children, and then when they’re a bit older his mom can move back in with them. 10 years later, no kids, no mommy and she won’t even take out the garbage when he asks her to!<\/p>\n
That’s exactly what McCain sounded like Wednesday night. And yes, Obama had to describe, once again, his random ties to Bill Ayers, the University of Chicago professor who was once part of the Weather Underground. They served on a board together. And he answered the ACORN accusations too: the voting fraud has nothing to do with him, he volunteered for a get-out-the-vote campaign about 10 years before the fraud occurred. Anyway, if we’re going to talk about voter fraud, does anyone want to bring up the Republican party and the last eight years?<\/p>\n
To sum up the final few poignant moments, we heard McCain call Sarah Palin a “breph of freth air,” and said a bit about “nuclear pants.”<\/p>\n
Obama said to McCain that we can’t have free trade agreements with everyone (referring to some bad deals with China and South Korea), and McCain retorted with his usual: Obama is willing to sit down and negotiate with any leader, even the bad ones. Is this the couple’s therapy thing again? I thought communication was the key to resolving conflict, but that might be on the parallel universe of wanting peace.<\/p>\n
I have to say, this was one of the better performances from John McCain: though that isn’t saying much. We have just over two weeks left before we pick a new president, and for me, personally, it isn’t going to be volatile, old man McCain. Eric was right-on last night — I wouldn’t lend him my car keys, let alone my country.<\/p>\n
Yours & truly,<\/p>\n
Joe the Plumber– I mean,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u0412\u00a0Dear Friend and Reader, I hope the undecided voters out there have something on their Tevo to review, because the presidential debates are now over. Last night, at Hofstra University, Senators Barack Obama and John McCain sat on ergonomic swivel chairs at half an oval table, responding to questions from Bob Schieffer, the moderator. There … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[378,36,52,117,416],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4141"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}