Paul

Ibrahim

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October 9, 2008

Dumb and Deceitful Moments in the McCain-Obama Presidential Debate

Nine out of 10 times a citizen leaves the private sector to join Congress, the average IQ and honesty of both groups goes up. It is no wonder that Andrew Jackson University has heroically offered to give members of Congress a free course in economics.

But then it somehow happens that normal Americans are the ones who get lectured to by members of Congress, who try to convince the country that things like dropping a trillion dollars on some of the most undeserving members of society is actually a good thing. It’s a combination of idiocy and deceit, and they’re both ugly.

The Tuesday debate was no exception. While the military hero stumbled a bit by submitting to the seemingly inevitable common denominator of economic populism, the community organizer labored hard to dispel any lingering doubts about most politicians’ inanity and duplicity. A rough minute-by-minute account of many (and nowhere near all) of the debate’s dumb and deceitful moments follows, with John McCain making guest appearances but Barack Obama as the undisputed star.

Eight minutes – McCain: “I would order the secretary of the treasury to immediately buy up the bad home loan mortgages in America and renegotiate at the . . . diminished value of those homes and let people be able to make those payments and stay in their homes.”

Yes. Take the money of those who have responsibly accepted the reality of renting, or living in smaller houses, and give it to those who bought a house they knew, or should have known, they could not afford. It makes perfect sense.

Eight minutes – McCain: “We’re the best importers.”

What the heck does that even mean?

Thirty-two minutes – Obama: “And one of the things I want to do is make sure that we’re providing incentives so that you can buy a fuel-efficient car that’s made right here in the United States of America, not in Japan or South Korea.”

Why again is it necessarily better to buy a car made “right here” as opposed to over there? If they can make better and cheaper cars in Japan, why force the American consumer to spend more on American cars, whether at the dealership or through taxes?

Thirty-four minutes – Obama: “Senator McCain has been talking tough about earmarks, and that’s good, but earmarks account for about $18 billion of our budget. Now, when Sen. McCain is proposing tax cuts that would give the average Fortune 500 CEO an additional $700,000 in tax cuts, that’s not sharing a burden.”

So Obama doesn’t think $18 billion is too much (that’s $18,000,000,000), but flips out about $700,000 of lost tax revenue per Fortune 500 CEO, which amounts to $350 million total? Well, $350 million is one third of the $1 billion worth of earmarks that Obama has managed to request in his months as a senator, including $1 million for the hospital that tripled his wife’s salary upon his election to the U.S. Senate.

Thirty-six minutes – Obama: “I disagree with Senator McCain about an across-the-board freeze. That’s an example of an unfair burden sharing.”

Did the man who wants to raise taxes on only 5 percent of the population just say anything about “unfair burden sharing?”

Thirty-nine minutes – Obama: “I want to provide a tax cut for 95 percent of Americans, 95 percent.”

Of course, about half of that 95 percent doesn’t pay taxes anyway, so they won’t see a tax cut. And it is a segment of the population that is dependent on the jobs created by the investment of the top 5 percent. But the top 5 percent will see a tax rise under Obama, which means less jobs for the 47 percent who won’t see a tax cut, so it’s a net loss for that poorest group (and everyone else).

Fifty-six minutes – McCain: “I think (health care is) a responsibility.”

What?

Fifty-six minutes – Obama: “I think (health care)should be a right for every American.”

What? First of all, this “right” is nowhere in the Constitution. Second of all, if Obama thinks that health care is a “right,” why does he supposedly oppose universal health care? He either doesn’t care about enforcing Americans’ rights, or he is lying about health care being a right.

Sixty-two minutes – Obama: “(Our troops) have performed heroically and honorably.”

Obama has previously expressed his view that American troops are “just air-raiding villages and killing civilians.” That was a statement volunteered by Obama for political reasons, whereas it took almost a year of painful torture and solitary confinement for McCain to finally be forced to label his military deeds as those of an air pirate.

Sixty-nine minutes – Obama: “We got distracted (by Iraq), we diverted resources, and ultimately Bin Laden escaped, set up base camps in the mountains of Pakistan in the northwest provinces there.”

Of course, Bin Laden “escaped” at the beginning of the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, which makes it slightly difficult to blame the 2003 Iraq War for the escape.

Ninety minutes – Obama: “Most of the time, I learn (what I don’t know) by asking (my wife Michelle).”

Honey, when should I become proud of my country for the first time?

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