Where the debate lies: fact checking the second debate

Well, the second presidential debate was a dismal affair. It was short on inspiration, long on tit for tat, and, as usual, long on stretching the truth. It’s always worth it to head over to FactCheck.org to get the skinny on what the candidates lied about misstated. I think the most important misstatement belonged to McCain who said that Obama would fine small business owners who did not provide health insurance to their employees. Actually, as it turns out, the Obama plan specifically exempts small business owners.

McCain seems to want to try to scare small business out of supporting Obama. Of course, if I felt like digressing, I would point out what a collossally bad idea it is for any of us to be getting health insurance through our employers and how there is almost no system on earth that could be worse for both workers and business owners, but that’s a long discussion. In fact, the only system I can think of which would be worse is the one proposed by McCain which will add five million uninsured almost immediately though the latest analysis says that it will roughly even out with Obama’s plan by 2010 (though it will cost 2 trillion dollars for 2010 to 2019 compared to 1.17 trillion for Obama).

The lowlight of the debate was the very end. Someone sent in a great question: What do you not know and how would you learn it? This would have been a chance for Obama, who went first, to say that he doesn’t know what the future will bring but that he’s a fast study and that he would surround himself with knowledgeable people. Indeed, one can see already in the choice of vice president the difference between the two candidates. It could have given him a big boost. Instead, he blathered on mindlessly about being from a single-parent household, and rising to where he is and wanting all Americans to have opportunity in the greatest nation on earth. I felt two million Obama votes evaporate as he blithered and blathered and it’s the first time when listening to Obama I thought “What a frickin idiot.”

Had he been paired up with a great debater like Reagan, the death blow would have followed: “Well, there he goes again. Unlike senator Obama, I plan to answer your question.” Lucky for Obama, he was paired with John McCain, a man with less debating panache than John Kerry. McCain blathered out the same frickin answer as Obama and I felt two million Obama votes rematerialize and I respected both of them less than before the debate.

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