The (ZZzzzz) Debate - And A Few Helpful Hints For John McCain

Anyone expecting fireworks from this one was sorely disappointed.

As a matter of fact, the ratings were substantially lower than they were for the Palin/Biden match up, which suggests to me that the race is solidifying and a lot of people have already made up their minds.

Certainly John McCain did nothing much to affect that.

A good part of the reason for that, and for the boring aspect of the debate can be traced to the farcical 'moderating' of Leftist ex-Talking Head Tom Brokaw, who selected questions deliberately designed to keep Obama in his comfort zone and avoid areas like voter fraud, past associations like Bill Ayers,Tony Rezco, Khalid Mansour, immigration, abortion, guns,or courts. Plus, Brokaw devoted almost the entire debate to feel-good economics questions, leaving foreign policy to be covered incompletely in the last half hour.

When Gwen Ifill tried to do this to Sarah Palin, she simply refused to go along with Ifill's agenda and made her case to the voters. Her running mate apparently couldn't bring himself to do the same, which meant that even though the debate was essentially a draw, Obama won by default.

A few points for Senator McCain...nobody cares about what good buddies you are with Russ Feingold and Teddy Kennedy. And at this point, yakking about how Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan did it back in the good ol' days (Mac mentioned this at least twice) isn't going to win friends and influence people.

When Obama outright lies, you need to counter him swiftly and unapologetically. When he spouts the talking point about how 95% of Americans will get a tax cut, you need to tell the American people that the Chosen One wants to raise the payroll and capital gains taxes, which will affect anyone that owns stock or property or a small business of any kind and will lead to higher prices for goods and services, inflation and layoffs.

When Obama slides by on something, as he did after his incestuous relationship with Fannie Mae and the money he received was brought up, underline the fact that he failed to address it, to make sure nobody misses it.

If a tool like Brokaw won't go near it, you need to talk to the American people and remind them of Obama's questionable alliances with people who really don't like this country. You need to mention his stance on abortion.

When Obama pontificates about energy, you need to remind the American people that the reason they're paying what they're paying for gas at the pump is because Obama and his party have stonewalled every attempt in Congress to utilize America's energy resources...which is why we haven't built a gasoline refinery in the US for twenty years.If the Chosen One dares to mention clean coal, you need to remind the American people that his running mate is on tape saying that there will be no coal plants in an Obama administration.

When Obama talks about General Petraeus and 'our brave troops' you need to cut him to ribbons, reminding the American people that Obama voted to cut off funds to our troops in harm's way and that when his pals at MoveOn put out the Petraeus-Betray us ad, Obama refused to vote for a senate resolution condemning it. And in fact, he did everything but call General Petraeus a liar to his face when he testified before Congress. You need to tell Obama that however much he might want to jump on that bandwagon now, he felt very differently about our troops a few months ago, an example of flawed and dangerous judgment.

When the Chosen One yaks it up about Pakistan,you need to smile and remind him of his own words about invading Waziristan, an area the size of Texas with two brigades. You need to make the point that his intemperate remarks helped undermine Musharraf, a US ally, and that his shooting off his mouth constituted irresponsible behavior almost unique in American politics.. You need to jokingly remind him that reading a map can be helpful, and that he ought to realize that Afghanistan is landlocked, that 75% of the supplies for our troops come through Karachi and that the last time we attacked Waziristan the Pakistanis cut off supplies to our troops for a couple of days.

You need to tell the American people that Obama's flawed and dangerous judgment would create a hostile Pakistan, doom our efforts in Afghanistan and result in chaos,just as the policies he wanted for Iraq would have.

Write those words on your sleeve, Senator McCain...'flawed and dangerous judgment.' Instead of ridiculous nonsense about how bi-partisan you are and how you're going to pander, repeat that four times in the next debate. Show the American people exactly how 'presidential' the Chosen One is.

If you're not man enough to do the heavy lifting I'll do it for you. Or maybe send in Sarah Palin to do the job.

You've got one more debate and two weeks to turn this around, Senator. And frankly, I don't feel like seeing the country handed over to dangerous and inexperienced hands because you feel like you're too good to do what's necessary. Man up.