Last Night's "Debate"

To call last night's repeat of the same old BS by the presidential candidates a debate is a disservice to American voters. Neither gave direct or complete answers to any of the questions. Senator McCain may well have lost the election by not attacking Obama's same old irrational give away programs without any mention of how he was going to pay for them--"I'm going to cut taxes for 95% of Americans." Why didn't McCain ask him to explain how he was going to cut taxes for 95% of Americans while under his proposed tax program some 25% of Americans would pay no taxes at all? Duh, that math doesn't add up unless 5% are going to pay for increases for 95%, of which some 25% are not paying any taxes at all. McCain needed to attack every nonspecific claim made by Obama and not back off until Obama could come up with a specific answer. McCain also lost an opportunity to throw the blame for the current economic crisis right back onto the Democrats (both Bill Clinton and Democrats in Congress) who have insisted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac make loans to those who could not afford them based on historical income to debt criteria. McCain only has a few weeks to expose Obama as an empty suit spouting half-baked ideas with no details on how they would be implemented or paid for and as a truly unknown in terms of beliefs, accomplishments, affiliations,and most of all, absolutely void of any record of leadership on any level. Against a backdrop of economic chaos, a biased national media and an apparent unwillingness to truly "take the gloves off," Sen. McCain is facing an almost insurmountable job. Nonetheless, much can happen in three weeks, including , God forbid, some new global crisis; an opportunity for the recently passed government economic programs to be implemented; some new revelations about Sen. Obama or he commits a major gaff. Also keep in mind that polls were shown on several occasions during the primaries to be fallible . Perhaps most importantly, I suspect many Americans will have second thoughts about turning over the reigns of leadership in difficult times to a totally unknown quantity versus a man of proven leadership skills in the worst of adverse conditions. Regardless of who is elected, the job will be difficult because they will be saddled with an inept Congress that has shown no willingness to step to the plate and make decisions based solely on what is in the best interest of all Americans. Rather, they have consistently voted on a partisan basis with personal political gain as the primary determining factor. What America needs now is proven leadership under adversity. That sure as hell won't come from the Congress and one of the candidates for President has never been in one leadership position in their life . Fortunately, the American people have shown throughout our history an ability to face and conquer any and all threats to our way of life regardless of who controls the White House or the Congress and we shall do so again.