Wednesday night's final Presidential debate was marked by a lot of personal attacks rather than focusing on the fact that the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffered another big loss the day before that, over 700 points, its second worst loss in modern history. McCain kept bringing up who Obama associated himself with, namely a former Weatherman named Bill Ayers and who McCain considers to be an unrepentant terrorist. Frankly, like most people, I could care less about Bill Ayers and would rather hear about how we are expected to pay our bills, what with the economy in a meltdown. That McCain resorted to outworn tactics shows his desperation in these waning days of the long and arduous Presidential campaign. I think that he knows that his poll numbers are dwindling since he added Sarah Palin to the ticket. Oh, sure, at first she gave him a big bounce, but then when people heard her open her mouth and babble nonsensically during televised interviews with people like Katy Couric, those poll numbers began to fall when people began to realize that she was a potential embarassment to the McCain campaign. McCain's desperation tactics are also wearing thin on a weary electorate that has had just about enough of this prolonged campaign that has lasted two long years. All we want now is an articulate President who can get this country back on track again after eight long and disastrous years of the worst Presidency in our country's history. McCain is also being harmed by the fact that the Republican Party right now is not very popular in light of what's happened to our economy thanks to their free-market, deregulation policies. He has boasted of voting with the President over 90% of the time, which means he's not the so-called "maverick" that he claims to be. Sure, he and Russ Feingold were the sponsors of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill, and Russ Feingold is a super-liberal Senator, but still.....what McCain seems to be proposing is pretty much more of the same, tired old rhetoric about the war and the economy and such that we've been hearing. I think that his age and history of health problems also make people a tad nervous, given that it puts Sarah Palin one heartbeat away from the Oval Office. Yes, she didn't stumble and was poised and articulate in her debate with Biden, but still, she's just a bit over the top where certain issues are concerned and some of the accusations that she's flung at Obama have been an embarassment to the McCain campaign. She was also found to have abused her power as governor of Alaska, which means she has the potential to do that as Vice President or President, so.....no thanks, McCain, no thanks. It's looking more and more like this election belongs to Barack Obama. I hesitate to be so optimistic, but poll numbers are swinging his way lately. Still, anything can happen on election day, and like most folks who are still bitter over 2000 and 2004, I'm going to find it hard to completely trust our flawed electoral system until I know that this election was completely fair, open and honest and that no dirty tricks were pulled to ensure anyone's victory. T-minus 17 days and counting......JOE THE PLUMBER'S 15 MINUTES OF FAME
One of the more ridiculous things that came out of this whole debate was the constant mention of a plumber near Toledo, Ohio that Barack Obama spoke to this past week while campaigning up that way. His name is Joe Wurzelbacher and he has suddenty rocketed to fame because of the fact that both candidates mentioned him over a dozen times during the debates. It all started with McCain mentioning to Obama that he had an "encounter" with this guy who said that Obama would raise his taxes since he dreamed of buying the business where he was employed for the past 15 years as a plumber. (McCain also referred to this guy as "My old friend Joe" like he'd known the guy personally - well, yeah, Wurzelbacher told Obama he still planned to vote for McCain, but is that any reason for McCain to refer to the guy as "My old friend Joe"?) Well, this "Joe the Plumber" became the "Celebre du Jour" and the media descended on his home and he was on national TV a number of times in the past few days being interviewed by no less than Katy Couric and others. Well, it turns out that the media thoroughly vetted him and found out that he's not a liscenced plumber and that he also owes over $1800 in back taxes. Naturally, late night comics had fun with this information and the guy is now nationally known and can probably never again live in complete anonymity. I have no doubt that Saturday Night Live will have some fun with "Joe the Plumber" tohight as well. Oh, and Sarah Palin is supposed to be on the show tonight as well. I wonder if Tina Fey will reprise her spot-on impression of Palin as well?Well, all I can say is, "Joe, enjoy your 15 minutes of fame while you have it." But I'm sure that by this time next week, we will all have forgotten who he is and will move on to the next big thing that grabs our attention, whatever it will be. Americans, after all, are notorious for their short attention spans. We want everything neatly packaged in 3o second sound bites. "OK, that was interesting.....NEXT?" Too bad that people can't sit still for more than a few seconds to learn more about what's going on around them and why it matters to them. And it's funny how the media can go on such a shark feeding frenzy over some anonymous plumber from Toledo, Ohio who was mentioned a few times in a debate instead of paying more attention to what the candidates are saying and why it matters to really listen to them. Typical behavior of the media, sadly. They can rocket someone to fame in 15 minutes and then 15 minutes later, forget who they were. So by this time next week, Joe the Plumber will be a news "has-been", forgotten among the sound bites and jarring jangles of noise out there that populate the air waves.
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