The First Presidential Debate

All in all, I'd have to say I was disappointed. Jim Lehrer was an adequate moderator, but I do wish the moderators would provide a bit of fact checking and jump in when either candidate makes an obvious misstatement or outright lie. Maybe do it the way they do on Jeopardy when someone gives a questionable response. "Let's see what our judges say about that claim, Senator..."

Obama was good, but he could have been better. He should have jumped on the point that McCain is using 19th Century thinking against a 21st Century enemy. Al Queda is a criminal organization without a national land base. Thinking that we are somehow defeating them by holding onto patches of turf in the Middle East is ludicrous. When Timothy McVeigh bombed that building in Oklahoma City, we didn't send troops into Oklahoma and start torturing his neighbors.

McCain was scary. Aside from the fact that he was trying hard to control his notoriously bad temper by absolutely refusing to give eye contact to Obama once the debate was underway, he clearly has strange ideas about how to achieve peace in the world (not that it seems to be a goal of his).

Where in the world does he get the idea that sitting across the table from someone legitimatizes that person's views? What arrogance! I guess nothing I say has any legitimacy unless I get an audience with McCain... I guess he feels that we'll only have peace once we've beaten the rest of the world into submission. History would beg to differ...

Time and time again, we (at least those of us who pay attention) have seen wars break out over injustices or injuries (real or perceived) that took place generations ago. The people our grandchildren will have to go to war with are the grandchildren of the people McCain wants to beat into submission today. Memories are long, and two people or nations fighting each other for thousands of years is not unheard of on this planet. Just look at the Middle East. I have real problems with anyone who seriously believes we achieve peace through war. We may occasionally rescue a people from an insane leader or two, but only history can judge whether the process was cost-effective.

I think we need to look at the rest of the world, the other people sailing with us on Lifeboat Earth, and see what they think. If we are going to have peace, get respect, and make a BETTER world, we're going to need to make real friends, not be the schoolyard bully. Even the schoolyard bully can be taken down by enough little kids who are tired of his crap. Let us learn from history and not follow all the empires who have preceded us onto the scrapheap.