The Final Debate

I have to same I'm glad they are over. I thought we heard a lot of the same things we heard in early debates.

I watched most of this one. About the first 45 minutes and then about the last 15. I have to say on the day the market dropped 700 plus points I thought we get something more than what we got. I think McCain was way too strident and Obama was a little too laid back.

I think McCain had one of the best lines of the night:

I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago. I'm going to give a new direction to this economy in this country.

But in many many ways McCain is exactly like Bush. Extend the tax cuts to the rich. More breaks for big business.

Obama countered well:

When President Bush came into office, we had a budget surplus and the national debt was a little over $5 trillion. It has doubled over the last eight years. And we are now looking at a deficit of well over half a trillion dollars. So one of the things that I think we have to recognize is pursuing the same kinds of policies that we pursued over the last eight years is not going to bring down the deficit. And, frankly, Senator McCain voted for four out of five of President Bush's budgets. We've got to take this in a new direction, that's what I propose as president.

Once again in the instant polls, Obama won. McCain did better, but once again his tone was just not right. I don't understand why he can't go on the attack and not be well for lack of a better word so snarky, so condescending toward Obama. I just don't see how McCain thinks this is going to win him votes.

McCain made some points on taxes but Obama kept repeating he's giving a tax cut to 95% of Americans. Only those people making over $250,000 would see their taxes rise. McCain's response was why would you raise anyone's taxes which I have to say I found a weak counter argument.

And the plumber guy wow did I get tired of him fast.

The bottom line was stated by one of the commentators last night. McCain needed to convince someone who was voting for Obama to change his mind and vote for McCain. The commentator said he didn't see that happen. I have to agree.

The one thing the candidates cannot control is the stock market. If it continues to do this roller coaster with huge losses and huge gains, I don't see how this helps McCain. I think it can only make Obama stronger.