Debate Post Mortem II

The short form analysis is this:  meh

 

I was non-plussed by the whole thing.  It was nice to see McCain offer up the “in my opponent’s short tenure” line and point out that he promised a tax cut for the middle class when he was running for the Senate, but offered up no legislation to follow through on that promise.

Meanwhile, a lot of McCain’s answers were indirect and betray a more fundamental understanding of how to govern, rather than how we want to be governed.  Which makes sense, since he’s been a politician on the national stage for over 2 decades…  not as long as Joe Biden, but still a really long time.

 

Yes, I’m saying McCain seems out of touch with day to day realities and more well versed in government policies and foreign relations than with what it’s like to get up every day and go to work in order to simply pay the bills and (God willing) set a little aside for a rainy day, much less retirement.

 

That said, his opponent is just the opposite.  He’s more well versed in having to live within a budget (because he’s practically barely out of college) and interacting with the day to day transactions than with government relations and foreign policy jibber jabber.

 

And that all makes sense, too, if you think about it.  One is practically fresh out of college, where you have to live on a budget and know how people live.  The other is a Washington insider who knows everyone up and down the halls of Congress, but not necessarily the people who live down the street from him in Arizona.  It is what it is…  you don’t fault a fish for being wet.

 

However, when the rhetoric stops, it’ll be time to get down to business and make work happen.  How do you make work happen?  Well, Mr. Perot, you need to know people in Washington to get work done in Washington.  Unless, of course, you want to just sit back and punt the responsibility to your policy wonks and the folks in Congress…  oh, wait…  we already HAVE that President.  Maybe we should have someone who knows people in Washington and has actually done something.  There’s only one guy running who has that kind of cred.  And the only remarkable thing from the debate is that he pointed it out a few times…  but the media is ignoring it.