Dear America,
Now that we’ve seen the much anticipated first Presidential Debate, what do you think? The first of three Presidential debates was held this past Friday in Oxford, Mississippi at the University of Mississippi and moderated by Jim Lehrer. Much of the media view the debate as a tie between both McCain and Obama. I agree. According to the LA Times, Polls taken since Friday also show that the debate has given Obama a slightly wider lead over McCain. When asked who they thought offered the best proposals to solve the nation’s problems, polls show the Obama was chosen over McCain. Polls also showed that even though McCain is still seen as more knowledgeable, particularly in the area of foreign policy, Obama demonstrated that he is definitely ready to be President and has the ability to lead this country. I agree here as well.
From watching the debate, Obama shined in the first half of it when the discussion was on the state of the economy, the working class, families, children, and education. Obama appeared more knowledgeable on issues that affect families on “Main Street.” When asked about Wall Street, he voiced his support for the Bailout plan with the additions proposed by Democrats (mentioned in my last blog post). He stated that ordinary citizens have been struggling way before the Wall Street crisis so we need to start paying more attention to Main Street as well. Obama was cool, calm, collected, articulate, focused, and his sincerity was apparent in my opinion. Obama also stated that McCain believes that the market can solve everything, which we have seen is not so.
Then McCain had his chance to shine towards the second half of the debate when the conversation turned toward foreign policy. I don’t understand why foreign policy dominated most of the debate. I understand that it does need to be addressed, but given the current state of our economy, I would have assumed that issue would have taken up most of the discussion. McCain seemed as if he could talk about foreign policy in his sleep, but quite frankly, it almost put me to sleep. Not that foreign policy isn’t important, it just isn’t my forte. I started to wonder if McCain was running for President of the US or for one of those foreign countries he spoke so eloquently of. I am more concerned with what’s happening here now.
When electing our leaders, most of us go with someone who will be representative of our issues. It’s obvious that Obama is the candidate who has more concerned with the populations served by my agency: low-income/middle class men, women, and their families, children. I have not really heard McCain address the elderly population outside of veterans. Obama stated that he believes that the economy can grow from the bottom up, unlike McCain who believes in trickle down economics that obviously aren’t and haven’t been working. Wikipedia states that trickle down economics are “the economic-political argument that the increases in the wealth of the rich are good for the poor because some of such additional wealth will eventually trickle down to the middle class and to the poor.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickle-down_economics How dumb is that? If anyone out there reading this has an income below the federal poverty line or is middle class, please post and let me know how often the wealth of the rich trickles down to you and your family. Clients served by my agency have yet to feel the “trickle.” If anything, the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer. I’m pretty sure social service agencies and organizations, including my agency, feel the effects of a shrinking budget while needs increase more than they feel the effects from trickle down economics. McCain criticized Obama stating that he is calling for an enormous tax increase, and Obama quickly corrected him stating that if you make less than $250k a year (which includes me, my clients, and a lot of the general population) you won’t see a tax increase. This is one reason why Republicans oppose Obama so much because a big majority of the party is either wealthy, business owners, or both and would be subject to tax increases under Obama’s plan! So, as for the debate…one down, two to go.
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