"Breast of Fresh Air" - UPDATE

Williamsburg radio weighs in on the debate over the debate:

Barack Obama: At The Adult Table

I remember countless holidays where I was banished to the kiddie table - out of range of civilized discourse, relegated to making armpit farts and flicking boogers. Worse was the adult folk patronizing me with their disgusted glances, mortified that their scion could belch the alphabet.

Tonight, Obama shook his head with disapproving maturity. Tonight, John McCain made fart noises with his mouth.

"Ayers, ACORN, Ayers, ACORN, Ayers, ACORN, Ayers . . . my campaign is about the economy." Did that just happened???? It did. I almost did a spit-take (I haven't done a spit-take since Palin's explanation about Russia's proximity to her foreign policy experience.).

Tonight, McCain would have been better served with honest questions: "Health care plan? In what respect, Barry?"

The split screen did him no favors. At one point, my girlfriend equated McCain to Vincent D'Onofrio's bug character in "Men in Black." Without pause, I eagerly equated McCain's visage to Jeffy Goldblum's fly character in . . . well . . . "The Fly."

The point?: McCain's skin was thinner than soy paper, absolutely ineffective at shrouding the curmudgeon beast below ready to shed its apocryphal mask of gentility at first prodding. He was petulant, irascible and disconnected. He spouted fluff attacks in rapid-fire succession as if trying to eclipse a world record. It was a haphazard carpet bombing of a hunkered-down Obama, prepared for every twist and turn. Hell, even the much ballyhooed Bill Ayers reference seemed trite and tortured - almost as if McCain doesn't have a bone to pick with folks "pallin' around with terrorists" despite his previous message.

I thought Palin was the death knell for McCain. I was wrong - ask yourself this fundamental question and let it govern your vote: Over the past three months, which candidate demonstrated the consistency of character and a never-failing steadiness in the face of tough questions, tough issues, tough matters and tough world events?

Like I said before - vote the man in this election, not the ideology. Vote for an original leader, not for a partisan soundboard. Vote for the candidate who makes very clear in these three debates that your issues will always trump the petty squabbles of the Autumn election cycle.

Full disclosure: For the first time since I became voter eligible I have donated money to a presidential candidacy. After the second debate, I pulled out my American Express Elite-Yuppie-Intelligentsia-250k-per-year Gold Card (a platinum card is too fringe, too extreme, too Sheehan, just too elite) and authorized a $50 payment to Senator Obama.

Why? Because he's consistent. Because he's steady. And because for all the money I will pay in taxes (being in that upper 5% Barack never speaks to), it is a pittance compared to the potential economic loss I suffer without a job, health insurance and affordable education.

Laud the free market. We all do. But it cannot exist in a vacuum. And whether you are Joe Six-Pack, Joey Danko or Joe Plumber, Mikey Dollar Signs will be quick to interject that you cannot draw blood from a stone and you can't siphon taxes from zero dollars of income, no matter how high the rate.

In closing, yes I'm drunk. But sober enough to see that the "October surprise" is just how damn optimistic I am about a major party candidate less than three weeks from Election Day.

If Richard Lowry had little starbursts for Palin, then count me as flaming gay for Obama. My starbursts come with energy independence in a decade.

Debate, (Election?) Over

Okay, listen - John ate an extra dose of brains and baby blood before tonight's debate, and brought a little fire. So I was happy to see that... mostly just because I was convinced he was an android. More machine now than man. Twisted and evil. Rise, and serve me, Darth McCain.

Problem is, in Pat's humble opinion, he skewed too far the other way... he got a little too angry. One of CNN's pundits just said he went too far towards "Cranky McNasty saying 'get off my lawn young man!'" CNN doesn't make me laugh that often but a broken clock is right twice a day.

Johnny POW went too far. He was TOO animated. TOO angry. In short, he was too much. In past debates, he wouldn't mix it up. Tonight, he mixed it up too much. He got too chippy. He was aggressive. He was assertive. He just might have overshot the green.

What I don't understand is why Obama never takes on McCain's errors or miscues, or some of his more, um, questionable statements during these debates. Obama sticks to the talking points, but he can't go off script and really put the hammer down it seems. For example, either I mistake quite, or McCain said that Obama voted against the confirmation of Justice Breyer during what he described as a despicable campaign of judicial filibustering by Senate Democrats. Here's the transcript section:

I voted for Justice Breyer and Justice Ginsburg. Not because I agreed with their ideology, but because I thought they were qualified and that elections have consequences when presidents are nominated. This is a very important issue we're talking about.

Sen. Obama voted against Justice Breyer and Justice Roberts on the grounds that they didn't meet his ideological standards. That's not the way we should judge these nominees. Elections have consequences. They should be judged on their qualifications. And so that's what I will do.

Now, that sounds pretty bad. But Obama neglected to correct him that he wasn't in Congress back in 1994 when Justice Breyer was confirmed under Clinton. Now, did McCain simply mess up a name? Yeah. But he can't keep facts straight and Bam doesn't - ever - take him to task. I suppose Obama is like a boxer in the 15th round with an insurmountable points lead just trying not to lead with his chin. But he's so "cool" sometimes that it is offputting.

Maybe I'm wrong and there's no reason to take someone on who you've already likely beaten if you just run out the clock. That certainly seemed to me to be the Obama strategy strategy tonight. I suppose time (three weeks worth) will tell if letting McCain run wild tonight, both good and bad, was wise.

"Breast of Fresh Air?"

Did John McCain refer to Sarah Palin as a "breast of fresh air" tonight?

Developing story . . .

What did the 5 fingers say to the face?

SLAP!! Obama camp getting tough.

MSNBC First Read:

ST. JOSEPH, MO – Joe Biden echoed the campaign’s response to continued Republican efforts to highlight Obama’s past associations, adding a personal touch to the idea that McCain wasn’t willing to make the attacks in person.“All of the things they said about Barack Obama in the TV, on the TV, at their rallies, and now on YouTube … John McCain could not bring himself to look Barack Obama in the eye and say the same things to him,” Biden said this morning. “In my neighborhood, when you’ve got something to say to a guy, you look him in the eye and you say it to him.”

Biden, who arrived on stage in St. Joseph to chants of “Joe! Joe! Joe,” urged the crowd not to be distracted by McCain claims, saying that every “false charge, every baseless accusation is an attempt to get you to stop paying attention to what’s going on in this country and what’s going on in your lives.” And on the issues that matter, he said, McCain is offbase, particularly on his newest mortgage plan.

Coats adds:

Frankly, I've always believed that the quickest way to show you're a chump is to run around telling everyone about that aren't one. You want to prove to the American people that you aren't shook? Don't talk them to death. Get in the ring and kick the other guys ass. It's that simple. Screw all this talk about who's tougher than who. Here is what I know: McCain will talk that shit about Ayers and brag about taking the gloves off. He will send his wife and Sarah Palin out to do his dirty work. But when faced with the man who he believes "palls around with terrorist" he played his position.

Obama - "Say it to my face, Maverick!":

McCain Does the Pop n' Lock

Back when we were kids, my friend's father thought it would be a great idea to buy him the Alphonso Ribeiro "Breakin' and Poppin'" instructional video (with complimentary cardboard dance mat). His dad would then rouse him out of bed when he had company, announce that he had been "taking dance lessons" and force him to dance "like the kid dressed as Michael Jackson." My buddy was a horrible breakdancer, and having to perform in his Muppet Babies pajamas didn't help. Everyone watching knew he was a terrible dancer. Except his dad. People would cringe while his pops would grin and enjoy. The truth was that there was a perception gap - his dad was simply seeing what he wanted to see, and not what was happening.

A similar perception gap was evident in the pundits' fawning over McCain's performance in last night's debate. McCain "was in his element," "looked comfortable" and "performed splendidly in a format that benefited him." Either the pundits were just seeing what they wanted to see, or they have a Palinesque inability to deviate from the comments they prepared before the debate started. Simply put, McCain looked old and stiff (not in a Starbursts kind of way). His jokes fell flat. When Obama was speaking, McCain wandered aimlessly around the stage like someone looking for the correct gate at Penn Station. I swear he took at least three standing naps. The physical contrast between the two candidates was striking. If this is McCain's idea of being comfortable, then he must also love cuddling up next to Cindy in an asbestos blanket on a bed of nails.

It was clear to me that the pundits had bought into the "McCain is a town hall debator" meme before the night began, and simply saw what they wanted to see in order to fulfill their expectations.

Then again, maybe I was just seeing what I wanted to see.

Classy Enough to Leave Him at the Footstep of the Woodshed - Round 2 All Obama

I was hyper-critical of Senator Obama's performance during the first debate at Ole' Miss. He was diffident, impassive and projected an "aw shucks, don't say that" vibe that infuriated me and must have trigger unhinged bellicosity in the true believers of liberalism. He was playing "not to lose" - a tremulous, pussy-footing performance.

Not tonight.

And probably not for the rest of this election.

Barack Obama was downright presidential this evening. John McCain was a spent force eight years removed from the window's closing. A loyal soldier who served his country for 70 years, but retired in 2006. Please go with grace.

We can debate nuances until the bovine, partisan cows come home. That's not what tonight was about, suprisingly - not the issues. It was about appearances. And, strangely, for the first time since President Clinton, a Democrat - a wonderful Democrat, his smile, oh that smile, did he just wink at me, oh my god, there are the little starbursts in my living room, I'm mesmerized, I am definitely sitting up straighter on my couch. Does this make me gay? - DAMMIT LOWRY, GIVE ME BACK MY KEYBOARD. GO BACK TO THE NATIONAL REVIEW AND ATTEND TO THE LAST SHRED OF ITS DIGNITY. Barry Goldwater has placed a coffin above his own coffin and Ronald Reagan's coffin. By the end of this thing, lots of coffins to go around. A funeral pyre for Karl Rove would be a nice closing ceremony.

Ahem.

As I was saying, a Democrat looked like next year's prototype, rakish and cherry, right off the factory line. The new model. The crusty, starchy Republican was a refurbished product, a collection of misfit parts, held together by spit and glue and the faint whiff of 20th Century cognition.

Obama sat there casually. Casually confident. And the "straight talk" express blew a tire and desperately needed a figurative and literal oil change (please see the previous post). The message was stale and message is king in presidential elections. The scuttlebutt is that Palin tried to storm the set with a life-sized poster of Bill Ayers, but secret service confused her for Cindy Sheehan and used the taser.

And you could smell the fear on the right-wing pundits in the post game. They see it slipping away. The Republican fembot on ABC conceded McCain didn't score "the knockout blow" or submit "the game changer." Yeah, no kidding. Even the conservative assassins on FoxNews tonight adopted a defeatist air. Glenn Beck, the very foundation of Goldwater's revolution, could only offer "we don't mind losing, but at least we want to lose fair" in the wake of McCain's lackluster turn and voter fraud allegations in Ohio from the RNC (losing like the Detroit Pistons in the 1990 Eastern Conference finals I see - not even shaking hands, walking off the court with time left in the fourth).

Voter fraud - we have no comment. But I (unlike some) can name a Supreme Court case: Bush v. Gore.

Let me remind you this playful parry comes from a registered independent. Check the rolls. I voted Nader in 2000 and Badnarek (be still my Libertarian heart) in 2004.

As things stand at 10:13 pm PST, I will vote for Barack Obama for President of the United States of American on November 4.

The man and his core beliefs are certainly big factors, but more so: I vote for the future. I vote for my family (my girlfriend now 10 weeks pregnant). I vote for the former glory of America and may it return as the erstwhile beacon of light that guided a world. I vote for tolerance, intelligence and foresight.

Unbelievably, without a scintilla of mockery or hyperbole (can't believe I'm saying it) - I vote for CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN.

Who am I voting for you ask?

"That one." Thanks for pointing him out, John McCain.

Posted by Warm Apple Pie.