BYE BYE REPUBLICANS...LOL

[dafame]

This is regarding the third and final debate between the presidential candidates. You know, the one in which McCain made himself look like a maniac.

What are your thoughts on your chances Republicans?

[Cuchulain]

McCain's new nickname should be Blinky. I've never seen anyone blink so damn much. Couple that with the rigid smile pasted on his face all night and he looked like someone's crazy old uncle. It gave me the creeps.

CNN says Obama now has a double digit lead in Virginia, putting him over the hump in Electoral votes. Dubya Bush, Mad Dog Cheney and Butterball Rove will go down in history as the trio who signed the death warrant of the Rethugnican party....provided the Dems have a big enough turnout to overcome election fraud as in Florida 2000 and Ohio '04.

[chefmike]

It's almost Halloween...which is appropriate because when McSame tried to smile he looked like some sort of deranged jack-a-lantern...even if Obama loses votes due to the "Bradley effect" the electoral map looks very good at this point.

[dafame]

It's funny how the Repubs won't respond to this one.

[trish]

McCain tried to throw his speediest, slimiest, twistiest, Ayers ball. But it just barely crept over the plate and Obama walloped it out of the park.

McCain tried to throw his if-you-want-to-run-against-bush ball, and Obama slammed it hard back down McCain's old wattled throat.

Obama was just cool, calm, concise and concentrated clarity personified. In comparison, McCain was a dying fish.

[Oli]

I actually thought McCain did very well through the first half of the debate. He couldn't keep the intensity up and IMO, Obama fought his way back.

I thought it was either a tie, or a very slight McCain victory. He needed to hit it out of the park and have Obama fuck up badly. Neither happened.

[trish]

For me the best moments in the debate were when McCain mocked and air quoted the health of the mother provisions that reasonable people want to see in proposals to prohibit late term abortions. I could smell his bacon frying when he smirked, mocked and clutched at the air with his two little claws. He desperately tried to accuse Obama of having no concern for children’s health by citing Obama’s no vote on one of those pro-life bills in Illinois. The designers of these pro-life bills are as sleazy as they get. They put in provisions for the medical care of the child that are already in the books so that if you vote against their bill they can accuse you of voting against those provisions even though they're already in the books. Obama exposed the ruse very eloquently. (better than me that's for sure).

Another grand moment was when McCain (who says free trade with Columbia should be a no-brainer) asked why, if Obama was for free trade, doesn’t he support the trade bill with Columbia. Obama calmly pointed out Columbia was assassinating union organizers...leaving us to see that when there are moral issues as big that involved, free trade might still be defensible but it’s certainly not a no-brainer. McCain was left with nowhere to go.

McCain demonstrated he didn’t do his homework, when he asked Obama how big will Joe the Plumber’s fine be if he doesn’t provide his workers with health care. Obama explained that Joe’s fine will be zero dollars. He also pointed out that he (Obama) already explained in the last debate the exemption for small business owners. McCain was visibly flummoxed, which is something I’m told happens to old republicans.

[trish]

McCain protests he's not Bush. But he's just as anti-intellectual and anti-science as Bush is. McCain claims to be for education, but he isn't really behind inspiring our children to become scientists and engineers (people this country needs). If he were he wouldn't be harping for two debates in a row about the cost of the Adler Planetarium.

Here is what professor Andrey Kravstov had to say to the NY times about that overhead projector McCain keeps complaining about. [New York Times website (h/t Deoliver47)]:

I am an Associate Professor of Astronomy at the University of Chicago (the University that today has added yet another Nobel Prize winner in the sciences for the US). I would like to comment on Sen. McCain’s statement during the today’s debate that Sen. Obama has earmarked “$3 million for an overhead projector at a planetarium in Chicago, Ill. My friends, do we need to spend that kind of money?”

The way Sen. McCain has phrased it suggests that Sen. Obama approved spending $3 million on an old-fashioned piece of office equipment (overhead projector).
The 3 million is actually for an upgrade of the SkyTheater - a full dome projection system, which is probably the main attraction of the Adler Planetarium and is quite sophisticated and impressive piece of equipment.

I find it appalling that Sen. McCain would call a science education tool for public (largely children) for
a historic planetarium with millions of visitors a year a wasteful earmark. The planetarium’s focus, as stated on their website (http://adlerplanetarium.org) is “on inspiring young people, particularly women and minorities, to pursue careers in science.” Is an investment in such public facility at the time when US
competitiveness in math and sciences is a constant source of alarm a waste?

“American’s ability to compete in a 21st Century economy rests on our continued investments in math and science education,” said Rep. Brian Baird, Chairman of the Research and Science Education Subcommittee in Congress, after the passage of The 21st Century Competitiveness Act of 2007.

Considering such investments “wasteful earmarks” today, even in the face of the financial crisis, will severely cripple US economic competitiveness in the increasingly high-tech world down the road.

— Andrey Kravtsov, Chicago, IL

[PapaGrande]

Earmarks are just a distraction from the big picture of overall government spending, something McCain or Obama are not going to do anything about. Oh ya a few programs will get cut, a few "pork" bills vetoed, but nothing of significance would change. We are almost guaranteed to get more government spending regardless of who you vote for.

Its depressing to think that cutting a few billion here or there really makes no difference in the grand scheme of things.

[hippifried]

"A few billion here & a few billion there. Pretty soon you're talkin' real money."

I don't remember who said it. Hell, it might not even be an accurate quote. But you get the picture.