But I can make some informed guesses. First of all, if you sit down firmly convinced that Obama is the better man, you will still think that at the end of the night. Ditto if you are a McCain supporter. Unless your candidate flings off his clothes and runs screaming down the aisles, you will conclude that he won.
Second, if you are really on the fence, it may be a while before you know who you think won the debate. That's because you will mingle your own impressions with reactions filtered through the media. And finally, how it comes out will have almost nothing to do with what positions the candidates take. Neither is going to come out in favor of abolishing all taxes, or nationalizing your toothbrush.
Odds are you won't remember what they said.
These debates are really about comfort levels. Not to insult any third party candidates, but one of these two men is going to be the next President. Someone with the power to destroy the world, and the world economy, and hopefully also the potential to save it.
Each of these two men has a different problem. Barack Obama's is simple. He is a man of color in a majority white society, with issues of race never far from the surface. Everybody knows he is young, inspiring and energetic.
But can he make us feel comfortable enough?
John McCain is an authentic war hero. But there are questions about his age and health. The nation may be excited about his running mate, but few think she is ready to be president. There are also questions about how connected he is to average people. When the Wall Street crisis began, he seemed out to lunch. It didn't help that we had just learned that he owns thirteen cars.
The worst thing that could happen to Obama in these debates is to come across as an intellectual elitist who you couldn't imagine at a barbecue. The worst thing for McCain would be the impression that he is a cranky old man who doesn't understand the economy, and who is itching to send American boys into more wars.
Most of the time, these debates haven't decided elections. I can think of one major exception. In 1980, the nation was thoroughly tired of Jimmy Carter. But they weren't really comfortable yet with Ronald Reagan. But with a series of one-liners, Reagan made the nation feel at ease, and went on to win 44 states.
Today, we are uneasy about our future, and we are going to hire one of these two guys to run the most important ship in the world, at a time when it seems to have sprung a few leaks.
Whatever happens, there is just one thing I can't imagine:
Not tuning in.
I find it extremely frustrating that Sen.McCain said he is against Ethanol a renewable fuel that is both cleaner burning and easier to produce than gas.
Which will add many jobs and keep local energy dollars close to home.
A fuel that GM and Ford has already positioned itself able to use with flex fuel burning engines.
Last Fri GM announced that it will build its 4 cylinder engine that will power its Volt in Flint. We have yet to see if it will be a high compression engine able to efficiently use ethanol, like the engines now produced in Brazil by all the car makers that sell in that market.
I hope that the idea that we need to scrap ethanol by Sen. McCain will get a full airing from experts in the field.
for more info please see
http://www.permaculture.com
Posted by: mike | September 28, 2008 at 04:05 PM