Tuesday, October 7, 2008

First debate reax: quick and dirty

I haven't had a chance to watch the whole debate yet, and, from what I've read, I'm not sure I want to. Sounds like it wasn't the most exciting thing ever, although, for a political junkie like me, I'm guessing every second will have something of interest.

I did watch the question about the bailout. McCain clearly tried to pin everything on the Democrats and Obama. It was transparent, and almost silly, because he's not talking about Wall Street or the broader picture. Even someone with a minimal understanding of this crisis should know that Fannie and Freddie, while key, were also far from the whole story.

Obama, on the other hand, both personalized it very quickly and simply - this is what it means to you - and then went straight to the big picture: McCain advocated deregulation. Simple and powerful: deregulation of the financial should be striking fear into every American's heart at this point. He sounded like a teacher who really wanted to make sure his students understood what he was trying to explain. Not condescending towards them, but determined to make a complicated subject clear. Good for him.

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