Why We Vote » Debate #1

Debate #1 - A Tie

October 1st, 2008 at 08:31pm Gary Tiffany

I’ve had what was to me a surprising number of people approach me in the last few days asking what I thought of the first Presidential debate. While I know that people do read this blog, it was interesting that they would take the time to approach me to see what I was thinking.

I must say that I wasn’t surprised by what I heard in the debate. Both candidates performed pretty much as I expected them to perform. Nobody went into much detail on any of their programs. I did think it was interesting that neither candidate, when asked what new programs they were proposing they would consider cutting back in light of the financial situation the country was in, would give a straight answer to the question. That’s too bad. Unfortunately, they don’t give the electorate enough credit. We haven’t heard anything from either candidate about “sacrifice” and how Americans are going to have to “tighten their belts” to get through this. Oh, no, we CAN’T do that!

Senator McCain did suggest the possibility of a spending freeze on everything BUT defense, veteran affairs and entitlement programs, but those programs make up the bulk of our government spending. Medicare, especially, is an entitlement program that needs better control. If you take those programs “off the table”, you’re not left with much room to cut spending.

But getting back to the debate, as I said earlier, I didn’t learn anything. I was really hoping that one of the candidates would say something to “capture the imagination”, but no such luck. Maybe next time. We’ve got the Vice Presidential Debate coming up Thursday, so we’ll see what happens there.