I was looking forward to tonight’s debate between Clinton and Obama. For those of you who watched it, as I did, I’m sorry. I’m sorry because you probably feel like you wasted two hours, but I’m also sorry to see that this bullshit passes for debate. The ABC News website has a blog with thousands of comments, most of which express great anger at this travesty. I’ll defer to one such commenter:
Our country is engaged in unlawful war, our military is breaking, our economy faces severe recession, our moral standing in the world has collapsed, our currency has lost nearly half its value, our infrastructure is disintegrating, our citizens cannot afford to stay in their homes though Wall Street moguls make billions of dollars annually, our current adminsitration condones and encourages torture – and lies to us about their actions, our borders cannot be adequatley policed for unlawful entry, our school sytems are so underfunded as to be barely above ‘third-world’ standards, our major auto manufacturers refuse to create vehicles that achieve even half the mpg of European manufactures, our minimum wage is slightly above poverty levels, our health care system operates to benefit the pharmaceutical industry, our veterans are ignored; their physical and emotional suffering trivialized, our energy conglomerates purposely stand in the way of advancing alternative energy, our citizens believe elections have been manipulated and stolen – and that our government has manufactured terror to maintain the facade of protecting us, our constitutional rights and responsibilities have been abridged and decimated, our access to meaningful ‘news’ is stymied by corporate media interests, our government spies on us by unlawful means under the guise of protecting our freedoms, our military commanders present disparate assessments of our ‘success’ in the middle east, our citizenry argues about gay marriage and flag burning while congress postures about life-saving possibilities of stem cell research, our airwaves are filled with hate speech spewing from commentators more interested in shocking us than being truthful….. and you waste our time at this most crucial period in US history asking a man as intelligent and insightful as Senator Obama why he doesn’t wear a flag pin on his lapel? This? This is the best we can do to elect a president?####.Bitter in Seattle
Indeed. Given the multitude of issues that are dogging threatening the very soul of this country, it is shameful that an hour is spent discussing flag pins, tenuous connections to some ex-radical from the 1960’s and other crap. When they “cut to video” to show a concerned midwesterner (who’s hair and home, by the way, looked straight out of the early eighties) ask about flag pins and patriotism, I felt like kicking her head in. I wonder how life is for her… does she have health insurance, a good job, college savings for her children? When she was given the opportunity to address the nation, all she could ask about is a meaningless symbol. I bet she has a magnetic ribbon made in China expressing support for our troops on her Ford Taurus.
But there will always be people like her. The real travesty is the fact that ABC sanctioned this garbage. It should come as no surprise to the older generations, after this debate, that very few people my age (25) watch network news. It has reached the point where the whole packaging of the news is so biased as to render it meaningless. There’s a lot of talk over at Kos about boycotts, etc. and I’m all for that. We need to cut ourself out of this destructive cycle:
http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html
We need big picture talk in these big picture times. Bush will soon leave office, but the damage done to our national institutions, including the media, will take a lot of work to repair. To hear it straight, check out NovaM Radio, home to Mike Malloy, and now, Randi Rhodes. Voices speaking truth to power are out there, but we must actively seek them out. Candidates must do the same and insist upon issues-based debates. If our national networks can not handle this, then let bloggers team up with PBS. No more.
At least there has been a tidal wave of outrage over the foolish, inane questions posed by the moderators. It appears that they were not acting as journalists, but as game show hosts. “That’s infotainment, folks!”
great! thanks for sharing!
I disagree with your thoughts. The fact is that up until the recent Penn debate, the media has in essence given Obama a free pass and has scrutinized and picked at everything that Hillary did. For the first time Obama had to answer hard questions and he looked puzzled, rattled, and flummoxed. Obama has spent his entire campaign thus far talking positively about hope and change. Up until now the media has eaten it up and never challenged anything he has done. Obama looked very bad in the debate and came across as an inexperienced guy that wasn’t sure how to handle the tough questions.
When he was faced with the tough questions, he folded like a house of cards. When he had to face attacks from Hillary, he wilted like a houseplant devoid of water. In short Obama looked bad…really bad. And its only going to get tougher.
McCain will be far worse than Hillary and many thinking dems question can he really win in November?
The fact is that the debate itself is a very small issue. The bigger issue is that people allow the media to tell them what to think. Some people in the media said that the debate was unfair so now a lot of nonthinking parrots echo the same statement. Instead people should actually take a moment and actually notice the BIG mistakes that each candidate made. For example, both Hillary and Obama pledged to not raise taxes on citizens making less then 250k annually. It was foolish statement to make because it is obvious that in order to pay for a lot of the programs they want(such as universal health care) they will need to raise taxes. You might say that he will pay for it by ending the war, but trust me when I say this, Obama knows that he cannot pull out of the war immediately.
Sorry WD. I completely disagree with your assessment of the debate and disappointed you chose to join the circus instead of taking a hard look at what was said and what was not said.
-BT
Big Tex,
Of course, I appreciate your comments. I do however take offense to the implication that I am a “nonthinking parrot” just blithely following the lead of the punditry. I admit that I am one of many individuals upset about the debate, and frankly, I feel no need to apologize for the fact that my view is not in the minority. In fact, you ask for me to take a look at what was said, ok, let’s do that. There was talk about patriotism and lots of diversions. I didn’t hear anything really convincing about Iraq from either one of them, and no time was spent discussing the horrific economic situation in this country. So I was listening but due to the “gotcha” questions asked by the moderations, heard nothing. Both candidates seemed weak to me, and admittedly, Hillary did seem to win. But the deck was stacked with inane questions and in reality, the format of the debate was setup to make both of them look like losers. Obama should have been more prepared for these right-wing attacks. So BT, when you chastise me about following the crowd, remember that we Democrats are no longer going to cower in fear as we have in the past. If any party is guilty of massing great hoards of people with misinformation, it is your own.
WD,
Thanks for your response.
My intention was not to insinuate that you are a “non thinking parrot” but I stand by my choice of words. All I have heard from a lot of people that didn’t actually watch or read the debate is basically the same thing. Sadly this type of activity is one that goes on both sides of the political spectrum.
You say that there were a lot of questions about diversion and patriotism and not about the War in Iraq or the economy. Thats a fair point, but the question is do we really need to hear that? Obama and Hillary have been talking about those issues for the past 6 months. If you listen to any stump speech or any other debate these issues have already been covered. I liked that this debate asked questions which were new. For the first time, the candidates had to actually think on their feet as opposed to go back to their generic stock answers.
You say that this debate “was setup to make both of them look like losers” but I think what really happened is that they exposed the candidates for what they really are. Hillary came across as an absolute bitch that was set on beating Obama over the head despite how that could badly misfire for the democratic party in November. Obama looked like a guy that was uncomfortable outside of the element of a prepared speech and seemed to struggle when he had to think on his feet. And, you know what, thats exactly what they are.
WD, while you democrats might not cower in fear, yall need to pay attention to the past lest you repeat its failures. Both Al Gore and John Kerry grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory because they allowed someone else to define who they were. Obama needs to get going and define himself and who he is before the Republicans do it. What this debate clearly pointed out is that there are a lot of little question marks about Obama. From his wife’s comments, his decision to not wear the flag pin, his pastor for over 20 years, his comments about small town America, his refusal to allow Florida and Michigan a chance to revote and seat delegates at the convention, and his claim to not raise taxes and yet have Universal Health Care make many people stop and ask if this guy really represents them or if he is another in a long line of Harvard educated elitists talking down to them.
The Democratic strategy of having representational voting has been an unmitigated disaster. If the democratic primary was like the republicans and the general election, the dem race would be all but over. The nastiness in the campaign would not occur and there would be a very good chance that the race is over by June. Now, the race looks like it will come all the way to my backyard (Denver) and it will be getting increasingly nasty. This nastiness could very well come to bite yall on the ass.
THATS why I thought the debate was so important for the Democrats. This will be the kind of stuff that Obama will get in the general election against McCain. I don’t support Obama, but if I did, I would be glad that disaster was against Hillary in April and not McCain in October. Obama has time to learn and grow, Thats why that was an important debate.
I was surprised and disappointed that you did not pick up on that.