Checked in w/ my sister re: last night's debate.

[Plaid Adder]

I mentioned that annoyed me that there were all these good questions and neither candidate really answered them. Obama is slightly better at this than McCain but not by much. Both of them have a couple 2-minute spiels on their economic plans memorized and they just trot them out whenever someone asks them a question. Basically I felt a lot of the time as if once you'v ehad the one debate, it's kind of a waste of time to repeat it, since they're just going to provide the same answers no matter hwat questions they get.

And then I said, "What really worries me is that I don't think anyone in either campaign--or perhaps in the world--knows what to do to fix this shit going down with the global economy."

She agreed.

Obama at least understands about regulation. But still. What really scares me is feeling like nobody--not just nobody on Obama's team, but NOBODY--knows what all this is going to look like in a year, or what it would take to turn the thing around.

I'm not saying Obama didn't win hands down. I'm saying I don't think he really knows what's going to solve this problem--a condition he shares with everyone elase. All we know is that once again, we are fucked, even if the new guy is really good at his job.

Another good moment that I had not mentioned before:

After McCain did his whole condescension act to the man who asked what the bailout would do for him, Obama--uncharacteristically--began his response by actually answering the man's question, putting off his self-defense until afterward. I thought this was worth noting--that he was willing to depart from his script in order to respect this guy who had just been dissed by his opponent.

C ya,

The Plai dAdder

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[Aloha Spirit]

1. I think this guy might know...

http://cboblog.cbo.gov/

Peter Orszag.
He's been brilliant giving testimony to the Senate Finance Committee since he started as Director in 2006.