McCain (Almost) Takes Gloves Off

John McCain told a supporter last week that he was planning to take the gloves off against Obama in last night's Townhall Debate. He came close at the beginning.

He hit Obama with the double whammy right off the bat: McCain called for regulation of Fannie and Freddie and Senate Democrats defeated it.Oh, and by the way, Obama has gotten more money in his three years in the Senate from Fannie Mae than anyone else ever, except for Chris Dodd.

It was a great start.

But then it fizzled.

That isn't to say that McCain did poorly. He answered some questions well and got into more substantive details than he has at any time to this point. He finally asserted that he's not in favor of lowering taxes on the rich - he just wants to leave tax rates where they are. He hit Obama on the notion that raising taxes on anyone making $250,000 or more will affect a lot of small business and kill jobs. He mentioned looking at Obama's record, which is noticiably thin or the exact opposite of the things he says he will do now.

But other than that, it was pretty standard stump speech material on both sides (well other than McCain's bomb shell announcement that he wants to let the government buy troubled mortgages and renegotiate the payment based on current home values - I think a lot of people will suddenly find themselves with a "troubled mortgage" to get in on that deal).

So, in essence, McCain passed up on a lot of chances to hit Obama.

When Obama mentioned education reform as his third highest priority (skipping social security reform, which was specifically posed in the question), McCain should have hit him on the William Ayers association (more on Ayers in my next blog post).

When Obama said he is in favor of more oil, but we have to explore more first, or in favor of nuclear power, as long as we develop safe methods of storage, or in favor of clean coal, as soon as we develop the technology, McCain should have slammed him as hedging. We already have ALL of those technologies. Obama just wants a way out of actually promising to persue any of those energy methods. In his standard speech, he mentions only wind, solar, and biofuels. McCain should have jumped all over it.

When Obama claimed that he was going to cut taxes for 95% of Americans, McCain should have questioned his math - 40% of Americans don't pay ANY income tax. You can't give them a tax reduction; you are just giving them free cash. When Obama said taxing the rich more is just simple fairness, McCain should have expopsed him for the socialist he is. The rich already pay more in taxes. Even with a flat tax, the rich would pay more because they make more. That's fair! The wealthiest 5% of Americans pay 80% of the Federal Government's tax revenue. That's more than fair enough as it is. Why should they pay more?

When Obama claimed McCain was proposing to give corporate CEO's a $700,000 tax break, McCain should have slammed him on attempting to mislead people - Obama wants to take that much money away from them, McCain just wants them to keep it. He's not in favor of raising taxes - that isn't the same as giving them money (which Obama wants to do), it's just letting them keep more.

When someone in the audience (in section F, I believe - whatever that means) asked if we should wait for UN Security Council approval to protect Israel, McCain should have slammed Obama's response to Russia's invasion of Georgia. Obama said we should see how the UN Security Council responds - perhaps he forgets that RUSSIA has veto power in the Security Council.

When Obama kept harping about taking our eye off of Afghanistan, McCain should have question why, as head of a committee with oversight into Afghanistan, Obama never held hearings about the situation in that country. He has not been interested in Afghanistan until he began running for President and saw an opportunity to question the Bush administration.

So, McCain (once again) dropped the ball. He started off so promising, and then just dissapointed yet again. I think anyone else could probably win this election over Barack Obama (too late to nominate Romney and his economic experience?). This should be a Democrat's year, but the Democrats managed to put up the worst candidate possible. Well, maybe the second worst candidate possible.