Woe is us

Because of the downpour in the third quarter of the Potters game last night, we came home and were able to see most of the presidential debate. It turns out that both Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama can speak without teleprompters, notes, or any other artificial apparatus. McCain does a much better job in the debate environment than he does making speeches.

By this point in the campaign, the candidates have their talking points down pat, so there were no surprises on the standard issues—Iraq, health care, etc. The weakest moment for each candidate came when moderator Jim Lehrer had to ask the same question several times about how the current financial crisis changes each candidate's approach to the presidency.

Instead of answering the question, both candidates fell back on generic, meaningless campaign babble on cutting government spending. McCain claimed he would cut everything except military; Obama’s mouth moved, but I don’t know what he said. Aside from the fact that neither has the slightest credibility in cutting government spending, they kept responding the same way each time Lehrer asked the question.

Explanation for the inept responses could be as follows: Neither candidate has a clue what to do, or neither candidate wants to commit to a position on record because he is afraid it will fail or become politically unpopular.

Let me put it another way. If the federal government decides to use taxpayer money to bail out all these failed banks while at the same time rewarding those who are personally responsible, the American public is going to be looking for someone’s head, especially if the bailout fails to stabilize the financial markets.

Forbes reports that over “$3 billion was paid to the chief executives of the five biggest financial firms on Wall Street in the run-up to the credit crisis. While supervising bad mortgage-related credit bets that eventually brought the financial system to its knees, Merrill Lynch’s Stanley O’Neal took in $172 million in 2003-07, while Bear Stearns’ James Cayne took in $161 million.

“The $3.1 billion paid to execs was about three times the price JP Morgan paid for Bear Stearns in June. Goldman Sachs was most generous with its top players, paying out $859 million over that span. Henry Paulson was among those benefiting from Goldman largesse, taking in $111 million before becoming Treasury Secretary. Bear Stearns was next at $609 million. With $93 billion in net income, the firms’ average pay per employee was $353,089.” (Newser)

Explain that while you’re asking every man, woman, and child in America to pony up to save ourselves from the rich guys who caused the problem.

I don’t know what’s going to happen with this whole financial crisis thing, but it’s pretty clear that the rich aren’t the ones worrying about it. The politicians are counting on the issues being too complex for the electorate to follow, but if we see all their friends walking away scot free on this, the mood of the mob will turn sour fast.

Friday’s debate should make the American people very nervous. These are two very weak candidates, and neither of them deserves our support. Frankly, I think the election will come down to Sarah Palin. Outside the evangelical right and strict party loyalists, no one could possible want that nutball a heartbeat away from the presidency, especially with an old-timer like McCain at the helm.

Is there any way we can call off this election and do the process over again? I’m serious.

Speaking of the White House, here’s something that got passed my way this morning about our friends in the Bush Administration. According to U.S. law, many of the people named in this video should end up in prison.