Scalpel Vs. Hatchet

Poster by Amy Martin

One of the most revealing lines of the debate: Obama said freezing spending would be like using a hatchet when a scalpel is needed.

They were asked about limited budgets due to the bailout. McCain said he'd freeze spending, except for veterans, defense and entitlement programs. 

That's McCain's style -- he's a hatchet. Without a second thought, fire the SEC chairman. Without a thought (practically) hire Palin. He doesn't have the kind of mind for second thinking and he has a narrow world view. McCain loathes details. He'd much prefer a hatchet. 

Meanwhile, Obama with his scalpel would be cautious and thoughtful and err on the side of doing the right thing. McCain would hatchet and think later.

There are plenty of folks who love a hatchet and there are plenty who love a scalpel. Bush is a hatchet. Sometimes a hatchet might be needed, responding to an attack, for example. But not with the U.S. budget. 

Here is that exchange:

LEHRER: What I'm trying to get at this is this. Excuse me if I may, senator. Trying to get at that you all -- one of you is going to be the president of the United States come January. At the -- in the middle of a huge financial crisis that is yet to be resolved. And what I'm trying to get at is how this is going to affect you not in very specific -- small ways but in major ways and the approach to take as to the presidency.

MCCAIN: How about a spending freeze on everything but defense, veteran affairs and entitlement programs.

LEHRER: Spending freeze?

MCCAIN: I think we ought to seriously consider with the exceptions the caring of veterans national defense and several other vital issues.

LEHRER: Would you go for that?

OBAMA: The problem with a spending freeze is you're using a hatchet where you need a scalpel. There are some programs that are very important that are under funded. I went to increase early childhood education and the notion that we should freeze that when there may be, for example, this Medicare subsidy doesn't make sense.

Let me tell you another place to look for some savings. We are currently spending $10 billion a month in Iraq when they have a $79 billion surplus. It seems to me that if we're going to be strong at home as well as strong abroad, that we have to look at bringing that war to a close.

MCCAIN: Look, we are sending $700 billion a year overseas to countries that don't like us very much. Some of that money ends up in the hands of terrorist organizations. We have to have wind, tide, solar, natural gas, flex fuel cars and all that but we also have to have offshore drilling and we also have to have nuclear power.

Senator Obama opposes both storing and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. You can't get there from here and the fact is that we can create 700,000 jobs by building constructing 45 new nuclear power plants by the year 2030. Nuclear power is not only important as far as eliminating our dependence on foreign oil but it's also responsibility as far as climate change is concerned and the issue I have been involved in for many, many years and I'm proud of the work of the work that I've done there along with President Clinton.

The whole debate transcript is here.

Poll says Obama wins. 

The CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey is not a measurement of the views of all Americans, since only people who watched the debate were questioned and the audience included more Democrats than Republicans.

Fifty-one percent of those polled thought Obama did the better job in Friday night's debate, while 38 percent said John McCain did better.

Men were nearly evenly split between the two candidates, with 46 percent giving the win to McCain and 43 percent to Obama. But women voters tended to give Obama higher marks, with 59 percent calling him the night's winner, while just 31 percent said McCain won.

Obama Wins the Debate Twice!

I suppose if you like McCain, then McCain came out looking like a smiling dog.
If you like Obama, then you thought he rocked. But Obama totally won.
Obama has the bigger vision -- a broader world view.
McCain has a limited world view. He only looks at the world through the eyes of a soldier. We need so much more.
If you were judging facial expressions, McCain looked angry and irritated. He probably feels like Obama is too young and that he shouldn't be challenging a wise old man. McCain looked like he could pop.
Obama was calm. He reduced the number of times he said "uh." McCain relied on his favorite lines - Ms. Congeniality, he name dropped extensively, the bracelet story he tells all the time (yes, I watch his town halls too). Obama said he had a bracelet too. 
Katie Couric says she called Henry Kissinger and he does support face to face negotiations without preconditions -- McCain said he didn't.
More in-depth analysis and lots of good catches.
Oh, for anyone wondering where Palin was for the after debate interviews -- Joe Biden was everywhere -- she declined. Rudy took her place.

McCain Wasn't in the "Cone of Silence?"

In the McCain camp's rebuttal, we learn that McCain was a prisoner of war. Woweee. I didn't know that. I guess prisoners of war don't lie, cheat, curse or any of that.

NYT: Members of the McCain campaign staff, who flew here Sunday from California, said Mr. McCain was in his motorcade on the way to the church as Mr. Obama was being interviewed by the Rev. Rick Warren, the author of the best-selling book “The Purpose Driven Life.”

The matter is of interest because Mr. McCain, who followed Mr. Obama’s hourlong appearance in the forum, was asked virtually the same questions as Mr. Obama. Mr. McCain’s performance was well received, raising speculation among some viewers, especially supporters of Mr. Obama, that he was not as isolated during the Obama interview as Mr. Warren implied.

Nicolle Wallace, a spokeswoman for Mr. McCain, said on Sunday night that Mr. McCain had not heard the broadcast of the event while in his motorcade and heard none of the questions.

“The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous,” Ms. Wallace said.