McCain the Economic Easter Bunny

The Nation: McCain clung to the fading vision of Reaganomics as seen through the lens of George Bush, defaulting again and again to a lexicon of tax cuts for the richest, empty promises of trickle-down prosperity, fantasies of spending freezes and the certainty of deeper deficits and greater dysfunction in a federal government.
For McCain, ultimately, it was all about those tax cuts -- for plumber Joe Wurzelbacher in Ohio who wants to start a small business and, though he did not mention it, for corporations that earn more in a quarter than the GDPs of more than a few sovereign nations.
"The whole premise behind Sen. Obama's plans are class warfare, let's spread the wealth around. I want small businesses -- and by the way, the small businesses that we're talking about would receive an increase in their taxes right now," growled McCain. "Who -- why would you want to increase anybody's taxes right now?"
Obama chose to respond as an adult. More. 

Meanwhile, Karl Rove finds his own data to conclude Obama hasn't closed the deal.

In the campaign's final two weeks, voters will take a last serious look at both presidential candidates. The outcome of the race isn't cast in stone yet.

Barack Obama holds a 7.3% lead in the Real Clear Politics average of all polls, but the latest Gallup tracking poll reveals that there are nearly twice as many undecided voters this year than there were in the last presidential election. The Investor's Business Daily/TIPP poll (which was closest to the mark in predicting the 2004 outcome -- 0.4% off the actual result) now says this is a three-point race.

This week also brought a reminder that Sen. Obama hasn't closed the sale. The Washington Post/ABC poll found 45% of voters still don't think he's qualified to be president, about the same number who doubted his qualifications in March. You can read more if you want. The rest says Obama is bad. McCain is good.

Here's the even more distorted take on the debate from right wing mag Town Hall. It seems this columnist saw a different debate.

Town Hall: McCain scored big with the Joe the plumber exchanges, and with the campaign tactics exchange. Obama looked angry and stumbled repeatedly as he tried to cope with what he really told Joe the plumber --guaranteeing the replay of the clip again and again and underscoring Senator Obama's flexibility when it comes to facts-- and with what John Lewis said. Obama's answer on ACORN was a jaw dropper and opens the door to the MSM, as does the Ayers exchange. McCain drove this home without going overboard. Repeatedly returning to Joe the Plumber was key for McCain, and by the last half hour Obama was petulantly telling Joe what the "right thing to do by his employees" was. John McCain then spoke directly to Joe and put a bright line around Obama's "spread the wealth" line, and the "fundamental difference" between the campaigns. When Senator McCain slipped and called Senator Obama "Senator Government," he scored when he didn't even intend to. That's the sort of thing that marks a great debate for McCain, when even his verbal flub advances the key message.
McCain accomplished more in just the first half of the debate than he did in the first two debates total, and the second half was just as good for him. "Spread the wealth" is now the Obama brand, and that can move the polls. So too can the drilling exchange ("I so admire Senator Obama's eloquence.") Senator McCain was animated and informed through-out, and Sebator Obama on the defensive on many occasions, including the "Born Alive Infant Protection Act." Catholic voters watching this exchange could not be comfortable with the Obama dodges. "Another example of the eloquence of Senator Obama," countered McCain. "That's the extreme pro-abortion position in America," McCain replied to Obama's winding explanation.

There are polls out that say no one really cares about Ayers. I think even fewer people know about Acorn. I can't even follow the wingnut line of logic on Acorn.
Salon:

John McCain promised to kick Barack Obama's "you know what" on Wednesday night. He hinted that he'd bring up former Weather Underground leader Bill Ayers and worse. Instead McCain bludgeoned Obama with Joe the Plumber, and the effect was more farce than fierce.

McCain mentioned the now-famous plumber, Joe Wurzelbacher, an apparently wealthy Toledo businessman who complained he'd pay more taxes under Obama's plan, more than he talked about Sarah Palin or Osama bin Laden, by far. Midway through the 90-minute conversation, Obama was addressing Joe the Plumber, too. And it was clear by then that McCain had lost three straight debates.

Debate transcript
Debate fact check

Palin Holds Her Own

Palin did well. Biden did well.
It was civil and Gwen Ifill was totally fair, even softball. There were no questions about dinosaurs and humans walking the Earth together, religion and government or seeing Russia.
I was hoping for some drama on Palin's end, but it didn't happen. She is a smart debater, but lacks substance. She successfully avoided questions she didn't want to answer. As a watcher, it was easy to lose track of the question. I'm sure she connected with people who enjoy that cutesy talk. I don't know why. That talk does nothing for me. It's all performance.
Her pat answers to everything: lower taxes and drill, drill, drill, or rather "drill baby drill" and the surge worked.
She was wrong on Afghanistan. Hamid Karzai has criticized the U.S. for killing too many civilians and has made a special request to be more targeted and thoughtful. 
Biden held back big time. Good move, no harm. He also was to the point. Thanks Joe. But truthfully, I didn't pay as much attention to Joe. He didn't need to sell me. I think Joe's great.
Palin came out looking better because we thought she'd fall flat. Guess Obama's advisers were right.
I doubt Palin moved any independents, only rallied her base. Republicans have died and gone to heaven. 

I'd say she lost any undecided voters on the Mavericky One's position on the Iraq war. I think most of us, except for diehard war fans, want to move past the war in Iraq. She made it clear that McCain wasn't done -- he wasn't going to wave the white flag of surrender. 

I also think undecided voters will be able to see through the maverick charade. It's stale.
It will be interesting to see the polls tomorrow. I'm betting no change or an uptick for Obama.

Transcript
Link to debate polls. Cast your vote.
Fact check on Palin's claim that Obama voted to raise taxes 94 times.
More fact checking
Some analysis:
CNN
NYT
WaPo

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 Cucumber Cool in Debate

this is telling, an ohio newspaper poll says obama won the debate:

Who do you think won the
debate?
Clinton 52 (15.71%)
Obama 279 (84.29%)

nothing rattles him.
good hashing out of the issues.

key point: obama pointed out that clinton keeps saying she will "fight" for healthcare.
obama: you can't just fight. change happens when you mobilize and inspire the american people to demand healthcare.

on financing: obama's contributions average is $109

clinton said that "denouncing" wasn't as strong as "rejecting" the support of louis farrakhan, who announced his support for obama. he is know for his anti semitic views.

funny moment when obama concedes the point: "i would reject and denounce."

ends on a conciliatory note, this time with obama saying he's pleased to be running with her.
clinton returns the decent tone.

civil debate overall.

msnbc poll

Who won the debate? * 73606 responses
Hillary Clinton won.22%
Barack Obama won.65%
Neither won.13%
Did the debate help you decide who to vote for? * 71654 responses
Yes, my mind's made up.51%
No, I still can't decide.4.4%
It made me lean toward Hillary Clinton.11%
It made me lean toward Barack Obama.30%
It made me want to look elsewhere.2.9%
Will Ralph Nader's entrance into the presidential race hurt the Democrats? * 71798 responses
Yes, once again Nader could siphon off just enough votes to hurt the Democrats.20%
No, Nader doesn't have the sway he once had.80%

transcript

the soldier story fact check