So I watched only a part of the Presidential debate last night, but it was enough to get me a little ticked off. I didn’t see enough to form an opinion as to who may have won, but did see enough to realize I am good and tired of rhetoric.
I know there is a financial
housing
mortgage
gasoline
healthcare
welfare
employment crisis.
What is to be done?
it was said someone would raise taxes.
Which ones? How much? For whom?
it was said someone would lower taxes.
Which ones? How much? For whom?
It was said McCain spent wantonly.
On what?
It was said Obama did, too.
Same thing.
It was said CHANGE was needed (which was agreed on by both candidates).
Both promised to deliver, but Obama did not (to my knowledge) specify the nature of the change he promised to deliver, or how he would deliver it.
I’m no political scientist, but isn’t that a little bit like telling a bill collector the check is in the mail? I’ll pay you, I will. You should have it any day now.
How much is the check you sent?
–It will take care of my debt.
Then what? What will ensure the same debt will not happen again?
I heard Obama said we should not have sent troops to a country that had nothing to do with what happened on 9/11. Does that make what was happening in that country any less wrong? And those people any less worthy of life without oppression, without being gassed, shot, and otherwise murdered by their own leader?
Apparently not. Let them die, I guess. Saddam Hussein did not fly a plane into the twin towers, nor tell anyone to.
I think that ticked me off more than anything.
Of course, I am not naive enough to believe that either of the candidates had (or have) all the answers. Neither one of them answered with what seemed to be complete specificity. Neither one of them is perfect.
But I have to say I do not support Obama.
A very good friend (as I mentioned before) described him as hollow. I believe that to be true. And after further reflection, how can I, as an American, support socialized medicine? How can that be the answer to the healthcare crisis?
How can simply repeating the matra “CHANGE” and making vague promises about how to facilitate it solve ANYTHING?
the answer is it can’t….
and it makes my decision all that much easier.
A Work in Progress 
Ha ha…sigh*…these elections are such a source of stress. It’s like I said this morning – what good is saying there will be change without really outlining how one is going to implement it? I could easily tell you: “Tom, I’m going to lower your rent and your utility bills! I’ll be saving you so much money!”
Now, you either say “Please explain how, and I’ll decide if I agree with your plan” or “That sounds absolutely WONDERFUL! Do it!!”
One way, you’ll know what I plan – bring in more roommates to lower rent, so what if you can only get in the bathroom once/day, or use the kitchen by reservation only? Or lower utilities by basically shutting them off and not allowing you to do anything (save the environment! use a candle!) – and can say “sorry, I don’t agree with that”. The other way, you’ll just end up being sorry because while I delivered, it wasn’t done in a way you could live with.