Some Thoughts On The First Debate

> Both candidates did a good job responding to each other's jabs by providing fuller context (although Obama conveniently declined to respond to McCain's comment that he's requested $900 million in earmarks in the Senate. Yeah, that's change. Although I would like to know how much McCain's requested.)

> I dislike McCain's continued Doomsday fearmongering that if we don't pass a bailout plan soon the country's gonna collapse. I'm much more concerned about the long-term incentives and effects of whatever may come out of this short-term politicized bill.

> I really like McCain's drive to dissect federal agencies and cut wasteful spending, especially in the bloated defense area, and his continued opposition to ethanol subsidies, which inflexibly prop up one type of energy and prevent the allocation of investing and resources to their most efficient uses.

> I dislike Obama's railing against the ideology of free markets and lack of regulation. It's kind of ironic to blame these ideas when it was some of the obstacles to the free market system (such as letting the government provide loans cheaper to people who really couldn't afford them) that were some of the very causes of our current crisis. It's like watching a ship sink because somebody didn't plug all of the holes and then blaming the policy of hole-plugging as ineffective.

> I was really glad that McCain mentioned that we have the second-highest corporate tax rates in the world, something that is a huge incentive for businesses to move to other countries instead of supporting the American economy. It was also important that Obama mentioned that tax loopholes make it one of the lowest rates. But loopholes do not help businesses equally, and Obama's plan to close these loopholes without lowering the tax rate will only provide an even greater incentive for businesses to leave America, making things worse, not better.

> I really dislike McCain's "League of Democracies." I'd hoped he'd abandoned that idea in the primaries, but I guess not. Our dealings with UN and NATO cause enough headaches - let's collect more world power in a global organization!

> I think (and this is probably the least rigid of my opinions, because it is only based on my unresearched reasoning) I agree with Obama's non-fear of talking to other world leaders without "preconditions." McCain's repeated claim that sitting across the table from a totalitarian and/or a liar somehow inherently legitimizes their claims or actions doesn't quite make sense to me.