Obama McCain

As a staunch McCain supporter I'm over the defeat; that is except when the Obama administration attempts to use parts of the McCain platform that they previously criticized. When the Obama administration followed the McCain plan in their Iraq and Afghanistan I was relieved. They weren't as reckless as their campaign statements made them appear. Also, I have to give them a gamesmanship points (even if they lose honesty points) for completely sticking it to the far left without making them angry. Yet the annoyance started when Obama used the McCain rhetoric about the economy without including all that pesky fiscal discipline. The statements post stimulus about strong economic fundamentals were practically verbatim what Senator McCain said during the election. Now health care is on the table and so is taxing employer based health insurance. Remember Obama campaign ads revolved around the idea that this was a terrible plan for Senator McCain to propose. Now it apparently is not such a bad idea. What makes it worse is that in the McCain plan there was a $5000 tax credit that would have off-set the tax. There will be no tax credit with the Democrat's plan, so any tax assessed is coming right out of your pocket. I'll get over the annoyance, but if the Obama administration keeps adapting McCain ideas the least they could do is adopt his fiscal discipline (and math skills) too.

Obama Using McCain Ideas

I saw the debate as an uneven draw. The economic issues inflicted damage on McCain, who was clearly unprepared, but the shift to foreign policy meant that McCain improved his position as the debate wore on.

Other points

--No serious gaffes, although there was a lot of BS

--Obama was well briefed and held his own for the most part

--McCain explained the earmarks issue in the best manner I have ever seen presented, although I don't think he should have harped on it.

--Obama lied when he denied voting to raise taxes on those making more than $42,000

--McCain failed to call out Obama for his BS enough

--Obama failed to BS his way through the Iran meetings and nuclear power

--Linking Obama to Bush in terms of stubborness was one of McCain's best lines.

--Obama: "No American soldier ever dies in vain" WTF? What did you think would happen if we abandoned the Iraqis?

--McCain's closing was strong

--I doubt this will change the state of the race by a significant margin