A "Debate" Or Sound Bites?

Having skimmed the morning papers I see I have nothing new or surprising to add as far as my assessment of the debate is concerned. I will say I was extremely disappointed in both men's performance.

The first question set the tone. Allen Shaffer asked, "With the economy on the downturn and retired and older citizens and workers losing their incomes, what's the fastest, most positive solution to bail these people out of the economic ruin?"

Being a "retired and older" citizen myself I thought it a good question requiring a specific answer. Oh, well. I spent the next several minutes shouting at the TV, "Answer the question Obama! Answer the question Obama! Answer the question McCain!"

That's how the evening went. Not one question received a succinct answer. It was just an amalgamation of sound bites from stump speeches.

I will say McCain should be glad Obama declined more town hall meeting type encounters. He looked old and tired compared to an erect, youthful and poised opponent. His "my friends" mantra wore thin and his surliness didn't take long to surface.

Then the two men, who apparently don't much care for one another, started bickering like an old and not too happily married couple. Informative it was not.

I'm fortunate I won't be able to watch the third debate. What will I miss? More bickering and name calling and exaggeration of facts and misrepresentation of figures? Who needs it!

It just irritates me that two adult men running for the highest office in the land and one of the most powerful in the world have to stoop to what I watched last night to achieve it. How can we have a man of character leading our country when so much effort is put forth to destroy that character? Just what are we doing to ourselves?!