Prometheus 6

Question: What the fasted way to save recent retirees from the credit crunh?

Obama: 1: the rescue package that hasn't done anything. 2: Middle class tax cuts, health care reforms, infrastructure, health care, energy

McCain: He said something to Obama! Shocking! The plan: Energy independence, low taxes for everyone, do "something" about home values (buy bad mortgages  and renegotiate them)

Brokaw: Who will be your Treasury Secretary?

McCain: Warren Buffet, Meg Whitman (eBay)

Obama: Warren Buffet, other folks

Question: What in the bailout package will actually help folks?

McCain: Rescue, not bailout. Blame Fannie and Freddie, and the standard bullshit about blaming the folks who were told this was THE way to go. And apparently the bailout package will not help anyone at all.

Obama: It will enable folks to keep going about their business and paying salaries. McCain's history is wrong...deregulation is the big problem. He compained to Fannie and Freddie two years ago, to Wall street a year ago and got ignored. The bailout is just the beginning.

Brokaw: It gets much worse before it gets better?

Obama: No, IF the next president does the right thing.

McCain: Depends on what we do. (P6: Being the "bets imported got us in this...)

Question: How do we trust either of you to fix this?

Obama: DEMOCRATS weren't the ones to blow up the deficit...ocus on health care, energy, college tuition. I'm increasing spending is some areas, but cutting more in others.

McCain: Bipartisanship (???) Obama is the most liberal Senator in the history of the universe

(P6: McCain likes the town hall thing because by looking at voters, he doesn't have to look at Obama .

Brokaw: Health care, social security, entitlement reform must be prioritized...in what order?

McCain: All of them.

Obama: Energy, health care, education.

Question: What sacrifice will you ask of ALL Americans?

McCain: We may have to cut some programs. Eliminate earmarks.

Obama: Save energy (you get incentives, though). Hammered coporations a little bit. Peace/Volunteer Corp.

Brokaw: How do you break the "drunk on credit" thing?

Obama: Starts with Government. Spend smart, but tax smart too. Use a scalpel instead of a hatchet.

McCain: No answer.

Question: Unfunded entitlement spending? Will you put a two year deadling on reforming social security?

Obama: Fix tax policies and you can fix entitlements. And that's should be done in the first term.

McCain: Social security isn't hard to fix, we know what the problem is. Medicare is tougher...create a commission.

Question: Congress moved fast on economic problems, will you make them move fast on environmental problems?

McCain: Wants nuclear power.

Obama: Thermal, wind, solar, and nuclear as a part of the solution.

Break as I pour some cabernet...

Question: Should health care be a commodity?

DAMN GOOD QUESTION!!! It SHOULD NOT BE!!! I don't care what either of them say because neither sees health care as the public good it should be.

LATER: Okay, Obama said health care should be a right. Big, big plus for Obama in my eyes.

Question: How will the recent economic stress affect our ability to play world cop?

McCain: No answer.

Obama: No answer.

Brokaw: Standards for military intervention.

Obama: There are moral standards that might compel us to act (sounds like genocide would do it)

McCain:  Also genocide...But McCain is calling for a cool hand to steer events! He's going to have to hire someone else to handle it, neither he nor Palin have a cool hand.

Question: Respect Pakistan's sovereignity or ignore their borders for our war?

Obama: If we know where the target is, we get him. If Pakistan doesn't work with us, too bad.

McCain: No answer.

Question: How to we sweat Russia on humanitarian issues?

McCain: Get eastern Europe into NATO. Give the moral support.

Obama:  That, plus econimic help (we got no money, though...).

Brokaw: Is Russia an evil empire?

Obama: They've done evil things.

McCain: maybe.

Question: If Iran attacks Israel, would you support Israel right away or wait for the UN?

McCain: Not waiting, due to the Russian and Chinese vetoes in the security council.

Obama: No nukes for Iran (like you can stop it). Maybe not right away, but not waiting for the UN either.

Question: What don't you know and how will you learn it? (You should know no one really answers that question...)

Obama: You get to wander like hell with a question like that.

McCain:  I don't know what happens next.

What was up with Brokaw's petty attention to the time limits?

Well, he did have to get all the questions in, and only had an hour and a half.

My problem was that Obama was the one he consistently tried to cut off

I guess I wasn't paying attention to him.

"...My problem was that Obama was the one he consistently tried to cut off"

Nope, you weren't alone on that one! If I didn't know better, I'd have almost sworn Brokaw, whom I've always had respect for, was trying to level the field to make up for Ifill's turn, or some such nonsense!

(...If ANYBODY's on a roll, let them go for it and make their point! How are you going to cut someone off mid-thought?)

I think Brokaw has a bit of a man-crush on McCain. He has acted as a partisan on his behalf amidst the in-fighting between the broadcast and cable factions within NBC. The fact is McCain's partisans in the press can't save him from himself at this point. There was anticipation that Ifill was going to favor the Obama-Biden ticket, but it was obvious she wasn't out to favor anyone. She pretty much stood by as Palin ignored her questions and spouted off her talking points. I can't see how Brokaw thought he needed to counterbalance the perception of bias towards Obama-Biden in the vice-presidential debate when in reality none existed. Brokaw is just out to distance himself from the Olberman crowd at NBC who were not around when McCain unleashed his charm offensive on the press and thus do not fall under his spell.

Brokaw has been around McCain as long as McCain has been around.

Brokaw is just out to distance himself from the Olberman crowd at NBC who were not around when McCain unleashed his charm offensive on the press and thus do not fall under his spell.

That is a real possibility.

Brokaw is nostalgic for the day when he and McCain were middle-aged.