With John McCain potentially dropping out of Friday night’s debate due to the enormity of the current economic crisis, Barack Obama has resolutely declared that the debate will go on as scheduled. John Lillpop of Canada Free Press has artfully suggested that perhaps Obama could debate Joe Biden, since the two “have been at each other’s throats all week“. Lillpop goes on to suggest that Obama could even debate himself, since he seems to be on both sides of most issues.
“You know, he could present both sides of his flip flop arguments on abortion, troop withdrawal from Iraq, and a host of other issues in which the Anointed One has made illogical arguments on both sides.”
What makes this a promising debate is that Obama can argue equally well for both sides of an issue, and frequently does. The advantage of not having a principled stand on an issue is that it is easier to choose either side, neither side, or both sides simultaneously without affecting ones intellectual integrity. Indeed, integrity only gets in the way of political posturing anyway. So how might the debate appear if Obama were to challenge himself to this verbal duel? Foreign policy was to be the topic for discussion, so from that context we will proceed. Since Jim Lehrer was to be the moderator, we’ll let him ask the questions.
Lehrer: Greeting gentlemen, er gentleman, er Senator Obama.  Thank you for joining us for our first televised Presidential debate from Oxford Mississippi. We appreciate your attending.
Obama: Um…Uh…Thank you for inviting me. And let me also thank the residents of Oxblood for graciously having me hear. I haven’t had the opportunity to visit Missouri very frequently, so it’s a pleasure to be here
Lehrer:Â Senator, thats Oxford, Mississippi, not Oxblood, Missouri.
Obama: Uh…that’s what I meant to say, um… Oxor, Mississississippppi. Like I said, I’m just happy to be here.
Lehrer:  Very well, let us proceed then. Senator Obama, the war in Iraq has occupied much of the country’s attention over the last 51/2 years. What, if anything, would you have done differently if you were the president.
Obama: To start with, I would not have gotten us into the war in Iraq, I have said that plainly and repeatedly over the past 5 years. I believe the war was a mistake, and the way we handled the war was a mistake from day one. However, I do believe that our troops did a great job and they deserve our support.
Lehrer:Â But didn’t you vote to cut funding for the troops.
Obama:Â Um…Uh…yes, but that was to bring them home sooner, with honor
Lehrer:Â So you believe leaving Iraq in the midst of the war with Al Qaeda on the rise would have been with honor.
Obama: Well now…no, that’s not what I said. I said we needed to systematically draw down our levels of troops and redeploy them elsewhere. And besides, Al Qaeda wasn’t in Iraq before we got there.
Lehrer:Â But they were in Iraq after we got there, right?
Obama: Well yes…sort of…It wasn’t the Al Qaeda I know. It was some other Al Qaeda. Besides, that wasn’t our fight, hunting Bin Laden was. I know where he is, and if I’m elected President, I’ll find him and bring him to justice.
Lehrer: This brings me to my next question. Did you actually support giving terrorists caught on the battlefield constitutional rights and legal representation?
Obama: Of course, if our constitution doesn’t cover foreigners, who does it cover? Everyone is entitled to an attorney. That’s why I studied law, because the world needs more lawyers. Besides, most of these terrorists, er…freedom fighters, are simply misunderstood. They grew up in poverty because of America’s crass imperialism. I’m sure if we just talked to them and gave them more money, they would change their minds and stop trying to destroy us.
Lehrer: But weren’t the highjackers on 911 educated and moderately well off? Isn’t Bin Laden himself a multi-millionaire?
Obama: Well…um…yes, but most of the people in the world are poorer than us, so they hate us. The Iranians for instance, they can barely afford their jihad.  If they had more money, they would stop hating us. Everyone around the world hates us. We have too much money, that’s why. That is why I proposed the Global Poverty Act, to give the UN control over all our money, so they can distribute it to all the poorer countries, and then they will stop hating us.
Lehrer:  But if they hate us so, why are so many people around the world are trying to move here, whether legally or illegally.
Obama:  Because they hate us! And now that I’m President, they will stop hating us, and Michelle will be proud to be an American.
Lehrer: Excuse me, Senator, but you’re not President yet, you have to be elected first.
Obama: We all know that is just a formality. After all, the world wants me to be President. Haven’t you seen the gold coins I’ve had minted. (reaches into his pocket and produces one of the coins) See! It has my picture on it. And on the back is a picture of the White House. It says “President of the United States” on it, just like on the seat in my jet. I had a presidential seal once, but David Axelrod said I couldn’t use it until after the election. No fair! Once I’m President, he’ll get his! So will everyone else who didn’t support my candidacy. I’m the ONE! How dare they disrespect me! After I’m through with them, they’ll wish they were in a Russian gulag. I have big plans, and no one is going to stop me! Not you, not John McCain, not that moose hunting, hockey mom he chose for a vice-president either. I will destroy them all and this country along with them if I don’t get my way. I’ll claim it’s racism. You won’t vote for me because you’re all racists. TYPICAL WHITE RACISTS!!! I HATE YOU ALL!!!!
(auditorium is silent, camera pans around at the jaw gaping crowd. Crickets chirp in the distance)
Lehrer: Well, perhaps it’s best to end this debate here. Is there anything you would like to add?
Obama:Â Did I mention that they love me over in Europe?
Lehrer: On behalf of PBS, thank you from Oxford, Mississippi and good night. (under his breath: “Geez, what a putz!”)
LOL… so funny, but yet, so close to reality!
what a load of crap! Is Barry a Senator or not? Is he wanting to lead the country or not? Is this the worst financial crisis since the Great depression (Barry’s own words) or NOT?
If your house was on fire, would you say, well if the wife and kids need me, they can call me. or as the supposed head of the household would you not take it upon yourself to be there to insure that if you were needed, you would already be there.
After all the crap the Dems gave Bush for not being in a row boat with a bucket after Katrina, when constitutionally he was barred from doing anything, it is so insane that you will throw cover for Obama NOT doing the job he IS paid to do, let alone taking a leadership role as he claims to be fit for.
He says that the next president is going to have to deal with this issue, so wouldn’t that next president be wise to insure that the issue is presented to them in as best a form as possible?
Obama showed a complete lack of leadership and total disregard for the welfare of the nation. And saying that he could multitask is tantamount to saying his campaign is on equal footing to the national banking crisis. How big is that ego there Barry? I can multitask with the best of them but if my mother is sick and at risk of dieing, I dam well would cancel my job interviews to go be there, whether she asked me to or not. No one would have to wait for me to respond to a phone call and hope that I got there in time.
Obama just got tested to see exactly how he would deal with that supposed phone call at 3am and now we know,,, he’d put it on hold to go get a sammich.
Bill C,
You have got to be kidding!!! It seems that no matter how outrages the things that come out of the republican camp sounds… People fall for all this crap… McCain admittedly knows nothing about the economy. He and Palin have been taking crash courses trying to pretend that they are trying to put something together to save Wallstreet. The bottom line is that McCain is not ready for a debate with Barack. Even Sean Hannity said today that Palin would stand a better chance against Barack. Which you and I both know is a absolute joke.
I will agree that our leaders the far need to get this matter settled. However; the question I have to ask is how and why did Bush and our elected leaders let things go this far for so long that it even got to this point. Bush is blaming the Clinton administration for all the problems. However who has been in office for the last eight years? Not Bill….It’s amazing to me that some folks are blaming Barack for Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. If he is the blame for them then who is the blame for Wall Street, AIG, Lehmann, etc. I guess democrats are the blame for everything. Maybe if you called Bush at 3:00 A.M. it would ring and ring until the answering machine came on. Because someone has not been answering the phone. America is in trouble financially. That is why we need someone that we can have in office that can try to solve some of these problems. Not someone that is going to pretend that he can solve them.
Do you have any idea how much preparation goes into planning a presidential debate? I have no idea presonally. But to cancel or postpone it just another way of throwing money out of the window. McCain needs to be there, people need to hear from both canidates ” Now ” to know what and if they can do to help our economy.
By the way ” Barack ” is Mr. Obama’s name not Barry.
Why are the democrats scared to delay the debate for 10 days or so. McCain has taken the issue of leadership away from Hussein O and he won’t get it back. Hussein left the meeting with the president today and went to a ‘hotel’. Hasn’t he spent enough time in D.C. during his four years in the Senate to have a home there? I know 143 days on the floor isn’t long but he should have a home instead of a hotel, he’s stolen enough from the taxpayers to buy several homes. All you hear from the media is that Hussein is a ‘rock star’. Who the he** wants a drugged out rock star without the brains to pour pi** our of a boot as POTUS?
Right, Johnny… that’s why McCain was giving floor speeches in May 2006 for S 190, urging swift action on reforming Fannie/Freddie.
So we know where McCain was in May of 2006… that guy who’s “trying to pretend that they are trying to put something together to save Wallstreet” He, the Bush WH and the GOPers were trying to fix this problem in advance.
Now, assuming this is one of the 143 days your boy, Obama, decided to show up in the Senate, what was he doing?
Sorry, bubba… this one is clearly and plainly *owned* by McCain. Drop the talking points, and get with the program of facts, guy.
BTW, Barack was known as “Barry” during his school days… when he was not using the Obama surname. You really are behind the times, eh?
Now, now Johnny.
You and I both know that is not true.
Either you didn’t pay attention closely enough so that you could hear and comprehend what Hannity had to say or you are here intentionally trying to mislead.
Which is it?
Johnny, the roots of these problems extend all the way back to Carter’s administration if you care to be honest about it.
Clinton strengthened, and enforced, regulations regarding red-line mortgages which set things in motion for what you see going on around you today.
President Bush began sounding the alarm all the way back at the beginning of 2001. Was that early enough for you?
Johnny, how much money did B-Rock take from Freddie and Fannie in the very short time period that he has been in office?
Any idea?
Ever heard of Franklin Raines:
How about Jim Johnson:
Google those names and see what you come up with.
Raines acted as an ECONOMIC adviser for B-Rock.
Johnson was on B-Rock’s VP selection team until it was revealed that he had received preferential treatment when he got a home loan from Countrywide.
You’re right.
Congress has been absent on this.
They’re the ones with regulatory oversight.
You’re right.
John McCain is just the man for the job.
While B-Rock is out speechifying and hunkered down in uh, ah, eh “Debate Camp” McCain is exhibiting the leadership, the backbone, and the chutzpah to get the job done.
That is just one more of a myriad of things that you have no idea about.
Johnny, in the interest of seeing you broaden your awareness of what is going on with the mortgage market and the financial scene in general I cordially invite you to peruse the multiple threads and postings already on this site related to that subject.
Johnny, there is ample blame to go around. Yes, Carter first started the ball rolling with the CRA. Clinton changed the compliance regs before the GOP Congress could take over. When the GOP had the Congress during the Bush terms, they did not reverse the damage done because there was enough GOPers siding with the DNC.
You might as well just blame all of Congress… both sides of the aisle. But even they had to have help for it to culminate into this.
I’ve put together the timeline of the events that created a perfect storm for where we are today. You will see that while the CRA was one component, it took other events in tandem to bring us to today.
Johnny, maybe you should stop reading the The New-York Times… or leftist’s blogs. It is scary to see a citizen of the States that is so wrong about everything on what’s going on out there in that financial crisis. I could send you a few Canadian’s newspapers to enlighten you a bit… if you don’t want to read or look at American MSM. I am serious about that; it is very scary to think so many Americans don’t have a clue of what’s going out there. Your country is my neighbour, and I sure don’t want it to be governed by a freaking idiot like Obama. So please, get informed on the subject and put your Country first.
Well, tales from the ‘dog that ate my debate’: seems McCain doesn’t time for the debate tomorrow night, but he’s got time for ABC, NBC, and CBS tonight!
jees doug, does stupid run in your family or are you the outstanding example/
Even Clinton made the obvious observation that McCain is not at all afraid of debating Obubbu, he tried to get him to do 10 or 20 town halls all over the country.
ABC, CBS, and NBC are going to McCain to interview him, he’s not flying to them.
All McCain is doing is clearing his schedule so that he doesn’t do his job while watching the clock. If he finishes and the bill is solid and sold in time, I’ll wager he will be willing to do it, *IF* the organisors are still set. But national networks generally need to set their time in advance and the public needs some lead time to be available.
Rescheduling is simply McCain being responsible and considerate to the rest of the people interested and impacted by the debate. Unlike Obama who just expects everyone to conform to his wants.
…guess i’m just too dumb to be able to retort to ya, bill.
Well I’ll be damned, we can agree!
Lookie… a moment to lock arms in “harmony” and sing kumbaya! LOL
What you are forgetting, Doug, is that Obama and his merry Dems are all in agreement to rob the taxpayer to pay off the debt, and give all the cash to the Secy of the Treasury to play with sans legal review. BTW… I want to tell you all right now… I WANT TO BE APPOINTED TO THAT JOB NEXT YEAR (if this happens)! :0)
Since Obama… the puppet… is truly expendable, but the entire bill hinges on whether McCain can cross the aisle or not, or course JSM has to stay in DC.
McCain can’t obligate to appear because those negotiations take priority. If they are in the throes of negotiations tomorrow when the debate starts… well, Obama has free air time. Have a ball, guy… I believe Cynthia McKinney was ready to debate you.
If, however, the negotiations cease at a time that McCain can attend via satellite feed, or personally? He will. But we won’t know that until late tomorrow. But if you see McCain, I’d say expect to see a big TV screen for last minute transmission of his participation, instead of him standing at a podium .
Good on him for staying to see it thru. As I said, if he pulls this uniting across the aisle off, and in a way that the US public sanctions? Game over for Obama…. But he’ll have a last hurrah with a MS debate anyway.