Beauty is Imperfection

(Originally posted Thursday, October 16, 2008 )

Live Blogging the Presidential Debate, Oct. 15

–*”Joe Six Pack” has evidently gotten a job and he is now called “Joe Plumber.” Look! McCain’s economic program is already working!

–*McCain says that the people who come to his rallies are patriotic citizens wearing veterans caps and he will not stand and let them be insulted just because they are calling for Obama’s death.

–*McCain says that people know Sarah Palin. She is a reformer. Read: They know that in her six weeks of fame she has been accused of committing criminal abuse of power in Alaska and lied repeatedly to the national news that she was cleared for it.

–*McCain: “Special. Needs. Children!”

–*McCain says that Palin’s husband is a tough guy, too. Read: He wants to secede from the United States.

–*McCain attacks Obama for his connection to a small group whom he accuses of voter fraud. Let no one be mistaken: when it comes to voter fraud, including purging eligible low-income citizens from the rolls, using dubious touch-screen voting machines or scaring people away from the polling places, Republicans are the leaders and they will not let it be suggested that someone stole the march from them or outplayed them on the voter fraud game in any way. Republicans fraud better than anybody.

–*Obama: “My so-called link to a former domestic terrorist, Bill Ayres–a current education professor who also works with Republicans–has become the centerpiece of John McCain’s campaign.”

–*McCain: “Bill Ayres is a terrorist! A terrorist!”

–*Both McCain and Obama think the United States will be off foreign oil in 10 to 20 years. Which is like saying human beings will be off their dependence on red blood cells in 10 to 20 years.

–*McCain: “You can’t really understand people from places like Iraq and Vietnam and Colombia unless you’ve been in their countries, flown over them and bombed the shit out of them.”

–*Hey, at least this debate is a debate. Palin, besides not knowing what a vice president does, what the Bush Doctrine is, or what newspapers she reads, doesn’t know what a debate is either. It means addressing questions that have been addressed to you.

–*McCain: “We need to get America to the gyms to take care of the health care crisis in this country. After all, big corporations are consolidating and pushing up health care prices, consolidation that undercuts price competition and keeps your most basic health care needs expensive. Thus, you must pay higher health care costs to burnish their stock prices and meanwhile, they get to lower their own expenses (including what is paid to your doctor). So yeah, given all this, a gym membership is what you need most.”