OT--Reflections on the ABC Presidential Debate

[Guest guest]

Reflections on the ABC Debate:

S. of ABC got it right when he said that did the

best in the debate. was passionate, full of vitality,

yet calm. He was also the ONLY candidate to discuss poverty in a

tangible way. I watched the debate, after having seen yesterday's

broadcast of PBS's NOW. On NOW, they detailed the various campaigns

approach to getting their message out. The campaign for more

than a year now has been encouraging volunteerism, like helping at

local food banks, by contrast, Clinton and Obama campaigns are

targeting beauty parlors and barber shops. A volunteer for Obama

talked about how she goes to the beauty parlor every two weeks...well,

that's nice for her, but poor people (and people with special needs

kids) have more pressing issues. If I'm lucky, I can get my hair

trimmed once every 6 months. And a lot of people can't afford it at

all. Tonight, talked about the people sleeping on heating

grates and under bridges. Both Clinton and Obama seem out of touch

with that issue...and although, Clinton wanted to convince the

audience that how deeply someone feels about an issue does not impact

getting change implemented, the fact is if someone (e.g. )

feels deeply about something (e.g. healthcare, poverty, etc.), they

will fight for it, because it weighs too heavy on their soul not to.

Obama did pretty good in the debate, but seemed wore out, a little

unprepared [during the first half] and stammered quite a bit. He just

seemed off is game. Sitting next to (who seemed very

presidential), Obama just seemed like the " me too " tag along

candidate. I expected more.

also didn't seem to catch his stride until the second half.

At times, he seemed to lose track of the flow of what was being said.

Hillary Clinton lost her cool, but came back okay. She seemed to be

trying to take credit for the successes in the 1990's, which were

during her husband's presidency. As mentioned above, she didn't seem

to understand the connection between really caring about an issue and

getting changes made. Then again, she just might not want to

understand it because then she'd have to look at her own dealings with

the pharmaceutical and insurance companies. At the 2004 Convention,

President Bill Clinton talked about how we can not effectively

negotiate with China, because we owe them so much money, saying that

you can't negotiate with your " banker " . Well, those pharmaceutical

and insurance companies are Hillary's " banker " now. To a lesser

extent, Obama has a similar problem. is not beholden to those

interests. Finally, I had a W. Bush flash back tonight.

Remember, when Bush refused to answer a question about his mistakes?

Hillary was the only candidate tonight to not answer the question

about mistakes that she had made. Another President who can't admit

when she's wrong?!? I'm not comfortable with that.

I believe is our best choice for President. If you want

to find out more, please go to: http://www.johnedwards.com/issues/

Peace be with you!--- (Autism Mom)