Third Presidential Debate

I had the opportunity to watch the final presidential debate last night and was only halfway distracted by my daughter’s lack of enthusiasm for the exchange of words. I was pleasantly surprised to not hear the more of the same as the candidates hyped their commercials during the first two debates. Instead the moderator forced questions such as health care and Roe vs. Wade ideology. One soft spot not touched on was gun control as there is no clear distinction between the candidates.

I though McCain did a great job of staying on the offensive. The classic line being “I am not President Bush, if you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago.” He did very little to defend his proposed policies, his campaign strategy or his choice of running mate. He very much reinforced the maxim that the best defense is a strong offense.

I was pleasantly surprised by Obama being willing to address the criticism from McCain. Some may say that it gives credence to McCain negative campaigning, but I liked to hear it. Other than that there was nothing new from the Obama camp, which was as expected because the polls assume he can just coast through the next three weeks.

The real issue will be who gets to play “Joe the Plumber” on Saturday Night Live this weekend. It is times like these when I really wish Mind of Mencia with Carlos Mencia was still on the air. This poor mope just wanted a free tax consultation while hanging out at a rally instead of working. Now he has become front and center of a national stage when out of work investment bankers are saying, “Damn, I should have been a plumber, I didn’t know they make over $250,000 a year. My high school guidance counselor is to blame for pushing me into business administration. She knew that my math background was insufficient to understand derivative securities.”