POINTS BUT NO KNOCKOUT

Pundits on both sides acknowledged Sarah Palin’s connecting with the people. The down-home expressions and common sense approach showed why she came out of the gate so fast. However, both she and Joe Biden and practically every other participant in the Presidential and Vice Presidential debates for as long as I can remember turned questions they did not want to answer into opportunities to use talking points or use excerpts from their stump speeches.

Like Joe Biden, there were points that were memorized or in her notes. Joe had none of the obvious “gaffes” he is famous for, but he did lie repeatedly while ostensibly stating “facts”, doubtless providing fodder for some more of McCain’s ad boys. Palin left out anything approaching controversy such as the infamous “bridge to nowhere” that ironically both Obama and Biden supported. What is inexplicable to me, however, is that there were LECTERNS there, and she could easily have had several knockout punches ready to be thrown. They were so obvious. McCain has strenuously avoided using them himself, and this was a golden opportunity missed, since this VP debate generated so much interest it may have had more viewers than the upcoming final two presidential debates. Contrary to all the happy-talk, McCain/Palin is not a bipartisan ticket. McCain/Lieberman would have been one, and it would have been a disaster. McCain needs to wake up and realize that every moment the Democrats are pummeling his ticket with their criticisms, and he needs to run as a Republican. The Mainstream Media are campaigning full time for Mr. Obama, and these debates provide the only real opportunities to connect unfiltered to a national audience. People often dismiss campaign speeches and ads as not credible when the same points are not made during the debates So many Americans are so woefully ignorant of the issues that they will vote on talking points unless the debaters go for the jugular. Debates are NOT diplomacy. They are WAR. Maybe McCain will still make these points, but since the handlers didn’t give them to Sarah, I am not holding my breath. For a military man, McCain seems strangely passive when he needs to fight to survive. Here are five points that would fit on ONE sheet of paper that cannot be credibly refuted:

1) Everybody is talking change in Washington. I am too. The Democratic Party has controlled Congress – and Congress is the legislative body with prime responsibility for oversight and budgets - over the last two years during the time when all these meltdowns have occurred - Indy Mac, AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the rest. When Joe is talking about regulations, he is confused. Wall Street was doing fine with a less regulated atmosphere. Those watching this debate saw their stocks go up and banks weren’t failing. However, despite GOP pressure, the Democratic Congress has resisted again and again in reining in Fannie and Freddie who together with ACORN were pushing the mortgage companies into unwise loans. This is the unwise under-regulation that the Democrats clung to because their campaigns benefited from large campaign contributions, especially those of Chris Dodd and Barack Obama. These men profitted from the endemic corruption and looked the other way. Barney Frank, Maxine Waters and others are on tape claiming there was nothing wrong with these institutions and praised the disgraced Franklin Raines, a man who raped 90 million from Fannie Mae, and whom I might add sits as an economic advisor to Barack Obama. Is this change we can believe in? Is Nancy Pelosi’s disgraceful bitterly partisan performance last Friday before the failed House vote on the bailout change we can believe in? She is only TWO heartbeats away from the Presidency as long as the failed Democrats control Congress, no matter who wins the Presidency. Now that scares me.

2) These last two years of Democratic failure in Congress are harbingers of the future if you don’t vote in both John and I AND a GOP Congress. Most Americans have a stake in the stock market, whether directly or in terms of their 401k’s, Company or Union Pension Funds, or other investments made on their behalf. You can check this out yourself, but objective data shows that since 1945 stocks appreciated 14% per annum with the GOP controlling Congress, twice the 7% managed by Democrats. Economic progress by minorities has been greater under the GOP than under Democrats where big government programs have universally failed to live up to their expectations. Anyone who thinks the Democrats lead on the economy is flunking history, and we want not only no CHILD left behind, but no AMERICAN left behind in a sea of high taxes and failed new governnment boondoggles..

3) My opponent here keeps repeating his stump speech on this dishonest tax plan being pushed by the Democrats. Joe, you and Barack want the Bush tax cuts to expire. Those gave tax decreases all the way down to $42,000. Don’t be cute saying that you are not increasing taxes on the middle class when the net effect of letting a tax cut expire is indeed the same as raising taxes. And the FICA Tax is often higher than the income tax for small businesses, and Obama wants to raise the FICA threshold. You cannot hide from the fact that you are tax and spend liberals just like John Kerry and Al Gore whom the American people rejected in the last two elections.

4) Joe says he is not for homosexual marriage. However, Barack Obama approved of the flawed court decision in California overturning the will of the people of California, and he refuses to support defining marriage between a man and a woman. This parsing of position is not reflective of transparent government. Positions must be unequivocal and clear to the American people.

5) I’m all for diplomacy for Iran, but make no mistake. The Europeans, who have largely not been involved in the war in Iraq, have been dancing with the Iranians through diplomacy for five years. Ahmadinejad is more militant than ever. Historically, evil is not vanquished through diplomacy but through confrontation. My choice is the use of economic confrontation, but if the pursuit of obtaining nuclear weapons continues unabated, Iran has to know that we will not run home with a worthless piece of paper as Neville Chamberlain did from Adolf Hitler, receiving adulation from the masses while a short time later London lay in ruins. This is not a war of words - just words. America has enemies that want multiple encores of 9/11. We should pursue all means, but not be so eager for peace that we are naïve and cause even worse issues down the road.