I wasn’t going to blog about the debate tonight. I didn’t expect to hear anything new and for anyone to change their minds. But I’m getting too many e-mails. People want to vent. So, here goes…
The pundits are saying that McCain won the first half an hour and Obama won the second half hour. I’m not sure about about. McCain had the whole Joe the Plumber thing, which was sort of catchy. But Obama responded to that gimmick very well. He pointed out that 95% of small business owners don’t make more than $200,000 (at least that they declare). He pointed out that all these earmark nonsense is only half of 1% of the federal budget. Maybe Obama needs to point out that most Joe the Plumbers could really use health care for their kids, that Joe’s workers need dentists, too, that they need childcare. But he didn’t go there.
Let’s talk about special needs education, since that’s what most of the e-mail is about. As one buddy said, does McCain think that Palin’s kid has autism? Another said, what the hell does Palin know about raising a special needs kid? Trig is only 6 months old!
As a mom of a special needs kid, I want more than love and support from political leaders, because that doesn’t run too deep. Yeah, research into causes is fine, but that’s not going to help me too much. I need programs. I need for my kid to have more than three half hour sessions of speech therapy per week. He needs after school activities. He needs teachers who really get that even though he’s slow in some ways, he has an IQ of 150. I shouldn’t have to go, hat in hand, to the school district to plead for these services.
Let’s talk about appearances, since that seems to be how most of these pundits decide who wins and who loses debates. McCain’s head looked like it was going to explode, when he was waiting for Obama to finish speaking. Seriously. I thought blood was going to spurt from his ears. Angry, aggressive men play really, really badly with women.
This debate didn’t change anyone’s mind, but I think that it solidified opinions. If you walked into this debate in the Obama camp, you left actively hating McCain. And, I’m sure, the opposite was true.
Apt. 11d 
does McCain think that Palin’s kid has autism?
That’s just what my wife blurted out, too. I think he doesn’t know the difference between autism and Down Syndrome. Plus, Obama was excellent in saying that McCain’s across-the-board hatchet would make it impossible to spend more money on anything, even that.
McCain was angry and dismissive, as always. And don’t even get me started on his lame effort to turn himself into the victim because Rep. Lewis hurt his feelings over the outrageous hate being stoked by Sarah Palin.
LikeLike
I loved Obama’s response on special needs education funding. I thought McCain kept talking like we were going to find a cure for autism, whereas Obama was saying these special needs children exist and will continue to exist, and we will need to provide assistance.
I think Obama’s emphasis on EI is key, too, and I think it presages his approach to special education funding. I’ve been reading a lot about developmental/processing disorders lately (see my blog) and a lot of what I’ve been reading indicates that EI is crucial. So I feel hopeful about Obama’s commitment to special education funding.
(A related story: in one of my classes, I have a student with very bad handwriting, and with good humor he has allowed me to tease him a bit. He explained to me that he broke his arm when he was in 3rd grade, right when they were doing a lot of teaching of penmanship. And his handwriting never really caught up.)
LikeLike
Full funding for IDEA! McCain obviously doesn’t get it, but Obama did not go all the way there either….
LikeLike
Full funding for IDEA (for those not familiar with the lingo, “full funding” = the federal government paying 40% of the costs of special education) would be lovely, but given that federal funding has never gone above 19%, I’m not holding my breath.
LikeLike
I spent 10 minutes trying to manifest some thoughts into a concise dialog and comment on this debate. What I ended up with were random thoughts because I lost focus about 3 minutes into this debate.
Is it me or did John McCain’s face on the left side look like he got socked or had some teeth removed? Perhaps it was just me indirectly projecting an unconscious metaphor of the tromping he and his ridiculous campaign with the Moose Whisperer, Trig, Thor, Oden and Loki all yearning to go back to Alaska with Dr. Joel from NY, for these last few months.
I would love to lament at the merits of this debate but I was overwhelmed on how nauseous I got as Johnny boy tried to incite a fight, in the-traditional-prep-school-privileged-little-Academy- dad -n-grand-dad-were-admirals-buzz-word-BS he threw out there. He is a fraud when he calls Obama privelledged. Don;t believe me check this out: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain/page/1
John McCain needs to realize that he should be wearing an eye patch and be in a wheelchair with a cat in his lap. Then maybe he would be more believable as DR Evil. That smile kills me.
The fact that he mentioned Mayor Mikey B and NYC killed me because LOTS of cities, towns, and states are going to be pulling the plug on lots of programs for this and the coming years. 165K jobs in NYC alone! Guess what? that is more people than there are in Alaska dude. Where’s your plan?
OR he could turn to Sister Sarah and her wonderful energy policy. Remeber Boris and Natasha and the Axis of evil she looks at from the first igloo every day and how she must keep them from taking over ? How about the fact that Gazprom dudes were in Alaska today striking up a major deal? See for yourself: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/15/world/europe/15alaska.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
How come the first dude was not there to negotiate a deal with an oil company stolen from the executives that were running it?
Calling Obama out on never going to the Southern Hemisphere, McCain was born in Panama, which BTW isn’t a US territory anymore. Can he really be president? I know he can but its just so irksome.
Firing up the Tivo my 3 minutes of watching are over. I know who I am voting for.
LikeLike
McCain finally had a decent line with “I’m George Bush, if you wanted to run against him you should have done it 4 years ago.”
But I thought Joe Plumber was very over done. As was McCain claiming to be the biggest victim of negative politics. And proud of his audience! Also came down on Obama for not coming down on Lewis, while McCain lets Palin rattle on and on about “Obama’s pals.”
Yeah, the autism vs. Down syndrome thing seemed to me out of touch.
He was trying to get me to relate to Joe Plumber, or Joe Six-pack, but I think he showed the realtiy is that he doesn’t relate to me.
As for Obama, kept his cool. I liked his answers about Roe vs. Wade. I liked that he high lighted three choices, single motherhood, abortion and adoption. That’s why it’s called pro-choice, not pro-abortion. I didn’t think he hit anything out of the ball park. Stayed consistent with directing conversations back to real issues and away from sniping and campaign.
LikeLike
McCain finally had a decent line with “I’m George Bush, if you wanted to run against him you should have done it 4 years ago.”
To which a snarkier Obama could well have said: “I’m a Democrat; if you wanted to run against all of George Bush’s policies you should have changed parties!”
LikeLike
RC- That would’ve been beautiful.
LikeLike
RC- That would’ve been beautiful.
LikeLike
“As one buddy said, does McCain think that Palin’s kid has autism? Another said, what the hell does Palin know about raising a special needs kid? Trig is only 6 months old!”
I believe her sister, to whom she is really close, has a child with autism.
LikeLike
I keep waiting for someone to make the point that (if the reports I saw were correct) Palin cut funding for special ed in Alaska, before her son was born with a disability. Now she’s all in favor of it.
I also think that until she’s been through a few years of working with the educational system on behalf of her child, she isn’t as informed as she claims to be on what is needed to improve the system. If Amy is right about her sister’s child, that would be useful background for her. But then why the cuts to funding?
LikeLike
Although I think Palin is completely unqualified to be president, I don’t think she really cut funding for special needs education as a governor. I think the erroneous calculations come from not separating different budgets properly.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/9/4/144547/5612/206/586621
And, she seems to have acquiesced to changes in the funding methodology that will increase special needs funding for some schools (the proponents of that plan say she wasn’t really involved, but she did accept the changes).
As one of the commenter says at Daily Kos, “When we criticize Palin, we should get it right.”
My take on the special needs issue, and Palin, is that although she may not yet know, or really understand what it will be like to raise a child with Downs, that she will, soon, and that intimate knowledge will affect her attitudes. Whether that affects her policies or her spending priorities is a different question. If she really is a small government fiscal conservative, then I wouldn’t expect more funding for IDEA. But, if one believes that there are no athiests in foxholes, are there no fiscal conservatives who favor small central government with children with special needs?
LikeLike
The photograph from just after the final handshake, which has already gone viral, will have more impact than anything that happened in the actual debate.
LikeLike