McCain: Time to Kill the GOP debates

Sen. John McCain says we need to put a moratorium on Republican presidential debates before they drive up the unfavorables of the ultimate nominee any further.

He may be on to something. The debates are beginning to look like a cheesy reality show. We know that Newt will attack Mitt on Bain just as certainly as we know that Snooki will do jello shots.

We have had ample opportuni to assess the debating skill, temperament and demeanor of each of the four remaining candidates.

There is still a real and urgent need for the candidates to outline their positive positions on the economy, for starters. But this can be more effectively done in a substantive and serious policy speech rather than in a debate.

Sure, the debates are kind of fun to watch. People who do not follow politics are tuning in just to see who gets bloodied worse. It's great theater, but it is not the job of the Republican party at this critical juncture to entertain America. Our purpose must be to defeat Barack Obama.

Grayson and Paul Debate

WHAS 11 is live streaming the Northern Kentucky debate between Trey Grayson and Rand Paul. Right now, there is lots of audio of people happily munching on rubber chicken, as the suspense builds: How many times will Rand Paul say "career politician"? Will he wear a turtleneck? Will Tray Grayson bring up Rand Paul's Code Pink pal, Adam Kokesh? Will Rand Paul throw Daddy Paul under the term limit bus?

Debate Post Mortem

What a pity that Sen. John McCain didn't take this approach during the first two debates. He was much firmer than we've seen previously and yet did not display the "erratic" temper that Team Obama keeps referencing.

If anyone showed a temper, it was Sen. Barack Obama -- though his was thinly disguised with an incessant smirk, made more noticeable with his capped teeth. What came across, on the split screen, is that Barry has a mean side.

McCain finally hit on issues that he has not addressed in the previous debates: judges, small businesses and Obama's record on infanticide. McCain finally cut the ties that bind him to George Bush with the best line of the debate -- that McCain is not Bush, and if Obama wants to run against Bush he should have done so four years ago.

It was not enough to change the race, but there are other factors at play.

Yesterday I received an email that is circulating the internet. It's a prayer for McCain and the country. Turns out that ordinary, non-political people are fed up with the media's drumbeat to the tune of Boz Scaggs: "Why can't you just get it through your head? It's over, it's over now."

As the email notes, if faith can move mountains, then it can certainly move voters to wake up from their Obama-induced stupor. After all, McCain's campaign was supposed to fold 18 months ago. According to the "conventional wisdom," he was not supposed to last through the primaries.

McCain's survival -- not just his political survival but the fact that he is still alive -- is extraordinary, miraculous even. He should have died in the fire that killed his comrades. He should have died in the Prisoner of War camp. He did not.

I will submit that McCain's life was spared for a reason. This race is not over.

Debate Impressions

I'd give it a tie. Both candidates performed well. Sen. John McCain started off slowly but seemed to warm up, whereas Sen. Barack Obama was out of the box fast and then grew somewhat flustered later in. Both candidates misspoke at times, and the fact-checkers can determine whether any of those botched phrases revealed anything substantive.

McCain missed several opportunities. When Obama kept asserting that he'd give 95 percent of the country a tax break, McCain needed to call him out, and remind him that the bottom 40 percent pays no federal taxes.

Let's see, if Obama gives a tax break to people that pay no taxes, that would be, what -- a welfare check? For nearly half the population? Yeah, and that tax cut comes with a free bottle of (organic) snake oil!

McCain never addressed the issue of judges. (And in fairness, the questions never gave him that opportunity.) One of the reasons that the U.S. economy has led the world for so long is our rule of law. McCain has been very clear that he would appoint judges who apply the words of the constitution, statute or contract at issue. That gives certainty to business -- which is crucial in a time of economic chaos. Obama, in contrast, has said that he will appoint judges who will empathizes with the underdog -- which means you'd better not be the business owner.

Nor did McCain bring up the issue of the sanctity of life. (Again, because Tom Brokaw carefully avoided the subject.) McCain's commitment to life is longstanding and unequivocal. Obama, on the other hand, would take abortion "rights" to a new level: Obama voted to prohibit medical care to those fetuses who somehow, miraculously survive an abortion and are born live.

Under Obama-care, the courts would "discover" that there is a "right" to have the federal government pay for abortions with taxpayer dollars. This issue might not turn the election. McCain owes it to the unborn, however, to make clear that voters know where Obama stands on abortion.

Obama left several unanswered questions. He never did tell us how big the fine will be for self-employed individuals who don't acquire, and small businesses who don't provide health care. Obama never conceded that entitlements need to be cut -- and "misspoke," changing the word and the subject -- entitlements -- to education. And Obama never committed that he would defend Israel if Iran attacked it.

That Barry: even after two years running for president, and two debates, he remains an enigma wrapped in a mystery.

Sarah Did Just Fine

What a relief to see the return of the Gov. Sarah Palin who thrilled us with her convention speech. I was afraid that the handlers had brainwashed her, or substituted a clone (where was Tina Fey during the Katie Couric interview, and does she have an alibi?)

Right from the start, we could see that Sarah was back. She took to the stage, shook Sen. Joe Biden's hand and asked if she could call him Joe. It underscored that she is not a Beltway insider, and also her cheekiness.

Then as Biden was giving one of his first responses, the split screen showed Palin busily taking notes. Until she suddenly looked up, directly into the camera, and smiled at America. It was so distracting from Biden that the camera quickly cut away.

Biden was much better than I had expected. He wasn't a jerk. His sentences were comprehensible. He only leered twice. We didn't have to look at the hair plugs overly much. And I didn't hear any major mistakes, other than confusing Hezbollah with Hamas.

In fact, Biden was better than Sen. Barack Obama at making the charge that McCain-Palin has not distinguished itself from the Bush Administration. To some extent, he's right. Team McCain has to say what all know to be true: the Bush Administration failed because it abandoned conservative tenets. McCain-Palin implicitly have made this point when they promise to control spending and the like.

Time is running out; it's time to be explicit. Cut the Bush Administration loose. It would not be possible to throw it under the bus, because it's been road kill for a long, long time.

Columbia Journalism Review: Ifill Should Not Moderate Debate

Even the Columbia Journalism Review concedes that PBS's Gwen Ifill has a conflict of interest that interferes with her ability to moderate tonight's vice presidential debate, according to Hotair.

It's one thing for reporters to grow misty-eyed with love for Barack Obama. Ifill crossed the line because she has a pecuniary interest in an Obama victory: her new book -- to be released on Inauguration Day -- is entitled "The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama."

Even the CJR recognizes that Ifill won't sell as many copies if (against all odds) January 20 heralds the Age of McCain.

McCain Won It

It was close; both candidates performed better than I expected. But Sen. John McCain won this first debate.

Although Sen. Barack Obama was more succinct than we've seen since Gov. Sarah Palin began giving him nightmares -- Obama didn't utter a single "uh" the whole debate-- Obama actually lost on the issue that he'd tried to hang around McCain's neck: temper. This, from the candidate who'd spent the week having his surrogates and spinmeisters suggest that McCain is "erratic," which is Obama-speak for senile and psychotic. All of the sudden, it was Obama who looked like he needed the time-out chair.

It was Obama who had the pursed lips, not McCain. Who knew that Obama, who boasted about his placid temperament to Diane Sawyer in her run-up to the debate, was the one who had a temper problem.

I'll wait for the the MSM to transcribe the debate to comment on specific answers. In terms of presence, however, Obama had more gravitas than I would have expected, though not as much as McCain. Likewise, though he'd taken more time to prepare, Obama appeared more nervous. It turns out that there is no experience like life experience.

Attire, though indistinguishable at first glance, said much about the two candidates. Obama wore a flag lapel pin -- after having eschewed such pins just months ago. McCain, the decorated war hero, wore no flag lapel. McCain clearly felt no need to wear his patriotism on his lapel, and with good reason. Obama's need to resuscitate the flag pin, in contrast, looked like a boy with big stereo speakers. (Readers who are too young to understand the metaphor, ask your parents; watch them blush.)

And McCain wore a red and white striped tie. It was patriotic (like Obama's solid red tie) but nonetheless made the point that McCain was an Republican of a different stripe. To the extent that Obama's goal was to hang George Bush around McCain's neck, Obama lost.