A better answer to the debate’s stupidest question
Responding to the insipid last question of the debate ( “What don’t you know and how will you learn it?”) and Obama’s bloviating answer, reader Mike G. e-mails:
“The first part of McCain’s answer should have been: ‘Well one thing I don’t know is what the hell he just said and frankly, I’m OK with that…’”
Posted in: Barack Obama, John McCain
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McCain should have answered, “How many houses I own.”
Not THAT would’ve been the perfect answer..and the zinger we so desperately needed.
Swing voters in Arlington, VA…riiiiight.
Why a person who asks questions that moronic expects to be taken seriously.
My response: Dear voter…I don’t know why Tom is using this insipid question because it doesn’t mean a hill of beans to the real world or how I will govern.
How about, I don’t know who’s idea it was to let an ageing hippy like Broka asking the questions.
This was no townhall. Tom Brokaw dominated the audience. They should have been turned loose with the crowd. Too much control from a beltway media head.
Boring, I thought McCain made more sense, but not by a whole lot, unfortunately.
McCain should of said…’I don’t know why anyone would vote for Obama a man who hangs out with shady people and get campaigne donations from Palastine.
McCain missed his best chance on the last question (what I don’t know?). what a chance to say, “I will have advisers to help with those decisions. Who will you want, MY choices like Romney, Palin, etc. or HIS choices like Ayers, Wright, and other radicals?
hmmmm. maybe “I am sure that under either my or my opponents health care plan, you will receive the help that you so clearly need.”
IMHO
The nest opportunity for a zinger that McCain missed was the question where a woman asked what the candidates will ask the American people to sacrifice. McCain went on to talk about how government spending needed to be cut. A good answer, but he should’ve started out by saying something along the lines of “Before I even think of asking the American people to sacrifice, I would demand that our government make sacrifices…” then go into cutting goernment spending.
Oh well, easiest job in the world is armchair quarterback.
The questions were so programmed as to not allow any real open discourse between the candidates to identify differences in their abilities to govern. I almost have the feeling that Brokaw picked routine questions to keep McCain at bay and give Obama the best shot at maintaining his lead in the polls. We did not hear anything different tonight except for McCain’s ‘mortgage rescue paln’ which sounded pretty lame and very socialistic. That plan will also bolster Obama as undecideds probably won’t care for that idea coming from a Republican.
Where are the conservative Republicans when we need them? If only we could flip the GOP ticket.
Obama: I don’t know my a$$ from a hole in the wall but I’ll study it with my head inserted firmly in it.
I feel like taking a 4 year nap so I don’t have to be conscious while Obama destroys this country.
McCain did himself no favors tonight.
“Best,” even.
How can McCain be so uninspired and not be on the attack versus all Obama’s lies and shady character associations, after picking such an inspiring VP?
I had so hoped for McCain to come out swinging. He lost it on the very first question, allowing Obama to pin the whole financial mess on “8 years of Bush and McCain.” McCain acted as if he didn’t even hear Obama.
We’re screwed.
I agree that the questions were stupid! Except for a few they did not relate to the world as we know it today.
Brokaw! He was the moderator. His job was to stick to the rules. Stupid rules but stupid!
Boooorrrring! Nothing new.
Anyone learn anything new about BHO?
These were all kiss/up/answers.
Everything about Obama and through thorough vetting.
Bill Ayers???
Where was he. We needed a real debate.
Sara/McCain!
Trying to be the mild-mannered good-guy, McCain’s presentation was like he was at a church, not trying to swing straddling voters. Our last hope is that Palin and her swing-feminists can somehow make things up for him or it’s irreversible mega-socialist programs here we come.
James Greemidge
Queens NY
The guy in the sweatshirt was too blunt in his use of “McCain” in his points on how Obama won the deabte. An undecided would probably have used a more respectful name choice. I think the fix was in.
Sadly, McCain turned up the water temperature on his own pot (along with a a few carrots, i.e. the ‘mortgage buyout plan’) by not taking opportunities to exploit Obama for what and who he really is. His goose may not be fully cooked, but the table is being set for the Democrats to dine on inauguration day.
There is no way that Ms. Hamm’s question was really her own. She could barely read the card! Shout out to James in Queens from a former Woodsider!
I was hoping he’d say, “I don’t know how the Democrats can blame Bush for this bailout mess but I plan to learn how they’ve managed to keep the truth hidden from the American people for so long.”
I don’t know what drugs the person who wrote that question is on, but I’m sure with Obama’s health care plan, everyone else will pay for them.
Last disgusted comment for the night!
I am so angry at government, at the corporate people, at socialist agenda in general that words don’t reach my poor feeble brain.
Government—Freddie/Fannie–Barney Frank, Pelosi,Dodd, Kennedy,Schumer–all enemies of this country.
Corporations–mainly the real estate industry executives including AIG/AGI or whatever.
Each and all should be punished!
Two Presidential candidates–BHO, dangerous socialist with no experience. McCain–seems to have lost his substantial backbone that he once had.
We are screwed!
I don’t know how Obama manages to tie his shoes in the morning, he’s such a freaking moron.
“What don’t you know and how will you learn it?” I don’t know how much vasaline to purchase. I’ll learn that by how hard we get screwed on the many ways Barry has in-store for us if he is elected POTUS.
My God have mercy on us.
LMAO! Or maybe, “I don’t know my a$$ from a fundamental hole in the wall, but I’ll have my 300 advisers carry out a fundamental in-depth probe on the matter. No enema will be left unturned.. uhh.. uhh.. fundamentally.”
I cannot recognize my country any more. I do not even recognize what it means to be a conservative.
I guess McCain wants to get the vote of the irresponsible home buyer (10% of mortgage holders?) at the expense of the responsible home buyer (90% of mortgage holders and 100% of home owners) along with losing the vote of the people who eventually want to own a home someday, and that would be people like me.
House prices went up over 100% and have fallen 25% or so. They need to drop another 25% from highs or 35% from current prices to be in the range of affordable, which is about 12% higher than they were in 1998. John McCain continues to isolate himself from his base, and while Palin may give some level of benifit, McCain is tossing all of that benifit out the window. The only thing we have left is that he at least put Palin into the national spotlight so we know we have someone to look forward to in 4 to 8 years.
I think McCain did great.
obama did not answer most of the questions. obama was defiantly squirming when caught with out an answer. Also obama could not follow the rules that he agreed to about the debate, I thought that was hilarious.
screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed screwed …*whimper*
Since it was right after the question on Israel:
“I still don’t know whether Obama would defend Israel…”
Obama evaded a very important question and the pundits seemed to give him a pass.
JMcC:
“I don’t know how NBC news could sink any farther from ‘journalism’, unless they hired Katie Couric.”
BHO:
“I don’t know how to answer questions without a teleprompter without saying,’well,um, uhhhhh’,and, ‘Aaannnnndd’”
Of the 300+ million people in this country, these two are the best we could come up with for this election?
Somebody please tell me why we are running a lib? WHY
I see the glass is half empty here tonight. I was definitely hoping for more of the McCain from New Mexico. Oh well. With that being said, I’m not giving up the fight. I will still volunteer and I will still GOTV. I do not want BO in the White House, especially with a Dem Congress. If the thought of BO in the WH doesn’t get you fired up to GOTV, perhaps this will:
(Please read and re-read last sentence every single day until Nov 4th)
From DailyKos:
Another great night. How about we take a few minutes to drop a few sawbucks into the coffers of the candidates who will help usher a new progressive America — from Barack Obama at the top, all the way down to the Senate and House candidates.
This is a multi-front battle. The White House is important, so give to Obama, but don’t forget that he’s going to need as much support as possible in the House and Senate, and we’ve got a whole bunch of GREAT House and Senate candidates in the “better Democrats” mold.
So give now, and throw some anvils to drowning Republicans. Opportunities like this cycles don’t happen very often. In fact, we may never see one like this again. Let’s do our part to usher in a historic progressive majority.
Gratz Tom for picking the most stupid question of all time. You win the debate.
Ahh, thank God we didn’t support Duncan Hunter or Mitt Romney…sheesh…
I’m afraid that what we’ve got ourselves here is another case of Dole/Kemp. I just don’t know if there’s enough life that can be pumped into this campaign. Sarah’s getting her legs under her now (no pun intended), and McCain needs to let her loose.
More importantly, HE needs to let loose. He’s too damn friendly and sounds whiny when he “attacks”. He’s got to start calling Obama out and make him explain just what in the hell he’s done to be qualified to even tie the shoelaces of the candidate they should have nominated.
BTW, when a 19-year old girl in Ohio says she’s voting for Obama because she heard Michelle Obama speak, there simply is nothing we can do. We are doomed by idiots.
McCain should have never agreed to this debate format. But then he shouldn’t be our nominee. Right at the moment there does not seem to be a big, powerful charismatic Conservative leader. There are a lot of good people out there but what the Hell is happening?
—
America First
America Alone
America Come Home
We just have to hope that Obama can’t do too much damage in two years so we can focus efforts on taking Nancy’s gavel back. Step by step we’ll have to take it back and fix it because they will wreak as much havoc in two years as they possibly can knowing that’s their timeframe. As re-election comes around, they’ll have to start looking like moderates again.
Snore…
This is like the 10th round, and both of these guys are tired.
Tom Brokaw lost the debate tonight. What an insipid wet rag.
I think McCain should have answered it like this:
“What I don’t know is the same thing that the American voter does not know, who is the real Barrack Obama? We have a man who has voted present over 100 times as a Senator, who has no real paper trail, who has associations with some of the shadest people and this is just what we know for sure. Perhaps if the media spent half as much time scrutinizing Senator Obama as they have persecuting Governor Palin we would have the answers to these questions.”
Brokaw was just plain awful. I think he only *slightly* favored Obama in his methods, but the questions he picked were obviously designed to protect Obama’s slim lead in the polls. He asked no question that required B. Hussein to take any stands…just more boilerplate rhetoric. There was no “If Kitty Dukakis were…” question, but thankfully there was no “ponytail guy,” either.
That said, we may not have gotten what we wanted from McCain, and I’m as flabbergasted as you are about his “buy up the mortgages” plan, but I still think he won the debate.
And yeah…somebody look to see if “sweatshirt guy” was a plant. I bet we find out in the morning that he was.
In 500-word answers, I’d love for each candidate to answer the following:
1. What is the role of the President?
2. What is the role of Congress and the Supreme Court?
3. What is the purpose of government?
4. What role, if any, should the government play in the economy?
5. What is your foreign policy, not in reference to any particular country, but as a holistic policy?
6. What is the role of the military, and how would you use it?
7. From where do you derive your world view?
8. Is the Constitution a “living” document? If so, how?
9. What are your views on state vs. federal roles?
10. What is the most just and revenue-maximizing form of taxation?
11. What makes you qualified for this position?
12. How would you improve the American education system?
13. When does life begin?
14. How would you increase national security?
15. What is your vision for the nation?
I just about spewed water across the kitchen when I heard that question. WTF kind of question is THAT?
I know every generation says “what’s this country coming to?” but I think NOW is the time to really ask that question. We have a presidential candidate with NO experience whatsoever and lots of criminals for friends, and a “moderator” asking questions with no meaning.
God help us all.
Brokaw is such a wet smack that I could scream
And McCain played right into it….arghhhhh
WE.ARE.SO.SCREWED.
Can we sign up to be officially in a COMA for the next four years anywhere?
I figure a COMA is the only way I
A. won’t be taxed to death
B. if I am I won’t feel it….
ANYONE????
How stupid are you and what can we do to help?
I am sure that the Obamesiah would tax coma victims too. You would just have to settle up the bill after you came out of it or through your estate (which of course he would tax too).
Truesoldier….oh gee, thanks so much for that.
I need a drink…but,as an epileptic I can’t drink…so you all suck for rubbing in the whole drinking thing.
Will someone please get drunk for me….now?
You don’t want to be in a coma for the next 4 years. The shock of what happened to this country, during that time, would be enough to send you back into another one…permanently.
No shock to see Claire McCaskill
whoring herself out to B-HO and M-HO again. She was giving M-HO a pedicure during the debate.
Embarrassment to Missouri-
Actually, I can’t recall McCaim’s exact answer, but I know it was preferable to Obama’s, who was content to point to his wife and state that she would tell him what he doesn’t know. Heaven help us.
But frankly, I was surprised that neither took the opportunity to recite the poetry of Donald Rumsfeld:
Why was there not even ONE frigging mention of illegal immigration!
I’m sure it must have been another issue the campaigns agreed on.
I Ain’t uh-Biden nObama!
Is it over?
BO: “What I do know is we have open borders and I don’t care”.
JM: “What I do know is we have open borders and I don’t care”.
Yes, in my messed up world called “living in LA”, they both have the same answer.
“What are we doing in this handbasket and where are we going?”
“We’ll find out when we get there.”
These studpid people asking stupid questions are the reason the U.S. in dire straits now. People don’t have the ability to reason and make an intelligent choice. They are all going to get what they deserve.
I’m off topic a little, but want to say here that McCain answered the “evil” Russia question much better than Obama. He said, “Maybe”. He did not want to put a lable on Russia at this time to encourage them to act civilized. Obama said what they were doing may be evil, i.e. ” I don’t like what you did, but I still love you” like you would say to one of your children. Putin may be juvenile but he is not a kid.
Send Me: Number thirteen on your list was answered by both candidates previously and it only made a small difference in the polls. We will get what we deserve.
What do you expect? Brokaw included algore in a snotty remark to Guiliani regarding science & global warming…
Brokaw is a teabag on my chin.
I think I’m going to demand a refund of my contributions.
I nominate this question for the stupidest question of the last 100 years.
If I knew what I didn’t know then I would know it…
hmm, think I’ll go watch “Idiocracy” and see if it makes me feel better about current reality. Probably not as it seems we’re headed down that path…
If McCain really wanted to put “country first” he would step aside and either flip the ticket to Palin/McCain or ask Romney to step in.
I watched the debate last night and thought that McCain did ok. He came across to me as very concerned about the economy and his idea about resetting home mortgages is a radical idea, but seems to me needed in view of how wonderful the bailout is doing (sarc).
But it’s all moot really, as the President doesn’t have a lot of power to effect change.
We need to forget about the president and concern ourselves with the Congress. This is where the big mess is. We need to vote out all the incumbents (fat chance I know!) and start over with electing real people like Palin and not lawyers! If we all think that Obama will be elected, then turning over congress to the republicans is perhaps the only way we get control.
MCcain should have said, “I don’t know anyone that doesn’t remember 911″. This in response to Obama’s earlier statement, something to the effect of “for those of you that remember 911″.
What McCain should of said is this,
“Well, what I don’t know and what the American people don’t know, is what type of leader Senator Obama will be and in this crisis, we don’t need someone we can’t trust nor has a track record to stand on. America, my friends, that is something we don’t need to find out. We don’t need to gamble with our future when the stakes are so high.”