The First Obama - McCain Debate - My Impressions

http://zennie2005.blogspot.com

• I just watched the first Presidential Debate between Senator John

McCain and Senator Barack Obama and came away with these
impressions, but first, here was what I was looking for from the
candidates:
1) The relationship between a healthy economy, which we do
not have right now, and national security. Why? Because now, we're
dependent on borrowing from other countries, like China, which in
some cases could place us in the position of "looking the other
way" if for example that nation wants to not only build a nuclear
weapons stockpile, but share them with countries we don't want to
have them. We're in a hugely vulnerable position right now that
should send off alarm bells to all Americans.
2) Repairing our defense industry so that more of our
products are made here in America. When I was in undergraduate
school I wrote a study on the economic impact of defense spending.
In the decades leading up to the 90s, one could count on money for,
say, a new fighter jet like the F-22 Raptor, to be circulated in
America via suppliers, with maybe 10 percent going to foreign
country suppliers.
Not anymore. Now, the number is 50 percent going overseas and in some
cases more than that. That's jobs. What will the presidential
candidates do to change that?
3) Domestic National Security. The importance of knowing the
activities of local American based terrorist groups. For example,
Americans think of foreign-based groups like Al Quiada as terrorist
groups, but the Southern Poverty Law Center has a website that
lists and tracks race-based hate groups like White Supremacist
Groups based in America. "Stormfront" is such a group and has ---
GULP -- one of the largest online forums active in America. What
will each candidate do to marginalize and break up these
organizatons, some of which have had members, like Timonthy McVey,
who bombed Federal Government buildings, killing innocent people.

What Do People Want To Hear From Obama and McCain?

Kathleen Parker, Conservative Writer, Calls Fo Sarah Palin To Step Down

This new article by Kathleen Parker is getting some traction around the web.  She -- a conservative writer and commentator -- openly calls for Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to step down. She gives the call, and her reasons for it, in this blistering collection of paragraphs:

As we’ve seen and heard more from John McCain’s running mate, it is increasingly clear that Palin is a problem. Quick study or not, she doesn’t know enough about economics and foreign policy to make Americans comfortable with a President Palin should conditions warrant her promotion.

Yes, she recently met and turned several heads of state as the United Nations General Assembly convened in New York. She was gracious, charming and disarming. Men swooned. Pakistan’s president wanted to hug her. (Perhaps Osama bin Laden is dying to meet her?)

And, yes, she has common sense, something we value. And she’s had executive experience as a mayor and a governor, though of relatively small constituencies (about 6,000 and 680,000, respectively).

Finally, Palin’s narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain’s running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood — a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.

Palin didn’t make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.

It was fun while it lasted.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

Palin filibusters. She repeats words, filling space with deadwood. Cut the verbiage and there’s not much content there. Here’s but one example of many from her interview with Hannity: “Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we’re talking about today. And that’s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this.”

Zennie Abraham on CNN - Saturday Night (9-27) 8 PM EST; 5 PM PST

I will be on CNN's Roland Martin show live from New York this Saturday Night (9-27) at 8 PM EST; 5 PM PST talking about the Presidential Debate.  Tune in -- I think it will replay later as well.