Re: Debate Prep

I think that there should be two main themes to this debate for John McCain.

First of all, since the focus on everyone's mind is the economy, there should be a "follow the money" theme, focusing not only on campaign fund raising but also on expenditures. Obama received money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on an unprecedented scale, and McCain should call for him to return that money, so that Fannie and Freddie would be able to pay back some of the money from the bailout. He can then bring up that two of the previous corrupt Fannie Mae CEOs are working with his campaign. Then, he should attack the illegal foreign campaign contributions that Obama has received and tried to hide. "Good Will" should come up during this section, and there should be insinuations that the money is coming from Iran (I don't know whether it's true, but that has been bounced around). He could also bring up Tony Rezko, the felon who gave Obama a "sweetheart deal" on his house.

Then we can move into expenidtures, focusing on Obama's record when he had money to spend. Start with the Annenberg Challenge, which had money raised by William Ayers and others for "improving education." This is Obama's only executive experience, which is being downplayed currently because it was a disastrous failure. The goals that Obama, as chairman, sought and focused funds toward were not reading, writing, and arithmetic, but rather political activism. So now we have illiterate adults that only know how to pressure government agencies into funding them. The Annenberg Challenge was shut down because there was no educational improvement, leaving Obama as the one and only chairman of that fund, which failed miserably.

Then we can go to the Woods Fund, on which Obama sat with William Ayers as well, which funded the Trinity United Church, the radical church with Jeremiah Wright as pastor. Money well spent apparently. Discussion can then move to the Obama campaign itself, discussing the $800,000 that Obama gave to ACORN (which should always be referred to as "The Association of COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS for Reform Now, since Obama made such a huff over the denegration of that part of his experience) for "Get Out the Vote," which has been totally successful, given that the money was used to fund Voter Registration Fraud in all of the Battleground states. He can also retort any response by citing the fact that Obama trained the new leadership which is presiding over this fraud.

If he felt really anxious to keep this going, he could mention that Biden funnelled money from his campaign to businesses, and Pelosi paid superdelegates to get him the nomination, and Pelosi gave money from her PAC to her husband's business, and Rangel's tax evasion and other ethics violations, and Frank's blocking of reform of Fannie and Freddie, and Maxine Waters's praising of Franklin Raines (corrupt former CEO of Fannie). Take the corruption issue to task for all of the Democrats, not just Obama -- especially since Obama said during Saddleback that he would use these people as advisors were he to be elected President. McCain is the guy who brought us "Campaign Finance Reform," so he should make a point of following the money.

This strategy would work to bring Obama's associations to light in a policy focus, since all of his dubious associates are connected not just socially, politically, or by location, but rather MONETARILY. The social connection is bad judgment, but those that will be swayed simply by the "palling around" comments have already been swayed by them. He needs to shoot for corruption charges, and attack Obama on policy (like, say, education policy that gave money solely for political activism training).

The second theme should be, and has been for the most part during the debates, Obama's inexperience. I want to hear the line "That's not how taxes work" several times, especially when Obama says that he will eliminate capital gains taxes for people making less than $250,000 -- because that doesn't happen. I want him to say that Obama claims that his plan encourages the American Dream, but that it only actually does this up to the $250,000 salary mark, then it takes the dream away. I want the redistribution of wealth argument to appear multiple times, since Obama finally slipped up and told the truth about his plan. I want him to point out that Obama will essentially be giving welfare checks to people who already don't pay taxes, in order to say "I will give a tax cut to 95% of Americans." That is the terminology that McCain should use... a refundable tax credit is a welfare check...because it is; it gives extra money to a group of people that pay nothing into the system.

I also want to hear that a $3000 tax credit to businesses for each new job created does not encouragte jobs. Why is $3000 supposed to be an incentive to spend upward of $50,000 or more? That is not how the economy works. You cut tax rates to create jobs, you don't give tax credits. A tax credit will be shunned by businesses, especially when they are already facing incredible increases in taxes. Many small businesses have plans to fire people upon the election of Obama, because he has promised higher taxes on them.

While this next line doesn't actually fit either of the two main themes that I laid out, and would NEVER be used in the actual debate, I think it would be a knockout line. McCain should say, "I would never question your patriotism, but I do question what you think patriotism is... because higher taxes are not patriotic." the election might be over at that point... but it would never happen.

Issues that should appear are as follows:

1.) Redistribution of Wealth
2.) Obama's education record (Annenberg Challenge and K-12 Sex Education)
3.) Abortion (and the Born-Alive Protection Act which Obama opposed)
4.) Foreign Policy
5.) Voter Fraud and Obama's Complicity in it

Finally, I think McCain should call the media out, by asking in advance whether certain issues will be addressed... he should be sure to use some time to ask whether the abortion issue will finally be raised. And then, if it isn't the media loses an enormous amount of credibility, because they are actively protecting Obama on an issue on which he will lose.

These are what I'd like to hear tonight, but I doubt that they will actually come out, because McCain does not actually understand that they would resonate with people. Obama has neither the experience, the understanding of issues, the judgment, nor the ethical capacity to become President of the United States.