I watched the first McCain-Obama debate last night and the contrast between the two candidates was stark.  One did not necessarily outshine the other.   They are simply two very different people with very different perspectives on the issues of our day and the future.

Obama was the better public speaker last night by a large margin.  Obama expressed his views very clearly and was able to deliver a lot of information on a broad range of subjects in a short period of time.  He appears to have tremendous energy.  Obama has absorbed a tremendous of amount of briefing information and was able to speak intelligently on the issues that are beyond his personal experience.  It was the type of performance that one would expect from a hard charging young man that wants to impress the people that control his future development.

McCain's public speaking skills are very limited but he clearly has more real life experience in dealing with the major international issues.  He brings a more practical approach to addressing many issues.  It is clear that his energy is limited compared to Obama. 

Obama's criticism of the Bush administration cannot be debated.  Obama was correct when he laid out the failures of the past eight years the decision to begin the War in Iraq.  At the same time McCain was right about the "surge" in Iraq and Obama was wrong.  The debate about strategy and tactics was very interesting.  McCain said that Obama didn't know the difference between the two terms.  It was McCain that didn't understand the differences between the terms in the context of the debate discussion.

I liked the fact that Obama acknowledged last night that McCain was right on certain details on issues.  Obama was right on certain points and it would have been constructive for McCain to acknowledge that Obama was right at times.  I really don't like the McCain ad that is running today attacking Obama over this point.

Neither candidate provided much useful commentary about the ongoing financial crisis during the opening section of the debate.  Neither has the showed the American people that they have a fundamental understanding of the long standing financial issues facing our nation.  All of the discussions regarding tax cuts or increases and budget cuts or increases are meaningless without being placed in context of our broader national financial problems.

One of the benefits of the debate is that it helps clarify the choice for the voters.  Obama represents a verbal repudiation of the Bush administration policy (what will actually happen if he is elected is another question), a very liberal perspective on social issues, not a lot of interest in compromising with the Republicans as he works to change Washington and a relatively inexperienced leadership team in the White House with a limited view of the world.  McCain represents substantial continuity of the the Bush administration policy (which may be unavoidable in many areas),  a moderate  to conservative view on social issues, a maverick that will join forces with the other side if he feels they share his views and a relatively experienced leadership team that will represent a wide range of views.

It is easy to understand why many people prefer Obama as the candidate for change in Washington after the failures of he Bush administration.  It is also easy to understand why many people are more comfortable with McCain as the experienced leader that can work cooperatively with Democrats to implement change. 

The polls show that Obama is leading by a few points.  McCain continues to have a small edge from my perspective. 

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We are all counting down the days to the Presidential election.  The talking heads in the media are focusing on Obama's vision of the future, McCain's ability to change Washington, Biden's relevancy and Palin's hacked email.  The political commercials, party pundits, and biased commentators are showing up all over the various media forms.  The sound bite production effort is in overdrive as both parties make every effort to get our votes.

In the midst of all of this political exuberance we just happen to be involved in a financial meltdown that may rival anything we have seen since the great depression of the 1930s.  Every weekend for the past month or so the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department have been developing emergency plans to deal with the latest disaster.  While the markets are closed the the US government and the world's central banks figure out how to prevent world's banking system from imploding for at least another week.  As I write this blog entry the Feds are working on a $700B financing plan to keep the financial system from blowing itself apart.

The truth is that not one of the Presidential or Vice Presidential candidates has a clue about the financial issues that are enveloping the country.  None of them knows how to address this problem.  None of them understand what this is really all about.  In all fairness Palin has never been involved in politics at the national level and has never been asked to deal with broad financial issues.  Alaska is running a budget surplus so it is unfair to blame her for any of this problem.  Biden and McCain have been in the Congress for decades.  They can rightfully claim as much credit as anyone for causing this problem through their failure to deal with the national policy decisions that helped create this problem when they have had many chances to do so.  Obama has been so busy campaigning for President since he reached the Senate a few years ago that he can't be tagged with causing the problem, but he sure doesn't sound like he has a clue about the real underlying issues.

The underlying root causes of the problem are a long term lack of financial discipline and lack of political integrity by both Democrats and Republicans, as representatives of the entire population.  The lack of financial discipline is evident at the federal level, some states, the financial industry and individual consumers.  A significant percentage of the population believes they are entitled to the good life and a higher level of consumption than they have earned through their labor.  Our politicians have created an environment where they have encouraged and in some cases directed the financial industry to take the risks that permitted over consumption to take place.  Our politicians have promised benefits to the population that the economy can't deliver and are afraid to tell the population the truth.  The politicians can't possibly allow the US population to feel any pain when the bills come due for all of the overconsumption and lack of financial discipline that has occurred because the voters might get upset.

Just remember the following series of events.  The Greenspan Federal Reserve reduced the Fed Funds rate to 1 percent a few years ago when the internet/telecom driven stock market bubble collapsed.  Greenspan, under pressure from the Executive Branch and the Congress, had to do something to bring back the good life that was experienced during the stock market bubble of the 1990s.  Instead of allowing the overall market and the economy to properly correct and wash out the excesses of an overbought stock market,  the Federal Reserve reduced the cost of short term debt to absurd levels.  The Fed pumped up the money supply and essentially provided money free to the financial industry.

After their bad experience in the stock market US consumers decided to take advantage of the free money and determined that real estate was the place to invest.  More homes were built and the qualifications to buy a house were reduced to nothing.  The politicians loved it as housing related industries boomed as they encouraged the financial system to make loans that made no sense from an economic perspective. 

It was obvious from the beginning that the home loan situation was a disaster waiting to happen.  My wife and I received dozens, if not hundreds, of calls from people trying to loan us money that obviously didn't know what they were talking about.  I can honestly say that I predicted the housing bubble would end badly and I was right.  Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, AIG, and many other companies have died, are on life support or have been taken over.   We will see the total result of the carnage in the months to come.

Hence, the internet/telecom bubble beget the housing bubble which has now burst.  It doesn't look like the Feds are willing to let the entire market correct naturally this time either.  They are going to "save" us again.  This broad topic is extremely complex and none of our future political leaders have a clue about how to deal with this situation.  It doesn'treally matter which ticket is elected from a USG financial management perspective.  When it comes to financial matters we have to do our best to protect ourselves from our government.

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Ever since John McCain selected Sarah Palin as his VP candidate the competitive process between the candidates has been completely overturned.  The Democrats have simply not figured out how to compete against Palin.

The two young political stars , Obama and Palin, are completely different people that are very attractive to different voting groups.  They are close in age with Obama being about two years older.  They are both inexperienced.  Neither has the obvious qualifications to become our next president.  But Palin has the edge in executive experience. 

The fact is that Obama's limited experience as a community activist, state legislator and one term senator doesn't make him qualified to be president.  He has zero executive experience.  The Democrats continuing attacks on Palin simply highlight Obama's shortcoming.   Obama has read more briefing books than Palin during the campaign and therefore can talk about more of the issues than Palin.  Obama has shaken more hands out of the country than Paliln because he has been campaigning for over a year and not governing.  However, Obama simply can't match Palin's executive record as a small town mayor and first term governor.  This fact won't change between now and the November elections.

McCain and Biden are two very experienced Washington insiders.  McCain, a maverick Republican ,and Biden, a liberal Democrat, both know Washington inside and out.  McCain has shown more genuine ability to create bridges to the other side to get important work done.  Neither has any demonstrated history of solving the nation's big problems.  McCain has the track record of building consensus and Biden doesn't.

The deciding factor in this election will likely be the number of people that just don't want a Republican president due to the Bush legacy.  How many people will vote against Bush not for Obama?

On the basis of pure merit and experience McCain-Palin should win this election.  Obama simply doesn't match up well in comparisons to either  McCain or Palin.  Biden is a non-factor in the decision making process.

All the work by the liberal media to discredit Palin will backfire if they are not careful.  A middle class mother of five children that has a son in the US Army going to Iraq, a pregnant teen-aged daughter and a developmentally disabled baby and has a track record of commitment to public service cannot be criticized.    One can argue with her personal philosophy.  One can argue about current positions on the issues.  However,  it is a major error for the liberal media to attack her.

The debates are still to come.  We will see what all four candidates have to say and then make a final decision.  From my perspective McCain-Palin continues to be the best choice.

I have waited for many months to blog about the 2008 presidential election.  As Barack Obama and John McCain won their respective nominations earlier this year I was undecided about who to support for President.  I have now made my choice and here is my approach to making my decision.

Obama's inexperience as a government executive makes him a high risk candidate for President.  I am not a big fan of his mostly liberal views but I believe that he is a very charismatic person and has tremendous leadership potential.  It is possible he can become a fabulous political leader for the USA.  After 5 plus years of failed leadership by George Bush and his cohorts, since the War in Iraq began, the USA badly needs an effective President that can lead the majority of our population forward into the future.  Obama may be that person.  I was looking for Obama to select a vice presidential candidate that brought extensive executive experience to the ticket.  Joe Biden has a long history in the Congress.  He can sound totally reasonable and rational at times and at other times he gets completely out of control.  He is the ultimate Washington insider and represents the status quo from a Democratic perspective.  He has no executive experience.  The Democrats did not nominate a candidate that has proven they can lead politically and get the business of government done.  The combination of a lack of executive experience and generally liberal views makes the democratic ticket unappealing.

I wanted John McCain to be nominated by the Republicans in 2000.  He was taken out of the race in 2000 by the Bush team using some of the dirtiest politics of recent decades.  I would have preferred McCain over Bush in 2004 but it was not doable.  I have always respected McCain's ability to look at issues with an independent perspective.  Sometimes he agreed with his own party, sometimes he agreed with Democrats.  He tried to do what was right for all of us not just toe the party line.  I don't agree with McCain on some issues but I have always respected his commitment to do his best for all of us, not just his party.

About two years ago it appeared that McCain started to age rapidly.  In 2000 and 2004 I though McCain showed a level of energy more like a younger man and his age did not bother me.  During the past two years the aging of John McCain became very apparent.  After watching his many TV appearances in recent weeks my concern over his age has been confirmed.  It was great to see his 96 year old mother at the RNC last week.  McCain has some great genes for a long life.  While I believe his age is an element of risk, I have concluded that it is not a fundamental barrier for me to vote for him as long as he picked a suitable candidate for Vice President.

I had never heard of Sarah Palin before I watched her introduction on TV a week ago.  As I watched her speak and learned her story I have become more and more interested in her.  No movie script writer would develop her actual story and try to sell it.  A story like Sarah's can't belong to a real person.  But she is a real person and her story is fact, not fiction.

She is the youngest of all of the presidential ticket candidates at 44.   She has a proven track record of exposing and eliminating corruption at the state level.   She will attack the status quo if she thinks it is wrong.  She has almost two years of executive experience as Alaska's governor and several years as Mayor of her small home town.   She has made bold decisions related to energy production and transmission in Alaska.  She is the only one of the candidates that has been a government executive.  Her track record to date is one of success in delivering real change.

I don't agree with Sarah Palin's views on every issue.  However,  after seeing her deliver two fantastic speeches in the national spotlight during the past week and obtaining an understanding about how she is developing as a politician and as a person, I have come to appreciate her potential as a national political leader.  She can be briefed on the issues that she doesn't know much about today in the months ahead.  Obama has no more experience in dealing with the big issues than Palin.  Obama has had more time to read briefing books.

I have personal experience working with PTA moms, sports moms and band moms on family oriented activities and business experience in working with and for a number of highly successful professional women that have blended outstanding work performance with their family life.  I absolutely believe Sarah Palin can do it all while serving as Vice President of the United States.  She has already proven she knows how to manage all of her responsibilities.

In many respects the real decision of the 2008 election is Obama vs Palin.   They are about the same age.  They represent different views on many issues.  The fact that John McCain, a maverick that has proven ability to work with Democrats, Republicans and Independents, will become the President in 2009 if his ticket is elected is a bonus for the Republicans.  If McCain-Palin wins the election it is likely that Palin will become the first female President of the United States of America sometime in the future.

There are times in everyone's life when we are introduced to individuals that radiate the potential for greatness.  Palin clearly has it!   Obama also has it!

The McCain - Palin ticket is carrying the burden of the Bush legacy.  I was very pleased when McCain clearly discarded any ties to the Bush administration in his acceptance speech at the RNC.  However,  we have not heard McCain-Palin talk about the details of their new approach to most of the major issues we face as a nation.  The debates will be very important.  I look forward to seeing real debate on the issues.   I hope McCain and Palin will live up to their word to work with Democrats and Independents.  Some of the best approaches to our big issues have been developed by people that are not Republicans.

This is my current approach to the election.  We will see how the process evolves during the next two months.  I always reserve the right to change my mind before election day.  If you disagree with me, send me an email and let me know your views.

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