Friday Night Fights

In case you missed it. There was a middle weight bout last night. Both camps claim victory:
As I see it. If you're a McCain supporter you think McCain won. If you're an Obama supporter you think Obama won. If you're undecided I suggest you read this fair and unbalanced account of the contest.

In the Red corner . . . standing 5' 9" tall, weighing 164 lbs John "the Maverick" McCaiaiaiaiaiaiannnnnnn!

In the blue corner . . . standing 6 and 1/2 feet tall weighing , uh ah oh I'd say anywhere from about 165 lbs to 170lbs (couldn't find any documentation) Barack "the Rock" Oooobamaaaaaaaa!
This is scheduled for 9 rounds but for time considerations we may only report on 8 of them.

Ding!!! And there's the bell!

round 1:
The question is: Where do you stand on the financial recovery plan?

Obama takes initiative and begins to bob and weave his way around the ring. He's stating the problem but, he doesn't seem to be taking the fight to McCain. Oh! He just gave McCain a little Ali like flip of a jab saying that the past 8 years of failed economic policies were supported by Senator McCain.

McCain counters with more bobbing and weaving, painting a gloomy economic picture but not really answering the question. So the referee steps in and asks the question again. Where do you stand on the financial recovery plan???

Obama continues to bob and weave saying that he hasn't seen the language yet so he doesn't know how he'll vote. McCain seizes his opportunity and says yes he's going to vote for it. Obama steps it up a little, he takes a jab at McCain calls him "John" . . . kind've luring him in and then catches McCain with a left, "10 days ago, John said that the fundamentals of the economy are sound."
Oooh that stung. Now McCain begins bobbing and weaving a vision of how this country under the right leadership will be so much better.
Hmmmm neither fighter seems to want to win this thing.
Uh oh wait a minute I spoke too soon. McCain is measuring Obama, "We have former members of Congress now residing in federal prison because of the evils of this earmarking and pork-barrel spending. Now, Senator Obama, you wanted to know one of the differences. a million dollars for every day that he's been in the United States Senate."
Oh!! A smashing right cross and that hurt Obama! He's trying to get back to the fundamentals . . . Yes Yes he's countering with a flurry of lefts about "tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations." but, they're really just glancing blows. None of which are connecting with the judges.

Whoah!! McCain just connected with another right "Now, Senator Obama didn't mention that, along with his tax cuts, he is also proposing some $800 billion in new spending on new programs." Obama has got to start fighting back or he's going to lose this thing on points.
Oh my God! McCain just landed an upper cut comparing our current corporate tax rate with that of Ireland. Oh, he likes that Irish style of corporate taxation. It's very low.
Obama isn't really attacking he's still bobbing and weaving occasionaly sticking the jab like Ali. "There are so many loopholes that have been written into the tax code, oftentimes with support of Senator McCain, that we actually see our businesses pay effectively one of the lowest tax rates in the world. " A good point but his punches just don't seem to have the same impact as does McCain's.

Round 2: What would you do to solve the financial crisis?

Uh oh! McCain's coming out swinging. " . . . this is a classic example of walking the walk and talking the talk. We had an energy bill before the United States Senate. It was festooned with Christmas tree ornaments. It had all kinds of breaks for the oil companies, I mean, billions of dollars worth. I voted against it; Senator Obama voted for it. He has voted in the United States Senate to increase taxes on people who make as low as $42,000 a year. "

Oh, What a flurry!!! Although Obama's claiming that that last statement was a low blow! The ref hasn't stepped in. Obama's still complaining but McCain is starting to let the rights fly. " . . .you gave the tax breaks to the oil companies."

Mostly posturing and platitudes for most of the round. . . a lot of clinching Neither fighter wasnts give the other an opening.

And there's the bell ending round two.

Round 3: McCain jabs with the tried and true "liberal" demonization. "Senator Obama has the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate. It's hard to reach across the aisle from that far to the left."
Oh Obama counters with a great shot: "John mentioned me being wildly liberal. Mostly that's just me opposing George Bush's wrong headed policies."

Not much action now. Both fighters seem to be content with spouting a bunch facts and figures concerning government spending and financing. Hold on. Obama just caught McCain off guard.
"John, it's been your president who you said you agreed with 90 percent of the time who presided over this increase in spending. This orgy of spending and enormous deficits you voted for almost all of his budgets." Nice left to the already swollen jaw of McCain. "So to stand here and after eight years and say that you're going to lead on controlling spending and, you know, balancing our tax cuts so that they help middle class families when over the last eight years that hasn't happened I think just is, you know, kind of hard to swallow." Wow! That hurt the veteran.
McCain has got to shake out the cob webs. " . . . I'm happy to say that I've got a partner that's a good maverick along with me now." Uh oh, obviously McCain is hurt worse than we thought. I think he needs to abandon this line of attack. It's all style . . .very little substance and it could get McCain into a lot of trouble.

Round 4: Lessons learned from Iraq. Both fighters are mixing it up pretty good here. Obama harking back on why we're there in the first place while McCain is saying that's water under the bridge. America can't afford to lose this war. Obama counters with Iraq is the wrong war. McCain throws several rights about Obama's support of the troops and refusal to admit that the surge has worked. Obama covers up and deflects most of the punches. Now he's leaning against the ropes, is he suckering McCain in like Ali's famous "rope-a-dope"? McCain unleashes a flurry, "Senator Obama didn't go to Iraq for 900 days. I went there and I spoke to our troops. They said, let us win. They said, let us win. We don't want our kids coming back here."

Oh!! Now Obama's complaining of another low blow! He's got to get out of there! He's got to fight back!! Obama deflects some of McCain's punches with the fact that we took our eye of the Bin Laden ball in Afghanistan but, it doesn't appear to be doing a lot of damage.

Until Obama unleashes this flurry: John, you like to pretend like the war started in 2007. You talk about the surge. The war started in 2003, and at the time when the war started, you said it was going to be quick and easy. You said we knew where the weapons of mass destruction were. You were wrong. You said that we were going to be greeted as liberators. You were wrong. You said that there was no history of violence between Shiite and Sunni. And you were wrong.

McCain is visibly shaken. He's hurt. He's got to mount some kind of attack or he'll surely lose this round. Out of sheer desperation comes this blow to Obama's mid section.

"Admiral Mullen suggests that Senator Obama's plan is dangerous for America."
Obama is complaining of another Low blow! "That's not the case."
MCCAIN: That's what ...
OBAMA: What he said was a precipitous...
MCCAIN: That's what Admiral Mullen said.
OBAMA: ... withdrawal would be dangerous. He did not say that. That's not true.

And there's the bell ending a tumultuous round 4

We'll be right back with round 5 of this fight after a word from our sponsors. . .

"Beer!"

Round 5: Not a lot of offense in the beginning of this round. Both fighters are committed to putting more troops in Afghanistan. The referee has to break the clinches and tell the fighters to mix it up. McCain obliges with a stiff jab. " Senator Obama calls for more troops, but what he doesn't understand, it's got to be a new strategy, the same strategy that he condemned in Iraq."
Regarding Pakistan: McCains continues to be aggressive, "We've got to get the support of the people of -- of Pakistan. He said that he would launch military strikes into Pakistan. And I guarantee you I would not publicly state that I'm going to attack them."

Obama counters, "Nobody talked about attacking Pakistan. We've got a choice. We could allow our troops to just be on the defensive and absorb those blows again and again and again, if Pakistan is unwilling to cooperate, or we have to start making some decisions."


The action is heating up. Ooh, McCain lands another blow to Obama's readiness to lead, "I don't think that Senator Obama understands . . ."

Oh wow! McCain just followed up with the mother of the dead soldier, not wanting her son's death to be in vain. He's even wearing the bracelet she gave him! How is Obama ever going to get out of this? What????!!! You've got to be kidding me! Obama's got a bracelet from another dead soldier's mom who wants the war to end!! In all my years of covering fights I have never seen counter punch as effective as what I just witnessed. Oh, the sweet science.

Obama goes on the offensive: "No U.S. soldier ever dies in vain because they're carrying out the missions of their commander in chief."

And that's it for round 5

Round 6 : What about Iran? McCain comes out aggressively and warns of the nuclear threat to Israel and the U.S. Oh he throws a round house explaining that Iran's republican guard are killing American soldiers.

Obama lands a stinging left "Ironically, the single thing that has strengthened Iran over the last several years has been the war in Iraq. Iraq was Iran's mortal enemy. That was cleared away. And what we've seen over the last several years is Iran's influence grow."

Now in my opinion Obama should not let McCain off the hook here but he did. To me this is a McCain weakness. The fact that removing Sadam gave rise to Iran's influence and stature. Obama should be pummeling McCain with this over and over again. Oops, he's let him off the hook. Obama's going into sanction talk and mind numbing policy specifics that don't score a lot of points with the judges.

McCain sees an opening and hits Obama with a, "meeting people like Ahmadinejad without pre-conditions. Legitimizing their status in the world."

Obama counters with "Henry Kissinger, who's one of his advisers, who, along with five recent secretaries of state, just said that we should meet with Iran -- guess what -- without precondition. This is one of your own advisers."

Now McCain is complaining of a low blow. Look out, Obama just connected with a straight left to the head of McCain with this one, " He even said the other day that he would not meet potentially with the prime minister of Spain,because he wasn't sure whether they were aligned with us. I mean, Spain? Spain is a NATO ally."

There's a little swelling under McCain's eye. I think he's getting mad. "So let me get this right. We sit down with Ahmadinejad, and he says, "We're going to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth," and we say, "No, you're not"? Oh, please."

McCain just said the white man equivalent to "Nigga please!" Oh, this is going to get ugly. McCain flurries with "I've known Kissinger for 35 years!"

Obama gives and good as he gets with 'I'm using the same words that your advertisers used." and the round comes to an end. Whew!

Round 7: Talking about Georgia and Russia

Neither fighter really gets it here. Georgia started the fight invading southern Ossestia. Obama misses a great opportunity to land a knock out punch in this round by pointing out that one of McCain's top advisers is Randy Schueneman. A paid lobbyist for Georgia.

McCain brings the fight to Obama, with a nice little combination "Again, a little bit of naivete there. He doesn't understand that Russia committed serious aggression against Georgia. I looked into Mr. Putin's eyes, and I saw three letters, a "K," a "G," and a "B." And their aggression in Georgia is not acceptable behavior. "

A clever way to distance himself from Bush, who looked into Putin's soul and saw a good man.

Once again the fighters lack lusterly go through the motions. Obama even agreeing with his opponent from time to time. Statesmen like but, hardly scoring points with the WWE judges. He may score a point or two with this statement, " Over 26 years, Senator McCain voted 23 times against alternative energy, like solar, and wind, and biodiesel."

But McCain countered "No one from Arizona is against solar. And Senator Obama says he's for nuclear, but he's against reprocessing and he's against storing."

The round ends with both fighters throwing punches but none really connecting.

Round 8: Another 9/11?

With all the bobbing and weaving going on here somebody's going home with some new clothes. They serve harder punches at Senior Proms. But just when you think both fighters are going to escape unscathed . . .McCain revisits his favorite form of attack, " Senator Obama still doesn't quite understand -- or doesn't get it -- "

These don't really hurt Obama but, they I think they score on the judges cards.

Then McCain sensing the fight is almost over decides to throw a flurry at Obama: "I honestly don't believe that Senator Obama has the knowledge or experience and has made the wrong judgments in a number of areas. Reform, prosperity, and peace, these are major challenges to the United States of America. I don't think I need any on-the-job training. I'm ready to go at it right now."

Oh uh, there's a mouse growing under Obama's right eye. Obama should revisit his point about how we're less secure because we've pissed off most of the world and allowed Iran to become a player. But, no. He's content to get on his bicycle and let the round come to an end taking the high road reminding us that America used to be great and with his help it can be great again.

McCain gets throws the last sympathy punch " when I came home from prison, I saw our veterans being very badly treated, and it made me sad." I think that landed a little low.

There's the bell and that's the end of the fight!

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _

Well fight fans. This was one for the ages. I can't tell you how exciting it was to witness this monumental ground breaking event. For the very first time in history we just had a presidential debate between :

an incredibly resilient American patriot who bravely served his country in Viet Nam. A man who survived 5 yeas as a P.O.W. where he endured, mal-nutrition, severe illness, and torture. A man who upon returning home continued serving his country by entering the political arena and became his party's nominee for the highest office in the nation.

AND

an incredibly motivated, intelligent, community leader who served his country by postponing career and monetary gain so he could give back to the community from which he came. A man who overcame poverty and racial prejudice to become a Harvard law school graduate, a state Senator, and his party's nominee for the highest office in the nation.

I'd be overwhelmed with patriotism right now if I hadn't watched Bill Mahr last night and was reminded by Ralph Nader that both these guys are just figure heads and the damn corporatist still run the show.

DaG Out