Erin: Welcome to a Special Edition T2A as we monitor the second Presidential debate between Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Barack Obama. Joining us are Mary Lee Rech, a Democratic voter in Arlington, Virginia – and Scot Faulkner, a Republican Voter in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. Just before the contest starts, let’s hear from Mary and Scot.
Hannah: What are you looking to hear from both candidates tonight?
Scot: I would like to hear specifics on how America will be different under their administrations. They should specifically state what would be different one year from now, and four years from now.
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Mary Lee: First I'm hoping that it will be a civil discourse that discusses the issues, particularly of course the economy and the current crisis and how each one of them would unfreeze global credit markets. How the current economic crisis will impact each of their programs...with the U.S. debt of more than one trillion dollars and huge interest payments on it, how do they intend to pay it down? Of course, the Iraq War and how and when to draw down our troops and what they intend to do about Afghanistan. And I really hope that it won't be a mud-slinging, swift-boating affair.
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Erin: Give your first impressions of this debate.
Mary Lee: Neither one has a quick easy solution to this crisis with credit.
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Scot: Obama related better to the question, spoke more directly to it, was better organized...McCain's response was not as focused and was more vague.
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Erin: Given the economic situation in the United States, it seems especially important for each candidate to appeal to middle class voters. How is each candidate doing this, and how effective do you think it’s been?
Scot: Both candidates are pandering to the Wall Street analysts and to Main Street. Neither has made a clear case that their plans will really help normal people.
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Mary Lee: Obama has made the better case for the middle class, the average community resident.
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Erin: What are some key differences you see between the candidates on the economic bailout plan?
Mary Lee: Totally with agree with Obama on the de-regulation of the entire financial sector...I was in real estate and saw these loans happening with no regulations to prohibit it, an accident waiting to happen. I don't blame it on Fannie and Freddi as much as I do on the whole banking system.
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Scot: McCain is trying to start making Obama the issue, and he's so far falling short because even though well document that Sen. Obama received the 2nd most PAC money from Fannie and Freddie, Sen. Obama immediately countered by showing that several of McCain's top campaign officials actually lobby for those same organizations so McCain trying to make Obama the issue is taking the focus off of McCain relating to the audience and Obama is balancing between countering McCain and relating to the audience.
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Erin: How important is it to boost consumer spending right now, given that the economy is plunging? How should the candidates approach the fact that people are spending less?
Scot: Americans are worrying about how they are going to pay their mortgages and utility bills. Many are also worrying about their next paycheck. This is not a time to focus on consumerism. Unless there is economic recovery or a safety net, consumers will continue to cut back – making this one of the worst Christmas shopping seasons in history.
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Mary Lee: My feeling on that is we (our family has) have pulled back right now because of having lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in the market -- and America has been living on credit for so long that I think it's really important to cut back on the credit spending of Americans...I understand it's important to spend and feed the economy so there's a dichomoty there...
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Erin: Discuss your thoughts on the lists of priorities the candidates have just proposed in the debate.
Mary Lee: I think Obama's response was far more substantive than McCain's He has said what he intends to do but also in several answers has said how he intends to go about it and how he intends to pay for it.
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Scot: I think Obama continues to have a much more lucid and cogent answer to each one of these questions. He either has thought it out well in advance or he's thinking well on his feet...McCain seems to be racing through each question so he can sort of cut and paste his pre-set campaign slogans or his rhetorical flourishes he's been using since the convention so his answers not as compelling. He also continually tries to make Obama the issue but he's falling short because he's not putting out enough substance to answer the question himself or put Obama on the spot.
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Erin: What kind of vision for the United States’ changing role in the global economy would you like to see the candidates present? How should the US adjust to the new economic atmosphere?
Scot: America’s biggest export is its intellectual property and its ideas. We are the education of choice for other nations’ future business, government, and military leaders. We need to find a way to leverage this into sustained economic prosperity for all Americans. One way is to build more global awareness into our schools and develop more relevant school-to-work transitions for young people.
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Mary Lee: The question of what should Americans do? With all the business after 911 we were not asked to do anything and Obama just said he would recommend service like Peace Corps and asking more of the American people, which I totally agree with.
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Mary Lee: On the global economy adjustment question you posed...we need to start working more with other countries and stop trying to be the King Of The Hill, so to speak.
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Erin: What do you think is currently the most divisive issue for undecided voters?
Scot: What should be done to help America recover from its financial crisis. Do you start will Main Street or Wall Street? How do you make sure this doesn’t happen again?
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Mary Lee: Taxes -- not cutting the breaks given to the very very wealthy -- that is certainly a large part of it.
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Erin: Give your assessments of the debate, half-way through.
Mary Lee: I feel Obama has had the more consistently good answers and that although McCain talks about bi-partisanship he keeps going on the attack.
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Scot: The last response by Obama on fixing Social Security and Medicare was his weakest so far, because he's starting to have to reconcile some of his votes with what he's promising, but McCain did not follow up adequately..Obama got out from under scrutiny here and this shows McCain is a weak debater and he's continuing to give a kind of almost a grab bag in his answers...he jumps around to try to get everything in every answer and that's undercutting his effectiveness...but again Obama hesitated in his last response to the question on solving Social Security and Medicare.
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Scot: The question on how to develop a viable energy policy was the perfect opportunity for McCain to embrace Reaganism but instead he embraced big government --- it was a softball question he could have hit out of the park and instead he gave a Democratic answer...
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Erin: As we watch the candidates discuss health care, did you hear adequate explanations of each plan?
Mary Lee: Yes, again I prefer Obama's approach...as opposed to the taxing of the healthcare benefits for those who receive it from employers...McCain says he'll give breaks and reduce taxes and I want to know where all the money is coming from...
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Mary Lee: McCain's plan doesn't make much sense because tax credits mean your're already spending money and getting certain money through tax returns. Most people who have don't have health care, don't have it because they don't have money to spend for it so it doesn't make sense for the average strugging American trying to make ends meet. Obama's plan sounds better but brings a much larger federal role into play and the track record of the federal government being efficient is not very good -- so neither plan is going to dig us our of our hole...we have an aging population that requires more health care and the entire premium structure was based on a large base of healthy baby boomers and a small group of an aging World War two generation -- but demographics have shifted and the entire equation needs to be re-thought and the insurance companies have allowed themselves to become large and inefficient because they had years of a positive premium base to work with. I don't think either candidate has an adequate solution that will address the problem.
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Erin: What do you think is most important right now regarding strategy in Iraq? What key differences between the two candidates’ plans should voters be paying attention to?
Scot: America needs to dramatically reduce its role in Iraq. The challenge is how fast and how to leave Iraq without igniting sectional or sectarian warfare. Senator Biden’s call, prior to becoming the nominee, for regional autonomy and a stronger federal system in Iraq is one of the only real details either side has offered. Neither candidate has addressed how America, along with its allies in the world, is going to eliminate the root causes of terrorism. Neither candidate has discussed (1) stopping the spread of Wahabism and radical Maddrassas, (2) developing better outreach and support to moderates in the Arab world, (3) building stronger non-petroleum business relationships in the region, and (4) developing energy independence to deprive revenues to governments that oppose western interests.
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Mary Lee: The most important thing is to get the Iraqi government working and able to stand on its own and support itself financially, not using our money and pocketing their 87-million a year from oil revenues -- and to protect itself militarily...of course this would go along with the plan Iraq has for itself and that Obama has for Iraq but McCain consistently says we'll stay until not needed and I don't think Obama would pull troops out of it endangered the co but he would try to further the process of getting Iraq to stand on its own two feet. By going into Iraq, we increased the threat of terrorism in the Arab world and by leaving Afghanistan, we allowed the Taleban and al-Qaeda to re-group and do very well, which in my view was a huge mistake.
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Scot: On the substance -- regarding the McCain Doctrine versus the Obama doctrine, McCain is coming up with a clearer plan, but his delivery is all over the place he could have actually won this round due to his record in opposing U.S. intervention in Somalia and sending marines into Lebanon, both of which came to grief...so he could have articulated it better. But on the facts he's on more solid ground in this round.
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Scot: McCain misquoted Teddy Roosevelt, it is 'walk softly' and not 'talk softly'...so the focus of his counter argument is based on a faulty recollection of the quote...
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Erin: Your thoughts on the candidates' stands on National Security?
Scot: I think the key is that at this point in the campaign and in the debate is that people probably are thinking 'which one of these two people do I want to listen to for the next four years when they go before Congress and when they address the American people-- who do I want on my tv screen?' Obama is winning that contest...this is at the point 4 years ago when people said 'I don't want to hear Kerry again' or 8 years ago when people said 'I don't want to listen to Gore again' -- Obama is coming off as more organized in thought, more careful in the way he is speaking and relating better to the public so I think McCain is definitely losing this debate...
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Mary Lee: I think Obama is more focused generally on each of the responses, than McCain -- he seems to have thought the whole thing out in a better, more thoughtful way, to give his responses.
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Erin: Do you see a need for a change in strategy in either of the candidates’ campaigns right now? If yes, where should this change be focused?
Scot: Obama has made his case and “sealed the deal” with a majority of Americans. He is far enough out in front that his campaign is already focusing on getting out their vote. This is important since over a third of Americans will vote early this year. McCain must make the final days about Obama. As long as the election about either McCain or Bush he will lose. McCain must find a way to create a “where’s the beef” moment [reference to Mondale v. Gary Hart 1984] for Obama. Unless Obama is somehow exposed as something other than he is projecting this election is over. This is the point when candidates really want to show they are Presidential and with McCain behind in the polls, he's spending more time trying to bite at Obama's heels and catch up, rather than showcase his deep experience.
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Mary Lee: I would like to see less emphasis on character issues and who's buddies are whose and what happened in the Keating Five and more emphasis on the issues in these last four weeks. McCain acts like he's being chased...
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Erin: How convinced were you by the candidates' responses regarding Russia?
Scot: Both see Russia as a growing threat and as a country that is no longer behaving itself, or basically behaving in a civil manner to its neighbors and as a result is threatening strategic oil resources in the region so they both are showing an understanding...but Obama's answer is more lucid. McCain lacks seques...he doesn't answer the question then go to something that deepens the response -- so he's hard to follow. Mary Lee adds that the McCain 'soundbites' are not new, they've been used before...Mary Lee says McCain has suggested ousting Russia from the G-8 and take it back down to the G-7 which I think would really ignite fires...
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Hannah: I don't think I saw the gloves come off here...what are your final impressions of this debate and what issues do you feel were insufficiently addressed that need to be covered in the final one?
Scot: I don't either one has a real plan for getting of out of this economic hole and I don't think anyone really does...it took years for us to get into this fix, it's a multi-faceted problem and it will take years to get out of it and that plan will be multi faceted and neither candidate is prepared to be that honest with the American public. In the final debate, if they have to both provide more detail, and show what will four years of them in office mean for us as people, as a country and for the world in general..neither has really shown a vision to guide them over these next four years.
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Mary Lee: I don't think either one has a plan on how to get out of the fin crisis but I don't think anyone does, as Scot has said -- it's going to have to be worked through and will have to take time and it is going to be responding to a fire here and there -- I need more substantial answers on not only what they are planning on doing but on how they will pay for it, with the war and the national debt and other national problems....and on how the economy is going to impact their plans or what they have promised in their campaigns.
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Erin: Thank you Mary and Scot. That wraps this Special Edition T2A as we monitored the second Presidential debate between Republican Senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Barack Obama. Our thanks to Mary Lee Rech, a Democratic voter in Arlington, Virginia – to Scot Faulkner, a Republican Voter in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia – and to you for joining us. Remember, you can get the latest election news on the web at www.usavotes2008.com We hope you can come back in just a few hours, at 1800 UTC on Wednesday, October 8th, as we talk a walk down Mainstreet with the Director of an organization aimed at protecting this cultural icon of American life. That’s 1800 UTC on October 8th, right here on voanews.com See you then!
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