Just the Facts, Scam... ahh, Ma'ma

Now THAT’S what I call a debate. The candidates actually debated! If you missed this one, you missed the best one. Obama came off as cool, calm, and collected… almost. He was sent reeling a few times by the questions and comments from McCain.

Obama might have looked good on the surface, but by watching and listening to Obama’s responses, you could tell he was having a hard time fielding McCain’s assaults. Obama stammered and stuttered his way though a few different factual inaccuracies, and in some cases, out and out lies.

One of the worst inaccuracies was when Obama said people at McCain rallies are yelling “kill him” towards Obama. This is not true for two reasons. First, Obama made it sound like people were calling for Obama’s death. Not ONE person called for Obama’s death, and this fact is backed up by the investigations of the Secret Service.
Supposedly, when Bill Ayers name was mentioned, someone yelled “kill him,” in reference to Bill Ayers. This is an important distinction to make, and Obama tried to blur the truth. Obama lied by telling only half of the truth.
Here is an example; It’s like if I said, “I hate when I run over frogs in the rain” and someone twists my words and tells you I said “I hate frogs and run them over” then qualifies it as a racist statement toward people of French descent. Obviously the words in the second quote were said, but not in the way they are written.

So why is this important? If you haven’t figured it out yet, Obama is a liar through and through. He gives you half the truth, and even the truth he gives you is twisted around. Obama may have looked smooth, but McCain dominated in substance. Rather than recap the debate, let me point out other Obama half-truths

Let’s start with one of my favorite subjects, oil. Obama said the oil companies have 68 million acres leased that they are not drilling. He was correct about the leased land, and that’s about it.
Fact:
Exploratory drilling is being done on quite a bit of the 68 million acres. Though they are not producing oil yet (key word is yet), they are using the land. The only area that can be listed as land used is those that are actually producing oil. Thus, the areas that are being drilled for exploration are not counted until they produce oil. Oh, and by the way, it takes about 10 years for an exploratory hole to produce oil. Thank you for the half-truth Barack O-Liar.


Another favorite subject of mine is education. Barack tried to claim that he doubled the number of charter schools of charter schools in Illinois. Talk about stretching your resume! First, you happened to put your name on a bill, so you didn’t do a damn thing other than sign. Second, you AND your fellow politicians double the charter schools in Chicago. That is one city out of the entire state. Sorry bud, be honest.
Fact:
You supported legislation that doubled the amount of charter schools in the city of Chicago, you did not personally double charter schools in Illinois (you fraud!).

Again, Obama tried to claim he breaks ranks with the democrats (he claimed bill S.5 as an example.) How often does Obama reach across the aisle?
Fact:
18 to 26 among democrats voting on this, and Obama happened to vote along side about 40% of the Democrats? How is this even CLOSE to breaking ranks? About 97% of the time, he voted the party line. Enough said.


Let’s skim the “Joe the Plumber” issue. Joe said he was going to buy a company that is projected to make $250 to $280 thousand a year. He wanted to know if his taxes would go up. Let’s stipulate that Joe’s company make $250K. The answer under Obama’s plan is yes.
Fact:
You will receive a tax increase if you make $200k gross or more annually ($250K if you are married filing joint). Let’s talk about the increase of 3%. If you made $199,999 this year, and you make $200,000 next year, your taxes will be $6,000 more for 2009. That extra dollar you make next year is going to cost you $6K. Sound equitable to you?


Speaking of taxes, the Tax Policy Center claims that the national debt would substantially increase with either candidate’s current policy. Even with Obama’s proposed spending cuts, he could increase our debt by $281 billion for the year 2013. That’s not over the next five years that is just one years deficit increase for calendar year of 2013 (re-election year). McCain is not innocent here either, he needs to do some major spending cuts too, but I trust McCain to cut spending, not the “tax and spend” record of Obama.

I also love how Obama walks around the truth by avoiding key facts. So “small businesses” who do not supply healthcare coverage would not be fined. This is great, don’t you agree? Now define small business. Mr. Obama? Oh, that’s one fact that you conveniently ignore. Is small business a company with 2 employees, or 10, 20 may be? Do you take into account how profitable the company is? Or does profit only matter when you decided how much the company must pay in taxes? (33% not high enough for you? what about 70-80%, like France?)

Obama also claims that his health care plan will cut family’s premiums by $2,500 annually. At least Obama has strong optimism! Maybe you should try a lower number, Mr. Obama. Let say $1,600 at best. He claims he can save $120 billion a year, but that is an inflated figure. He MIGHT save $77 billion (64% of what he is claiming)

At this point, I think you get the idea. Like I said before, there were some good parts to this debate. My two favorite moments happened to be John McCain moments. The first was a slip of the tongue when John was talking about the government. He called Senator Obama, “Senator Government”. Personally, I think it was a fitting name, but John corrected himself. It was an obvious slip up as evidenced buy John’s reaction to his own words.

The second great moment was when John said,
“Yes. Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago. I'm going to give a new direction to this economy in this country.”
And John is correct. He is not President Bush, and he will not be President Bush. John McCain has his own ideas, his own cabinet appointments, and will not govern the way George Bush has. It is important that John distinguished this fact, and that he called Obama out on this.

I think John did fairly well. The only complaint I have about McCain’s performance was that he did not press Obama when he had him pinned. John had Obama on the ropes, and let him go. McCain did a good job pointing out inaccuracies in Obama’s statements and platform, but did not dig deep enough or push hard enough. It left a lot more work for the fact checkers and analyst, like me. But like I said, it was a good debate. I would call this a slight McCain win.

So here we are, with less than 3 weeks until the election. It is up to you. Do you want to pay more taxes, screw up the economy more and increase the chances of being killed in your own home by a terrorist? If so, vote Obama, or just stay home this election cycle.

Want to be safe in your home, not afraid of a terrorist attack? How about fixing the economy? Want to reduce the national debt without raising your taxes? Vote John McCain.