Great taste? Less filling?

hahaha.

I may look for the whole debate on the web when I get back to the office this afternoon. I am escorting Mac to the dedication of the intelligence center named for his former Commanding Officer, Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, and I have no idea what the command is going to put him through. I am going along to provide wheels and wheelchair pushing.

Accordingly, I am awake, moderately alert, and ready to get him at 0800 sharp. That is putting the squeeze on the morning, but that is fine. I don’t know how many more of these sorts of visits he has in him, and whatever he wants to do, I will certainly support it.

I did not make it to the encounter between Mitt and President Obama- my take on the debate I did not see (I think that qualifies me to be a pundit) is based on the spin of the media this morning. I was anticipating some intense spin, but it didn’t turn out that way. When I finally got the courage to turn on the computer early this morning the conservative sites were jubilant and having a field day with Mr. Obama, who looked, in their words, “tired, professorial and unprepared.”

Even the New York times gave it to Mitt on style points, so I think that makes it unanimous, not that it is going to matter. There is so much else going on that these little set pieces may not have the sort of impact that the partisans so desperately want.

The NY Times, in an aside, quoted a MSNBC commentator as saying “no one had talked to the president like that in four years,” and that he seemed a little “offended” by the tone.

In the midst of the greatest economic dislocation in nearly a century, I suppose somebody should have. Having the press working so hard for him must have led to some overconfidence. Mr. Obama’s comfort bubble fostered in Air Force One and those ominous Darth Vader buses clearly was jolted.

I hope something gets shaken up, regardless of who ekes out a victory in this thing.

Being an independent voter- or make that “voted,” I am implacably opposed to the Taliban Republican wing’s opinion on the social issues. Gay marriage, women’s reproductive rights, the War on Drugs, all that stuff. I cannot stomach some bureaucrat telling me what I may or may not do in my private life- and both these candidates have not been shy about telling people what to do “in their best interests.”

Screw that. I am mostly off in Ron Paul land on the social stuff, but wary of the bastards on Wall Street and filled with loathing of the banks, the latter two being the only ones who made out in this crisis.

I have said it before, but at the risk of becoming a bore, there is no viable candidate who espouses both sound economic policy and moderation in social affairs, leaning toward liberty where there is a question. There used to be a party like that, but Nelson Rockefeller is dead and Colin Powell won’t run.

This is one of those deals where I had to hold my nose and vote for what is best for the pocketbook.

All other things being equal, I would prefer to have a dollar that is not poised on the brink of collapse, and the uncertainty of what this crushing deficit is going to do to my job and the pitiful savings I have managed to hang on to in the immediate future.

It occurs to me I ought to be better prepared for the trip this morning, and I need to get on with real life, not the hype-filled Continuing Crisis. It occurs to me I should get some emergency numbers and be ready for the unexpected as we roll across the District. I will ask Mac for contacts to enter into my phone, just in case.

Be a Scout, I guess: “Be prepared.”

I can do that on a personal level, though I have no idea how that can be translated into national policy. Those two guys tried last night, and I am not sure what it means. Forty-three days to go until we find out.

Copyright 2012 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com