Kristyne McDaniel Opinion Blog

Tonight I heard the new theme for the James Bond movies… and I have to tell you that I truly dislike it. I love the artists that wrote and sang the song, but it just didn’t sound like something that should be affixed to a spy thriller.

With Another Way to Die, Jack White and Alicia Keys completely missed the mark. It is screamy-sounding, like people yelling at each other. I don’t see spies yelling AT ALL. They are clandestine, have courage, and would generally act below the radar to avoid detection. A song with yelling in it simply makes no sense at all.

I definitely agree that the interview with Katie Couric was a disaster. However, I’m not sure at all that it means Sarah Palin is an airhead that is not ready for prime-time.

We all have bad days, and I think Sarah suffered from too much preparation without enough time to fully integrate all of the new information into the rest of her own learnings. IOW, I think she was having some trouble using all the new stuff she learned to answer questions intelligently.

Sarah Palin has been a mayor of a small town, and then a governor of a state that just isn’t fully connected to the rest of the country’s governments. Alaska is not connected to the rest of CONUS - the name we government contractor types used for the CONtinental United States. I agree that the interview was pretty bad, but after considering it in the context of her career and the rest of the news over the last couple of weeks… I find it to be understandable and not a deal-breaker for her candidacy as Vice President.

Frankly, she’d far better as V.P. than Dubya was for president. I find her to still be an excellent choice if you happen to be a Republican. If she were to succeed McCain, she’d be so much better than Dubya that it just isn’t worth criticising her for her obvious lack of knowledge. Her record demonstrates far better judgement, and that’s important to me.

Surely, I don’t want to let her off the hook. I do hope she aquits herself well on Thursday against Joe Biden. Having two reasonable choices for president is so much better than having only one… Even though I’m a Democrat these days who is unlikely to vote for McCain, I still hope that he presents himself as a qualified and reasonable choice for President.

I enjoyed the first debate immensely. After the fits and starts during the first half hour spent discussing the still unformed financial bailout legislation being developed by the Congress, the debate swung into a wonderfully animated discussion of foreign policy.

McCain was the expert we all know him to be. However, Obama’s knowledge of the topic is both deep and wide. His intellect and cool deliberation on the major topics of our day in foreign policy came shining through the discussion. In my opinion, this was a clear McCain advantage — and yet he did not win the day!

Obama scored points with regard to talks with Iran. He scored points discussing the opinions of Kissenger, who is well known to be an advisor to McCain.

One of the things I liked least about the comments made by Barack Obama during the primaries was his insistence that he would speak with the leaders of rogue regimes without precondition. Tonight’s explanation during the debates made that position more clear, and made it most definitely sound completely reasonable.

I loved Obama’s commentary telling McCain that he was ‘wrong’ about several issues with regard to Iraq. That was one of my favorite moments. My least favorite moment was actually split over the entire debate. That was with respect to the treatment of Obama by McCain. He would not look at him. He never cracked a smile. I got the feeling that McCain was treating Obama with contempt, and that truly bothered me.

All in all, it was a pretty good debate. I do wish that the financial concerns of this week had not overshadowed the foreign policy discussions, but in reality… how could it not? Everything considered, it was a terrific debate that could be spun to be won by either side. McCain may have actually won on points, but I believe Obama won overall.

Over the course of this week we’ve seen a very dramatic demonstration of the temperaments and decision-making styles of the two presidential candidates. These traits have been exposed during the brouhaha over the crisis in the American financial markets.

The Body Surfer

Barack Obama is one cool customer. It did look during the primary like there wasn’t much at all that would rattle him. This week, despite the drama on Capitol Hill and McCain’s attempt to delay Tonight’s debate, he didn’t take the bait.

Obama pressed to pass an ultimately more ‘clean’ financial bailout bill than what is likely to be produced by Congress. Taking out the political hardball, he left aside some of his key sticking points, most notably the changes he wants most to the issues of mortgages for homeowners with only one home.

At no point during the week did I feel that Obama was trying to use the financial crisis for political gain. However, I did enjoy his comments about how a president will need to demonstrate that he can handle more than one big issue at a time.

The Fighter Pilot

John McCain is a heroic fighter pilot who was literally left for dead on the field of battle. That’s a life-changing experience no matter how you look at it. I have to believe that experience would shape his view of the world and whatever happens within it.

This week, McCain’s first impulse to drop everything and concentrate on the financial crisis backfired. While it is absolutely important to travel to Washington D.C. to help in whatever way possible to get the package through, it was not a good idea to act in a way that could be perceived as panic over events. Moving to force a postpone the presidential debates was a bone-headed move to draw attention to McCain as some kind of a white knight out to rescue the American people… but what it really drew attention to is McCain’s apparent inability to focus on a topic without having it occupy his entire psyche.

Aren’t we all angry? It is difficult not to be.

Whether you’re one of the Americans having tremendous trouble making ends meet, or one of the Americans that has been living within your means and paying all your bills on time, you’re being asked to swallow an elephant in one gulp.

Fortunately, the bailout bill is being broken apart to make it a bit easier to deal with the elephant. Perhaps the elephant doesn’t need to be eaten all at once, perhaps the elephant doesn’t need to be eaten at all. Perhaps there’s a way to bandage up the partially eaten elephant and send it on its way to do what elephants do.

Each of us has a dog in this fight. For me, I want bankruptcy judges to be able to restructure mortgages. That would help people renegotiate terms whether they are in bankruptcy or not. Ditto for credit card companies. Is it really reasonable that a person who is behind on their credit cards be charged $39 in late fees, $39 in overlimit fees, and then pay a 30% interest rate on top of that? I think not.

I’m going to be watching the presidential debate this evening, as well as sampling the commentary on the various networks. Presidential politics over the next 40 days are the most interesting I have seen in my 51 years on the planet, and my 40 years of paying attention… you heard right… I have been interested in politics since I was 11 years old.

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With the country’s financial system in turmoil, the economy finally became the number one issue — as it should have been all along.

McCain’s odd response to the problem has raised issues of its own. Just last week Senator McCain was telling us that the fundamentals of the economy were strong, even as most of the country sat in disbelief. Now that he’s finally felt the 2×4 in the middle of his forehead, McCain’s response was typical of the crisis-mode reactions we’ve become familiar with throughout the course of his campaign.

He announced that he would ’suspend’ his campaign, dash off to Washington to save the day, and would forgo his participation in the first Presidential debate, scheduled for 9/26/08.

In the wake of that mess, he canceled his appearance on Letterman’s Late Show as well… electing to instead be interviewed by Katie Couric.

Give me a break!

The canceled Letterman appearance is just a part of the pattern. McCain’s behavior in this financial bailout issue shows contempt for the time and resources of others. He’s costing Ole Miss and the town a lot of money, costing the networks money, and costing himself credibility.

The worst part of this flurry of cancellations and proposed cancellations would be the financial damage to Oxford, Mississippi. Oxford is a small town. The cancellation is big news in that area, and dominated the television news coverage. Ole Miss spent money getting ready for the debate by sprucing up their facilities, enhancing security, and making personnel available. The town’s merchants stocked up on campaign memorabilia that they would be stuck with if the anticipated throngs do not arrive. News reporters and spectators have incurred expenses for travel. The networks have invested money and moved their television programming around.

Presidential Debates are planned far in advance. This was a done deal to everyone else involved. Only McCain thought he could just cancel at the last minute if he felt like making a political point.

He’s so sure the “maverick” thing is a winning approach that he’s taken to throwing tantrums like a 3-year-old in an attempt to make things go his way.

I’m very irritated. I want an adult in the White House. It is obvious to me that only Obama knows how to behave himself when things don’t go his way.