Unforeseen Contingencies

We here at Unforeseen Contingencies do not care who wins...we'd just like to hear reason, defense of liberty, and policies that support these.

We didn't get what we wanted. Jim Lehrer did a creditable job, particularly in his repeated pestering of these two about how the bailout will affect their spending plans. Neither candidate seemed to have given this matter any consideration at all. This is such a crucial and obvious issue that I can't imagine either is fit to be President. McCain finally called for a spending freeze, which I'd love to see, but it sounded as though he suddently thought of it...it certainly took a lot of arm twisting on Lehrer's part to get it out of McCain. I wonder if we will hear anything more of it. Obama had no idea what to say. Neither candidate budged an inch on tax cuts, and neither had budget plans that were in touch with reality even before the financial disaster. The federal budget is like a ship with a gaping hole in the hull, and water rushing in. The two would-be captains arguing about how to decorate the ballroom. I found it painful and depressing to hear them repeatedly evade Lehrer.

I guess sometimes one guy sounded better than the other, and sometimes they both sounded bad. Obama seems to be much readier to make attacks in Pakistan than McCain; I'm sure that Pakistanis will be delighted to hear that. McCain seemed to confuse preparations with preconditions in negotiating. Kissinger supports negotiations with Iran, but the McCain-Palin team seems to be having difficulty figuring this out despite repeated encounters with the question.

I could go on, but why bother. Both were shallow, and I didn't learn anything listening to them. It's very unfortunate, because America needs something much better than what it is going to get.