First Presidential Debate Makes Clearer What Some of Us Already Knew

During last night's presidential debate, John McCain did an excellent job of projecting the image of a cranky, misinformed, narrow-minded, older straight white guy who can't think beyond his anger at the fact that the world and most of the people on it have changed around him despite his static position of inherited wealth and the power it can buy–most likely while he was napping. He is the kind of guy I would avoid sitting next to at a diner counter or corner bar so as not to ruin a good meal and/or beer with psycho-socio-racial-pathic heterosexist bile that should have been vented to a paid therapist in the Twentieth Century. When pressed by the moderator to answer a specific question about the economy with specific proposals rather than general campaign slogans, he recites the polysyllabic names of former Soviet naval ports, proving only that some cells in his brain containing memories from the 70s and 80s are still alive. He can't pronounce the name of the current, elected leader of Iran and becomes visibly annoyed when circumstances force him to make an attempt. I wouldn't trust him to conduct me safely through any of Philly's rougher neighborhoods after midnight without unnecessary gunfire and bloodshed, let alone to conduct two wars [one of which is completely illegal and counterproductive] in my name and allegedly on my behalf.

In addition to his poor and unsurprising performance in the debate, McCain has previously made clear his intention to prolong the Republican and Christian extremist-orchestrated suspension of our Constitution and Bill of Rights in order to continue the proactive denial of basic human rights to all non-heterosexual Americans, which he did not make any attempt to recant last evening. Before the debate, that was the deal-breaker for me. Now I don't feel so much like a one-issue voter.

I wish Obama would have been a little bit more assertive, but I agree with most of the specific proposals on his web site, which means I'll still vote for him. I suspect at this point he'll catch more flies with honey than vinegar anyways.