I suspect most of us watched the second debate. Tom Brokaw and I are the same age and I thought he was probably to old to be the moderator. The tweets about him were less than flattering. John McCain is three years older than Brokaw and I. He should not be president and to my mind proved it once again.

A friend of mine who hails from Texas told me recently that Bush had ruined Texas when he was governor and now has ruined the US as president. Well, I think he may have been conservative. Bush may have ruined the world, at least for now. As Bob Herbert points out in The Mask Slips, the gang that cannot shoot straight has been terrible at governing and great at persuading folks to vote against their own self interest. We won’t know until probably November 5th whether they have done it once again.

In an earlier entry, I said that McCain wanted to be president so badly that he compromised his personal honor, which I think showed both a lack of integrity and bad judgment on his part. It is matched by his bad judgment in selecting Palin as his running mate. He has allowed the slime machine to run full tilt. Obama has remained somewhat cool under fire, which in the end may serve him well.

The slime machine has tried to paint Obama as a radical, a moslem, and who knows what else. The press has picked up on it so it gets some amplification. This plays into covert racism and lets people use an alternative explanation for their willingness to vote for McCain even when doing so is against their own self interest. An excellent article by George Packer in the New Yorker, THE HARDEST VOTE, does an excellent job of reporting on this phenomenon and how both parties have failed to consider or convince the white, lower middle class.

Obama has always been careful to be respectful in his tone towards McCain even when the same has not been true in return. (McCain’s belittling comment about “that one” in the last debate is a good example.)

The recent personal attacks on Obama seem even to have affected McCain who has admonished some of his supporters for their attacks. Obama has always paid tribute to McCain’s military service, but there have been lingering questions about it just below the surface from his days at the Naval Academy where he finished near the bottom of his class to his service in Vietnam. The Republican’s have not been so respectful of military service from their questions about McGovern to Bob Kerrey to John Kerry have shown.

John Kerry was Swift Boated with doubts about his service record in Vietnam. It possibly lead to his defeat. Bob Kerrey, Congressional Medal of Honor winner, probably did not run for president because of his own fears of such unscrupulous attacks. The democrats have traditionally refrained from attacks on their opponent’s military service. But should they when there may be real questions?

McCain was somehow involved in the terrible fire onboard the USS Forestal, but the Obama campaign and most of the press have not brought it up. An article in the CQ Politics, McCain Camp Ignores Questions About Candidate’s Military Record, points out that there may be an issue here that has more substance than the articles in 2004 on Kerry’s service. One has to wonder if this is the reason for McCain’s call for more civility lest the media really picks up on this episode in his military career?

Sarah Palin continues to hit the road while a report indicates that she abused her power as governor when she pressured officials to fire a state trooper who was her ex brother-in-law. I suspect this will continue to fester in the remaining days of the campaign.

I will post some thoughts about the electoral college on the Polling Information site soon. Obama is now close in the polls, at least, to a win.