For those of you that follow my Twitter Feed it's not news that I was a bit... animated... during the last presidential debate. In truth, there was an awful lot of screaming and cursing in my home throughout. In the light of a new day, however, I've had the opportunity to really go over the debate and figure out just exactly what it was that got me so heated.
Here, in no particular order, are the top 10 things that pissed me right off about John McCain:
1 - "Sarah Palin is a role model to women." No, Senator McCain, she's not. Sarah Palin is only a role model to women that fit nicely within a very specific demographic - Fundamentalist Christians. A good many of the rest of us find her vapid, dogmatic, and possibly crazy.
2 - Women's health in air quotes. I'm not sure whether those air quotes showed a shocking lack of medical knowledge or a shocking lack of respect for women. Either way, I was certainly offended.
3 - The notion that Palin's special needs child means anything to other special needs families. I don't elect an official because they can relate to my personal emotional struggle. Bringing up Palin's special needs son in place of actual policy discussion is patronizing and it certainly doesn't erase the fact that Palin was recently named in a lawsuit claiming inadequate services specifically for an autistic teen, or that Senator McCain hasn't rated higher than 33% on the Children Defense Fund's scorecard, or that he opposes the Community Choice Act.
4 - "I'm proud of [Palin}... And I can't tell how proud I am of her and her family. Her husband's a pretty tough guy, by the way, too." Senator McCain was asked about his running mate's qualifications and this is what we get? I have to wonder, does he really not understand how condescending and unprofessional this sounded? She's his VP pick, not his daughter.
5 - He's proud of violent bigots too. Proclaiming pride in his supporters immediately following remarks regarding violent and hate-filled outbursts during rallies was troubling enough - following that up by whining over offensive t-shirts as though they were on equal footing to shouts of "terrorist" and "kill him" showed blatant contempt.
6 - Blame the victim mentality. McCain's notion that he wouldn't have run attack ads if only Obama would have met with him in his heavily stacked Town Hall Meetings sounds eerily familiar to the "I wouldn't have to hit you if you wouldn't talk back" defense.
7 - Repetition. Repeating an argument nearly verbatim directly after it's been refuted makes you look completely daft.
Statement - He'll raise your taxes!
Reaction - Oh... I don't want that.
Refutation - Actually, I'll only raise taxes on those making more than $250,000 a year.
Reaction - Oh, I don't make anywhere near that much.
Follow-Up Statement - He'll raise your taxes!
Reaction - What the fuck is this guy's problem?
8 - Repetition. McCain mentioned Joe the Plumber some 20 times. We get it, trust me, we're not nearly as stupid as you apparently think we are. He may think he's cementing a theme, all he's really doing is providing comedy shows with skit fodder.
9 - Attitude. McCain once again came off like a cranky old man yelling at the neighbor kids to get off his lawn. Look at the adjectives that sprang to mind as I wrote this post regarding his general attitude: disrespectful, patronizing, condescending, unprofessional, contemptuous, daft, cranky... Yeesh. This isn't a man I trust to negotiate fragile foreign policy relationships. Somehow I get the feeling the president of Spain is relieved McCain won't agree to meet with him.
10 - Baseless bullshit. McCain apparently didn't need the reminder Obama so glibly provided that he'd lose the race if he stuck to the issues - once again we got to hear a plethora of catch phrases and more easily refuted nonsense about Ayers and ACORN. If he was up for the position of gossip colmunist, McCain would have my vote - but Commander in Chief? I think I'd prefer someone with a touch more professionalism.
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