9pm Eastern
I wanted to go ahead and set this up…if nobody comes to join me, I’ll be sad, but it’s here, nonetheless!
The candidates will debate in a town hall format, with many questions coming from the internet. Tom Brokaw is the moderator, so this should be interesting. The campaign has heated up in the last few days…as Obama pulls ahead. Don’t throw down the gauntlet too forcefully, gentlemen.
The Meaning of SIGMA 
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October 7, 2008 at 8:12 pm
sigmapromise
Bail-out was really a rescue?? Strategy…Tactic??
October 7, 2008 at 8:17 pm
sigmapromise
Thank you Obama…this is the beginning of the process of rebuilding. But it’s dangerous to say that the economy has not yet reached the bottom.
October 7, 2008 at 8:28 pm
sigmapromise
McCain has now made two giant references to drilling offshore and finding more sources of domestic oil
McCain’s 3 priorities: reform entitlement programs, Bipartisan work, More fuel sources (green energy), Health Care.
Barack Obama’s 3 priorities: Energy (15 bil in ten years-to reduce foreign dependency), Health Care (affordability), Education
He also wants to ensure that bad programs are gone, and that oversight of tax policies are more efficient.
October 7, 2008 at 8:36 pm
sigmapromise
spending freeze–does this mean welfare, food stamps, small business grants, research funds, federal housing????? And in the same breath, McCain calls for unity. Some of these people that would end up in alienation would not have the means to do for themselves. At any rate, I don’t think, as McCain says, I really have the authority to do anything about earmarks, personally.
What is this Barack? You are endorsing offshore drilling? It is reasonable to have Americans sacrifice some of our energy consumption. Plus the tax benefits do NOT need to go to the far right of the bell curve.
October 7, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Karina Nilsen
Tell McCain to SIT DOWN.
He is simply rude.
October 7, 2008 at 8:42 pm
sigmapromise
McCain’s Ideas sound great, but with our deficit as it is, where does the money to give those rebates to working Americans come from??? What’s wrong with evaluating the current situation and tweaking the tax policy to fit the situation, as Obama is doing?
McCain has said “leave the tax policies alone,” as if he’s afraid that the wealthiest people will just *leave* America for some other great nation.
October 7, 2008 at 8:45 pm
sigmapromise
By the way, Obama said…
Obama said, “Domestically, our national debt and budget constrain us in ways that are going to be very far-reaching. And I think whoever is elected in 2008 is going to be cleaning up the fiscal mess that was created as a consequence of the president’s tax cuts.” Obama opposed repealing the estate tax: “Let’s call this trillion dollar giveaway what it is–the Paris Hilton Tax Break. It’s about giving billions of dollars to billionaire heirs and heiresses as a time when American taxpayers just can’t afford it.” Obama has proposed to “reverse some of those tax cuts that went to the wealthiest Americans.” As Obama put it, “It’s not as if rich people were suffering under Bill Clinton.”
Source: The Improbable Quest, by John K. Wilson, p.155 Oct 30, 2007
October 7, 2008 at 8:48 pm
sigmapromise
McCain looked for a second like “?what was silicon valley, again??”
October 7, 2008 at 8:51 pm
sigmapromise
FactCheck: $7,000-per-child tax EXEMPTION, not tax CREDIT
McCain made his tax plan sound way too generous to middle-income taxpayers, incorrectly describing one of his own proposals. McCain said, “Let’s give every family in America a $7,000 tax credit for every child they have.”
McCain was badly wrong in what he said about the child “tax credit.” The current child tax credit is $1,000, and McCain is not proposing any increase at all. What McCain actually is proposing is a gradual increase in the $3,500 exemption for each dependent child, starting in 2010 and increasing $500 each year until it reaches $7,000 in 2016. The distinction between a tax credit and a tax exemption is both basic and significant. A tax credit is a dollar-for-dollar reduction in the amount of tax owed. An exemption is much less valuable to taxpayers, as it merely reduces the amount of income subject to tax. An exemption is also more valuable to upper-income taxpayers, who fall into higher tax brackets, than to middle- and lower-income taxpayers.
Source: FactCheck.org analysis of 2008 Saddleback joint appearance Aug 16, 2008
October 7, 2008 at 8:55 pm
sigmapromise
Obama does not want to do health care the way McCain is implying. In fact:
Subsidies to people who can’t afford care–not single payer
If, in fact, we are not making healthcare affordable enough, which is what’s happening right now, and you mandate on families to buy health insurance that they can’t afford and if they don’t buy it you fine them or in some other way take money for them. What is happening in Massachusetts right now, which is that folks are having to pay fines and they don’t have health care. They’d rather go ahead and take the fine because they can’t afford the coverage. My core belief is that people desperately want coverage, and my plan provides those same subsidies. If they are provided those subsidies and they have good, quality care that’s available, then they will purchase it. That is my belief. I never said that we should try to go ahead and get single payer. What I said was that if I were starting from scratch, if we didn’t have a system in which employers had typically provided health care, I would probably go with a single-payer system.
Source: 2008 Congressional Black Caucus Democratic debate Jan 21, 2008
October 7, 2008 at 8:56 pm
sigmapromise
Mandates are NOT HORRIBLE if the people who are in charge of enforcing them are NOT HORRIBLE people.
October 7, 2008 at 9:01 pm
sigmapromise
Deregulate Insurance.
Deregulate the Economy.
How about deregulating crime laws while we’re at it?
October 7, 2008 at 9:02 pm
sigmapromise
Zinger ALERT!!! “We don’t have time for ‘on-the-job’ training.” McCain’s words. And he’s getting riled up too.
October 7, 2008 at 9:06 pm
sigmapromise
So if I understand Obama right, The humanitarian crises across the world might not be so bad if the U.S. wasn’t stretched so thin. Also, in line with his opposition to this war, part of the humanitarian crisis in the middle east might not exist if we’d gone about things differently.
October 7, 2008 at 9:18 pm
sigmapromise
I won’t debate McCain on his knowledge of the armed forces and their deployment in various situations. But how, diplomatically would he deal with situations like Pakistan?
Obama explained the current events and background around the border strikes well. I also like his suggestions for aid in place of military funding. and his rebuttal to McCain.
Speaking softly, carrying a big stick–Of COURSE McCain would speak softly…Palin is *shouting from the rooftops*. And if you’re singing “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran” where someone can HEAR you, I bet that’s the same as calling a foreign leader up and saying the same thing.
October 7, 2008 at 9:21 pm
sigmapromise
who is still an ally in Europe?
October 7, 2008 at 9:26 pm
sigmapromise
Obviously not the U.N., Senator McCain. We wouldn’t even stop to ask them for their perspective?
October 7, 2008 at 9:35 pm
sigmapromise
Brokaw was bobbing and weaving there for a second 🙂
October 7, 2008 at 9:39 pm
sigmapromise
I try not to listen to the post-debate commentary, but I do believe that there was no clear winner.