Debate #3

[Professor S]

The main problem I see with the debates last night was that McCain did come off as a bit fidgety and exasperated at times, but Obama made some big mistakes if McCain can take advantage of them.

1) Obama denied raising taxes on citizens making $42 a year. That is a lie, and a PURE lie, a rarity in politics. He did vote for that bill and it shows on FactCheck.org. McCain should have ads that jump on that immediately.

2) Obama did a horrible job of explaining the "Joe the Plumber" exchange from his town hall meeting. Joe is a real person, and Obama did state he wanted to spread Joe's wealth around, even after Joe said he'd never be able to buy the business and be wealthy if Obama's taxes were in place. This is a huge opportunity for McCain, and he needs to jump on it.

3) William Ayers. Wow, did Obama leave himself wide open, even going as far to try and paint the former terrorist as a benign Professor and ignored the fact that he is unapologetic and supportive of terroristic acts against the US to this day. The problem for McCain is that he hesitated on the issue when he should have pressed Obama on it. That could have been a game changer, but I don't believe McCain will force the issue.

4) Spending - McCain did a better job of pointing out how Obama says he will cut taxes for 95% and cut spending "with a scalpel", but then on every issue seems to mention increasing spending s a method to fix it. McCain did a better job, but he needs to hammer Obama on that.

5) McCain needs to do a better job of explaining his own tax plan, and the reasons why inreased taxes on large corporations are paid by their consumers, not the wealthy. Example: The Universal Service Fee on every telephone bill. That was a fee handed down to telephone companies, not their consumers, we it is passed on to us in cost and name.

6) The Illinois abortion issue with failed abortions was a treasure trove of misinformation from Obama. If McCain doesn't address it, he has missed the boat.

Overall, Obama was much smoother in the debate and in that aspect "won" it, but he left himself extraordinarily vulnerbale for the final few weeks. But McCain's camp needs to show they are capable of jumping on issues that favor McCain, and so far they haven't shown the ability to do so.

If McCain doesn't jump on any of these items, and in a convincing manner, expect Obama's lead to widen going into the election. I've stated before that Obama needs a 10 point lead to win, and if the status quo remains, he'll have that and more.