The McCain Trap and Obama's Debate Challenge, By George Lakoff and Kathleen Frumkin

.....that George Lakoff had been there to help with debate prep.

After several months of hitting the perfect framing when debating Hillary it is like he suddenly forgot how to do it. And while I understand that many issues are so spun that speaking actual reality sounds wacko, the chance to make a deliberate "Gaffe" that would frame the debate and set a flurry of fact checking to disprove the "gaffe" and thus educate everyone could have very great effect.

As it was I kept waiting for Obama to jujitsu McCain's BS but instead said that McCain was right and correct etc so many times that we can expect that the Republicans will snip all of them together and make a whole 30 second ad on just that.

Among the facts-
The Georgia-Osetia fight was launched by Georgia, and very much more complicated than is admitted. Supporting Georgia sovereignty is much needed but standing as Obama did with their annexation of the break away parts is problematic. As is NATO membership by Ukraine or any Caucasus Nation.

Iran is run by right wing theocrats, but there was much leftward drift until Bush gave them an enemy to oppose. An opening by Obama to not threaten them would go a long way toward dumping the theocrats. All the talk about Iranian nukes is balderdash, they have not violated the nonproliferation treaty, the centrifuges they have will not get them to more than fuel grade material.

If they ever did attack Israel openly both the US and Israel would bring massive retaliation on any excuse. Obama needs to assure that they will not do so on no excuse at all. And the Folks we are supporting in Iraq are Iran's people, they are therefore not the opposition. Also it is Iran negotiations that caused most of the drop in violence, not the "surge".

There is a simple solution to the credit meltdown. Most folks could maintain their mortgages (those who still have jobs)if the payments did not go through the roof. Stop that and the need for foreclosures drops, and the expenses that such massive foreclosures create in lowered values, lost income and expenses goes away, and the derivative mess can be unraveled in a sane way with no bail out

The stick to create such sanity would be for the Government to insist on the same "Claw back" clauses that any Venture Capitalist would insist on, not just cutting back on Golden parachutes, but severely cutting and demanding back any income derived by those who mismanaged the Companies in the first place.

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If the Gang Of Pirates think that the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat, only a fool would think it bipartisan to accommodate them by acting the part.

Obama gave entirely too much deference and respect to McCain... and AGREED with him six (6) times! I certainly don't want to beat up on Senator Obama - god knows, he has the fate of the entire world riding on his shoulders - but as a HuffingtonPost commenter (us little people!) pointed out, Senator Obama AGREED with McCain at least SIX TIMES in the debate!

This is of course Senator Obama FOLLOWING the "Democratic" "leadership" model, and the DC "Conventional Wisdom", that Republicans are honorable and honest, above board and deserving of respect.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. Senator Obama's DEFERENCE TO, and "bipartisan respect of" Senator McCain - when there is NO reciprocal respect from McCain or his highway-men-robbers corporate lobbyist campaign - is a direct consequence of Nancy Pelosi "KEEPING IMPEACHMENT OFF THE TABLE," and not even running pre-impeachment hearings into abuses of power; i.e. Pelosi HELPING REPUBLICANS WHITEWASH all the past 8 years of criminal conduct, abuse of powers, stolen elections, lies-to-war, etc.

The sheer VOLUME of Republican LIES - for example John McCain asserting that he supports Veterans' assistance, when he VOTED AGAINST EVERY VA BILL except the most recent one, that was going to pass without his vote anyways - is simply TOO MUCH for Obama or any other candidate to confront in a 90 minute debate.

UNLESS, that is, CONFRONTING McCAIN's SERIAL LIES, and the Bush-Cheney administration's chronic criminal conduct - is THE focus of the Obama campaign.

Clearly, the senator and his campaign managers have decided to play the DC Democrat game: GIVE McCain RESPECT and DEFERENCE where NO such respect is due, DEFERENCE and honor that are NOT reciprocated. Obama and the DC Democrats need to POUND OUT that - Bush & Cheney have TRASHED the Clinton Surplus, put Wall St. Flim-Flam artist HANK PAULSON in charge of the US Treasury, so now we taxpayers have to BAIL OUT Paulson and his CRONY FAT CATS on Wall St.... piling MORE DEBT on the already overloaded American taxpayer credit card in the process.

(Or, to put the above in one sentence, "Why can't Obama and the DC Dems shout "BUSH DEFICITS and Cheney's oil policy of INCREASING DEPENDENCE on FOREIGN oil, MAKE AMERICA WEAKER and MORE VULNERABLE to economic disruption!"