Is the Third Time a Charm or Three Strikes, You're Out?

McCain did not have the break-through moment in the second debate that he needed to turn things around for his campaign. Many pundits thought the second debate was a do or die for McCain. As a conservative, I would have liked to see McCain seize on several opportunities during that debate which he let slide. He should have pinned Obama down on the 95% of Americans who would get a tax cut under Obama's plan. Interesting when almost 45% of Americans pay no taxes at all. So their tax cut would be 0 or would they be receiving tax money from folks who worked to pay those taxes? Isn't that Socialism? In Obama's world no one should dare strive to make more than $249,000 a year because then you will be penalized for your hard work and success. Bad Capitalist!

Depending on what part of the country one lives, $250,000, especially for a family of four, is not the sort of money that buys one an extravagant lifestyle but those folks will be pegged to cough up taxes as if they were Warren Buffet or Donald Trump. When McCain did call Obama on the fact that the Obama tax plan will cripple many small businesses, Obama claimed most small businesses make less than $250,000 and won't be penalized. Sure, most small business, if you count all of the little out of the car trunk businesses that are many peoples' hobby not profession but most small businesses that are the lively hood of the owner makes more than any $250,000 and employs people whose jobs will dry up under Obama's dream of socialism. And to think that the big companies who Obama is gunning for won't pass the higher tax costs on to the consumers? Obama's tax plan is a recipe for disaster not to mention his healthcare plan. McCain needed to lay all of this out but he gave Obama a pass. Heavy sigh.

Why McCain didn't drive home the Democrat's role in the Freddie/Fannie debacle? Why he didn't name names and walk us all through the corrupt pathway to financial disaster we find ourselves in today? Why he didn't connect the dots for us all, explaining how a little group named ACORN (same crowd falsifying voter registrations) started all of this by shaking down bankers to make crappy loans to people who had no way of making mortgage payments, by getting in bed with the Democrats who seeded Freddie and Fannie with people who implemented the sub prime mortgage policies that flooded our financial markets with worthless paper and unpaid mortgages. Why McCain didn't bring the actual legislation he signed on to years ago calling for an end to all these corrupt practices and hold it up for all to see? McCain scratched the surface when he should have mined much deeper, pulling the truth out and holding it up to the light. McCain asked the audience to look up the records for themselves. John, most people are not going to take the time to do that on their own. You have to take the voter by the hand and lead them through the sea of confusing and conflicting facts and figures. The dots are there for the connecting but the voters have to have all the dots pointed out for them first.

When Obama started pontificating about how the U.S. military will be used to put an end to genocide and ethnic cleansing this was another opening for McCain. Obama made the case for President Obama using U.S. military to put an end to the horrible atrocities occurring in Dafur. McCain needed to pounce here. By all of the standards Obama himself laid out, if he had been President for the last 8 years, he would have intervened in Iraq prior to 9-11. With the genocide of the Kurds, the mass killings of Sunnis and rampant human rights abuses occurring in Iraq, President Obama would have had us in there by February 2000, no question (according to Obama's standards).

So many missed opportunities but that's how it went down. No questioning of the associations of Wright, Rezko, ACORN, or Ayers. This has to be done. The mainstream media is not going to do it. The voters deserve to hear the explanation of these associations with Obama from Obama himself not his surrogates. If these people and organizations are his associates then Obama should stand up and say he agrees with the agendas they promote. Remember, he sat in a church for 20 years yet he claimed he had no idea Rev. Wright held such anti-American views. He claims he had no idea about Rezko's shady dealings. He claims he has no ties to ACORN though that organization is the umbrella organization of Project Vote for which Obama was a lawyer for. And then there is Bill Ayers, some neighbor, that's it, of Obama. Just some neighbor who named Obama the first Chief Executive Officer of the Annenberg Project which Ayers headed up, a project whose cause was to radicalize youth. Just some neighbor doesn't usually hand out CEO positions unless their is some sort of tight connection there. I love the way Obama surrogates explain away the Ayers connection with the caveat that Obama was only 8 when the bombings occurred. So what? Ayers is unrepentant for those actions to this day. He was recently photographed proudly stomping on the American Flag, real classy, real patriotic. Yet Obama wants us all to believe he has no real connections to these characters. Either Obama is as ditzy as Edith Bunker or he is playing the American public for the biggest bunch of fools ever. Though Obama has cut ties temporarily with these sorts but what about the corrupt comrades in the Senate and the House? Where will America be with an all Democratic Congress overseen by a far left, socialist agenda promoting, Democratic President? Obama has a pathological history of associating and aligning with far left and corrupt individuals. This is no small issue.

But lets look at something that is a small issue in regards to Obama and McCain but offers great insight into the men. The recent report written by Dean Reynolds of CBS compares the Obama campaign and their treatment of the press, versus the McCain camp. Surprisingly, Reynolds sang the praises of McCain's people, relieved he is now covering their campaign, saying McCainiacs are courteous, considerate, organized and even jovial with the press corps whereas the Obama team gives the press no heads up on schedules, claiming security reasons when the press and secret service are made to wait hours on the plane for Obama, then given limited time to file their stories. Reynolds goes on to say the Obama campaign seems out of touch, they answer no questions, are inconsiderate and the candidate himself, the darling of the media, is actually aloof to his devoted press corps. McCain, on the other hand, stops and chats regularly with the traveling press corps, not afraid to say whatever is on his mind. Dean Reynolds hints that the Obamaistas perhaps want to limit time with the press to minimize mistakes of The One. The funniest part of the article came when Reynolds points out the fact that Obama's plane stinks, smells, is odoriferous in a bad way with no attempt to make it pleasant for the press corps whereas the McCain charter craft is clean smelling and tidy, even in the press section. Reynolds warns the Obama team that "what goes around, comes around". Wow! Could the honeymoon be over? I won't hold my breath.

One thing is for sure, I am not throwing in the towel on McCain. Will the third debate be the charm? It's all up hill from here. I think McCain knows this. I know his supporters do. That's okay, it's just a hill. The future is worth making the hike for. McCain does not have the communication skills of Reagan or the youth of the first term George W. Bush, but McCain has seen evil, lived through it, and succeeded in spite of it. The man, Obama is no match for the man, McCain. Every democracy gets the leader they deserve. How deserving are we?