someone had to say something.

Of all of the political heavyweights that write in here, I'm a little surprised that no one made any comments on the last debate. So, despite my hard-fought status as the least vocal member of Team Blog and my normal reluctance to engage in political matters, I'm going to kick in my half-a-cent. I edited a little bit, but these observations are cross-posted: sorry for the sloppy seconds. You'll get the exclusive next time.

Honestly, I'm not much of a politics person. I understand its importance, but ultimately I find it frustrating - and I'm trying to minimize the amount of frustration I encounter on a daily basis. That said, the politically-related statements in this next post are the observations of an amateur, and should be considered as such.

Such a nice disclaimer and I'm not even planning on saying much about it.

Anyway, I think Chuckles did much better on this debate than on the first. This, however, is not saying much. If I was evaluating this the same as a traditional debate, I would have to side with Kerry... and that's even if this debate was about fudge. He's just a better public speaker than Bush. I was never that good at the art of debate (anxiety issues notwithstanding), but if you put me at a podium squaring off against a fourth-grader, I'd eat his ass. There is just little competition there. Again, this applies more to the first debate than the second.

I especially liked the response to the last question, as it allowed me to reach new plateaus in political frustration. I think that a large part of being a good person (not to mention a good political leader) is the foresight to recognize when a mistake was made, the ability to admit it, and the desire to rectify that mistake. While I understand that one of the qualities that some people admire in Bush is his willingness to rigidly stick to a plan despite its outcome, I can't fully support that. People who claim that they don't make mistakes are people who refuse to evolve.

You know, he could have even said that he was unable to cite a specific example... but that there have been situations that while he feels that he made the right decision, in retrospect there could have been a better way of achieving it. Even if he wanted to choose an example, he could have gone with something other than the war. Nope. Nothing. No concession.

In Bush's defense, it was a pretty loaded question. I guess my problem is that it could have been handled so much better. But we all know that wouldn't happen, right?

Other random notes:
- Bush's reponse on the environment made me laugh.
- Kerry's response on abortion: very on point. Didn't really answer the question, but it was probably one of the best responses on the topic that I've heard.
- Haters? You can't use that word if it applies to you. Put the Hip Hop-tionary down.
- Even though I wasn't really drinking (I left that and the bong hits to other members of my viewing circle), I am grateful for whomever came up with the presidential debate drinking game. Don't get it twisted, though; that game is purely designed to hurt people. If I was really playing, that thing would have had me on the floor babbling to myself inside the first hour. It is even worse than the Saved By The Bell drinking game.

I look forward to the day where we can settle presidential debates with emcee battles. That way, when someone is obviously relying on clutch words like "flip-flopper" and "Poland", he gets booed, kicked out of the club and with a little luck, pistol-whipped by a good samaritan.

Song of the Day: Sage Francis - Slow Down Gandhi (11MB)
This happens to be a song from his upcoming album, being released on Epitaph in Feburary.

P.S. - If you have not heard the new Handsome Boy Modeling School sampler, stalk that shit on the internerd NOW. There are four songs on there and they're all fantastic. One of the tracks is a revisited version of "Rock and Roll (Could Never Hip Hop Like This)" from their first album and the section featuring Linkin Park's resident screamer is consistently knocking me flat on my ass. Something about those strings. By the way, I have a feeling that kid is going to blow out his vocal cords any day now. If I'm feeling nice, I'll dump it someplace and provide a link.