I n summation, Obama can be dishonest yet transcendent, Joe the Plumber can boast of 340 videos about him on Youtube, and we just can't count on morning radio to do much.

 

While I almost believe Obama is th great hope he makes himself out to be, the reptitive quality of discourse that bored to tears my two debate watching companions told me all I needed to know. Presidential politics are still meaningless to most Americans like Joe the Plumber.

 

And in the quest for power, no truth nor dream is so sacred as to not be sold. Hearing McCain trumpet the American Dream rang as hollow as the rock anthems his campaign has bought the rights to, the ones the musicians don't want him to use.

 

As for FM radio, WPLR had me on for three minutes this morning. I discussed the Bradley Effect - don't trust polls when it comes to a black candidate in white America because there may be a 7-point differential between those who say they'll vote black and those who actually do - and voter fraud.

 

The ACORN business in the debates last night, and over the past week, to me, is a matter of mere projection. The Republicans have stolen the past elections. Now that it seems pretty clear they are going to have to hand over the keys to the Democrats, they start crying voter fraud.

 

For those willing to look, the literature and investigations about GOP voter suppression in 2000 in Florida and in 2004 in Ohio could fill up a library. But most wouldn't know it because it is not reported. Yet the Republicans claim the Democrats are perpetrating the most massive scheme to undermine democracy in American history. Please.

 

One of the Chaz and AJ morning show guys said again I was crazy. I ignored him this time. And kept on talking. Megan Dahl said I was smart. Thanks, Meghan. Appreciate it. Now give me ten minutes next time. And maybe we can actually get to the meat of the debate.

 

And the substance of the conversation between McCain and Obama last night was more of the same: agreement on the fact that America should dominate the globe, with slightly differing visions on how to achieve the American dream of home ownership in the homeland and corporate colonial domination of resources abroad.

 

Obama suggested that America needed economic power if it wanted to remain the world's foremost military power. That goal of American hegemony went unchallenged, accepted as Gospel truth, even by debate moderator Bob from CBS. Why do we need to be the world's foremost military might? What makes us need to be the world's policeman? Our country is falling apart. Let's fix it.

 

At times, Obama almost sounded like an isolationist, saying he wanted to renegotiate free trade deals. He mentioned the Colombian paramilitary assassination of labor organizers, which shocked me, but at the same time, I can't believe him, based on his statements supporting FISA, then voting against it (see also public campaign financing, war, etc).

 

It was a say-anything-to-get-elected free for all. McCain sounded like a populist again, talking about the American dream, as if his policies would do it. The sacred American

 

He invited Hillary Clinton's ghost to haunt Obama. And it worked, because this morning on WPLR, a woman, a small business owner, said she was voting McCain because Clinton wasn't in it.

 

Yet it strikes as so false because as with most of the talking points last night, the candidates uttered them in a lack of context. Aside from our general inability to comprehend the billions here and the hundreds of billions there they talked about, it was like eating at a buffet. Instead of having one hearty dish, we picked at the surface of 25 different issues, and none of them were addressed with any more substance than the platitudes the campaigns have already given us.

 

The crumbling American infrastructure didn't merit a mention. Although Obama did sound professorial in his discussion of Roe v. Wade, and he did bring independents into talk of political unity in America. Yet his Obama message discipline: education, energy and healthcare, repeated dozens of times last night, was classic consumer brainwashing.

 

Repeat, repeat, repeat until people believe that's what you mean. And I want to believe him. I want to believe he can influence the production of a highly fuel efficient car. But I can't.

 

Why? Because he and McCain again agreed on fundamental issues, like foreign policy in the need to halt our dependence on Middle Eastern and Venezuelan oil over the next decade. Canadian oil is fine. And of course, drill, baby drill. Clean coal. Nuclear. Gag me with an irradiated spoon.

 

I had to admire Obama's restraint in not attacking McCain, by taking the high road. He ignored McCain's oft-repeated jab at the $3 million overhead projector. And Obama showed McCain to be an ornery old man, as he had in the past two debates, and that shouldn't surprise anyone, because much of what we saw last night was a repeat of the first two.

 

Obama refused to take McCain's bait of Sarah Palin's husband. McCain brought up Todd Palin his response as to why Sarah Palin is a good choice for VP. How one's choice of spouse implicates their ability to govern is viable, but Obama didn't bite on the separatist ties of Todd Palin.

 

And Obama was pretty straightforward with his Bill Ayers connection. Who would've thought the violent branch of the Students for a Democratic Society would dominate the 2008 presidential election? I was almost waiting for a lipstick on a pigasus joke, but the battles of 1968, for Obama, seem best left in 1968, whereas Bush and McCain are comfortable regurgitating them ad nauseum.

 

As for 2008, it looks like Obama steals the show, unfortunately, because so many things that needed to be discussed last night were ignored. And on the radio this morning, I was cut off after two minutes. So much for the marketplace of ideas.

 

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