A Strong Start to a Bright Future

A night we have been waiting for is now concluded. Finally, we were able to push the media aside and listen to straight politics. After listening to Barrack Obama and John McCain debate on Friday night, I believe that Obama's performance deserves a 9 out of 10. Not only did the democratic candidate speak with confidence like usual, but his answers to political questions and criticism towards McCain's ideas were fantastic. Even when McCain brought up his lack of political experience, Obama stood confident and refused to be taken lightly.


It really surprised me that Obama's strongest area of the debate surrounded foreign policy. Even though McCain had political experience with countries such as Bosnia and Somalia, I feel that Obama was a bit sharper when it came to these types of issues. First of all, I feel that Obama's plan in Iraq is brilliant. I completely agree with him that the government under George Bush has lost focus on the real task at hand. We first entered Iraq in 2003 in hopes of putting an end to Osama Bin Laden and the Al Qaeda. However, Obama explained how the Al Qaeda and Taliban are hiding out in Pakistan and Afghanistan while our troops remain on Iraqi soil. I strongly agree with Obama that would should withdraw our troops from Iraq in a period of 16 months and send an additional 2-3 brigades of soldiers to Afghanistan. Our government has wasted too much time and money trying to get their leadership under control while we are in a recession and their oil revenues are in a surplus! Iraq is not a direct threat to the safety of our citizens, the Al Qaeda and the Taliban are and Obama promises to focus on bringing them to justice.
In addition to Iraq, I feel that Obama did a solid job in explaining his ideas of the problem with Iran. Although both candidates feel that an Iran with nuclear weapons is a serious threat, Obama's solution to the threat is more likely to be successful. Both candidates feel that we need the support of other democracies to weaken the Iranian power, but only Obama wants to ask for assistance from non democracies such as China and Russia. We need all hands on deck if we are going to keep Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Also, Obama is willing to talk to any leaders, even if they are our enemies. McCain admits that he will only talk to certain leaders under his conditions while Obama is willing to speak with people under reasonable conditions. Even when the Iranians talk about the extermination of our Israeli allies, Obama says he will still converse with the Iranian government.


Although I believe Obama was the better debater on Friday night, there were a couple areas that I didn't agree with him on. One of these areas had to do with government spending. McCain is completely right with saying that government spending has spiraled out of control and that we need to cut down on it. In addition, I agree with McCain that we should eliminate some departments that are recieving unecessary funding. In order to bail ourselves out of this economic crisis, we need to put more money back into flow and Obama's $800 billion spending plan is way too much at this point in time.
Another topic that Obama needs to reconsider is off-shore drilling. Although Obama does not completely disagree with it, he feels that it should be very limited. On the other hand, McCain is in strong favor of it because it could temporarily end this gas crisis and give us time to stablize the economy. I do believe that we need to use renewable energy sources, but right now we need the extra oil to lower prices and fix our economic problems. We can focus on finding alternative energy solutions after we drastically lower the prices to fill up our automobiles.
However, this does not mean I completely disagree with Obama's economic plan. I strongly support him in giving tax cuts to 95% of Americans and taxing the wealthy more. Also, I believe that it is politically correct of him to single out the CEOs of large corportations for being greedy. Not to mention, Obama wants up to date regulatory systems to make sure no money is going to waste.

In the end, Obama was simply smarter and more direct than McCain in this first presidential debate. His ideas made much more sense and his confidence is something that could really help this country out of the hole it is already in. I truly look forward to the Biden-Palin debate and am confident that Obama's running mate will look much better than McCain's.