The Debate

There wasn’t much on TV last night, so I watched the debate between Clinton and Obama on MSNBC.

I watch MSNBC a little to remind me why I lean slightly to the right in the political world.

Clinton got off to a rough start when she commented about being asked the first question again, and then she brought up the skit on Saturday Night Live that showed reporters at CNN favoring Obama. Her comments bombed.

After that is was a good debate. Obama does not seem comfortable in debates and, if he is elected President, his lack of being able to think quickly on his feet, may harm him, and the United States.

I felt that after a shaky start, Clinton won the debate, but only slightly. She needs to talk more of her experience compared to Obama’s. She has more. He’s only been a senator since January of 2005 and most of the time he’s been campaigning. She was able to portray herself as a fighter. She cornered Obama on a few things, and since he has poor debating skills, she was able to capitalize.

Super Tuesday II will determine if Clinton can stay in the race. Obama appears to be trying to run out the clock. We’ll see.

The Name Thing

I’ve received the Barack Obama e-mail several times, probably like a lot of my readers. The e-mail warns me about the “real” Barack Obama, whom they claim is a radical Muslim, who won’t recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and he won’t place his hand over his heart when the National Anthem is played. These e-mails are false. I normally refer the sender to a website like, Snopes.Com, or just send them the URL for the facts about their erroneous assertion.

Of course, you can watch just about any sporting event and many athletes and fans don’t place their hand over their heart either when the National Anthem is played. That does not make them anti-American, just unpatriotic in my opinion.

One thing that is interesting is Barack Obama’s middle name, which is Hussein. Some folks think it is disgraceful to say his middle name, others say it is racist, which they feel is connecting him to Saddam Hussein in some mysterious way. There have also been some folks saying Osama (bin Laden) instead of Obama. Some of these Osama references were on purpose and some were said in error.

The other day a radio talk show host was warming up the crowd for John McCain and said “Barack Hussein Obama” three times. After hearing about the remarks, McCain condemned them and other things that were said that were, in his view, disparaging.

People will just have to get use to Obama’s middle name. Since he’s already a senator, his name is etched in history. If elected President, he will fall in line with the likes of George Walker Bush, William Jefferson Clinton, George Herbert Walker Bush, Ronald Wilson Reagan, James Earl Carter, Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr., and Richard Milhous Nixon, not to mention Warren Gamaliel Harding and Millard Fillmore.