Earth To Boring Guys

After the snorefest that was the first Obama-McCain debate, I figured things could only get better. Boy was I wrong. Boring questions, boring answers (usually having little to do with the actual question asked), and same talking points that we've heard again, again, and again. There's soooo much that they could talk about. Why is it limited to the same few issues in the same context that we've heard so often before?

The problem for McCain is that boring is just what Obama wants. He wants to put this baby on autopilot and glide his way into the White House. At this point, there doesn't seem much to prevent just that from happening.

The one opportunity that I really wished McCain had taken advantage of was when Obama was talking how we had a moral obligation to use military force to prevent genocide when we could:

So when genocide is happening, when ethnic cleansing is happening somewhere around the world and we stand idly by, that diminishes us.

And so I do believe that we have to consider it as part of our interests, our national interests, in intervening where possible.

McCain should have asked what our moral obligation to the Iraqis. If we had followed Obama's advice, not conducted the surge and withdrawn from Iraq before the security situation was stabilized, the sectarian violence and ethnic cleansing would have spiraled out of control and could easily have turned into genocide. Oh well, maybe McCain will get to it next week. Yeah, right.

Here's an idea to make next week's debate truly interesting. Give Obama and McCain the night off and have Biden and Palin go at it again.

UPDATE-- Chad e-mails to raise an issue:

How about replacing the following quote From Obama during the debate tonight:

"So when genocide is happening, when ethnic cleansing is happening somewhere around the world and we stand idly by, that diminishes us.

And so I do believe that we have to consider it as part of our interests, our national interests, in intervening where possible."

With:

So when [infanticide] is happening, when [abortion] is happening somewhere around the world and we stand idly by, that diminishes us.

And so I do believe that we have to consider it as part of our [personal moral] interests, our national [survival], in intervening where possible.

Is abortion any different from genocide? If so, how? The "how" defines the culture war we are in.

I can't recall any questions specifically about abortion in any of the three debates so far. We've watched them argue about whether or not Obama wants to invade Pakistan nineteen times, but we can't find room for even one question about their positions on the most significant moral issue of the day? That certainly calls into question the validity of the current debate process. We need more events like the Saddleback Forum and less of these orchestrated "debates" lead by media dinosaurs.