ARE "MY FRIENDS" LISTENING (now with video)

I don't really know Senator John McCain. For that matter, I never met or talked to Barack Obama, either. But, Mr. McCain considers me a friend. He said so last night during the second Presidential debate in Nashville, Tennessee.



Unfortunately, at Angry Wades bar in Brooklyn, where I watched the debate last night, it didn't appear as if he had many friends. Compared to the Vice Presidential debate, the crowd here was dense-challenged. When Sarah Palin and Joe Biden squared off, the bar was packed, three or four deep. Everyone wanted to see what Palin was all about.



McCain lobbied for the "town hall" style debate. Moderator Tom Brokaw says they were inundated with hundreds of questions. Most of those selected were lame, so were the "undecided" voters asking them in the studio audience. Brokaw didn't help. The format torpedoed real debate. The rules were blurry.



Everyone seems to know what John McCain is about. I really wanted to vote for a Republican. I have for many years. But, McCain isn't connecting. Aside from proposing to spend 300-billion dollars to buy up bad home loans, McCain offered nothing new. In fact, he was vague. The energy crisis: he's going to "deal" with it. He's going to "work" with Iraq, "work" on health care. I hope so. The Republican from Arizona called Ronald Reagan his hero. Later, he said the same about Teddy Roosevelt. Great way to connect with the younger voters. Even, as he was calling me "my friend," I still didn't connect.



Barack Obama performed better, seemed more believable and conveyed a real zeal to fix what's wrong with America. But, he too, offered few precise repair strategies.
They both cited each other's voting record on specific issues. Their numbers, "my friends," were inaccurate or misleading. One number, however, was dead on. The number of times John McCain uttered, "my friends." He did that 21 times. (click on the video above to watch him do it)