"Sure. Hey, I'll answer the question." · Oct 8, 12:49 AM by John

So, Senator McCain tried to be plucky in his debate format of choice. Tried to pull off some of the snarkiness of Sarah Palin. Unfortunately for him, that’s just not him. He tried some “jokes” but they fell flat. And, is it just me or has he picked up the President Bush ‘heh-heh-didja-get-it snicker?’

The most annoying use of ‘the snicker’ was in response to the following question: “Would you give Congress a date certain to reform Social Security and Medicare within two years after you take office?” … here it is again: “Sen. McCain, two years for a reform of entitlement programs?”

Senator Obama’s response started like this: “Well, Tom, we’re going to have to take on entitlements and I think we’ve got to do it quickly. We’re going to have a lot of work to do, so I can’t guarantee that we’re going to do it in the next two years, but I’d like to do in the my first term as president.” That looks like a real answer to the question to me.

Senator McCain’s new-found snicker came after he said, “Sure. Hey, I’ll answer the question,” followed by the GWB-esque snicker (as if his opponent hadn’t answered the question). Here’s his response:

Social Security is not that tough. We know what the problems are, my friends, and we know what the fixes are. We’ve got to sit down together across the table. It’s been done before.

I saw it done with our — our wonderful Ronald Reagan, a conservative from California, and the liberal Democrat Tip O’Neill from Massachusetts. That’s what we need more of, and that’s what I’ve done in Washington.

Sen. Obama has never taken on his party leaders on a single major issue. I’ve taken them on. I’m not too popular sometimes with my own party, much less his.

So Medicare, it’s going to be a little tougher. It’s going to be a little tougher because we’re talking about very complex and difficult issues.

My friends, what we have to do with Medicare is have a commission, have the smartest people in America come together, come up with recommendations, and then, like the base-closing commission idea we had, then we should have Congress vote up or down.

Let’s not let them fool with it anymore. There’s too much special interests and too many lobbyists working there. So let’s have — and let’s have the American people say, “Fix it for us.”

Now, just back on this — on this tax, you know, again, it’s back to our first question here about rhetoric and record. Sen. Obama has voted 94 times to either increase your taxes or against tax cuts. That’s his record.

When he ran for the United States Senate from Illinois, he said he would have a middle-income tax cut. You know he came to the Senate and never once proposed legislation to do that?

So let’s look at our record. I’ve fought higher taxes. I have fought excess spending. I have fought to reform government.

Let’s look at our records, my friends, and then listen to my vision for the future of America. And we’ll get our economy going again. And our best days are ahead of us.

OK, anyone see an answer to the question in that train-wreck of a canned response? Nope. Nowhere.

So, either Senator McCain couldn’t keep a promise made in the previous minute or couldn’t remember the question asked. Neither reason bodes well for the good Senator.

I would like to think that Senator McCain is a man of his word and that he’s simply being led down a path being created for him by those who beat him in 2000. He’s now using the same smear tactics that were used to denigrate and whip him in 2000 by the Bush team and now he’s using them. It’s really sad to see the man who the North Vietnamese couldn’t break has been broken so thoroughly by the Republican hate machine.

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