Wednesday’s presidential debate was arguably one of the more substantive debates of the year. For the most part, Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain stuck to policy arguments.
Yet I still don’t see why people think this system works.
For one, there’s not a whole lot of analysis. After the debate, I listened to the analysts on National Public Radio talk about each candidate’s performance and watched a bit of the late-night news on MSNBC.
But the “analysis” was not a detailed evaluation of the policy — the talking heads spent a lot of time discussing who “won” the debate and what the actual identity of “Joe the Plumber” was.
Seriously? We’re obsessing over who Joe the Plumber is? By Jove, the search for Rosie the Riveter, Bob the Builder and Larry the Cable Guy is ON! Forget an actual discussion of health care plans, energy policies and tax reforms. There’s a dude named Joe, he’s a plumber and John McCain talked about him on a nationally televised debate.
As it turns out, the news networks and newspapers did find the real Joe the Plumber, Joe Wurzelbacher. And, according to The New York Times, he was scared at Obama’s “kind of socialist viewpoint” on “spreading the wealth around.” Obviously, Joe’s profound insight into the election marks a massive electoral shift, and we can expect to see a close race on Nov. 4. Thanks Joe.
Of course, the presidential debate overshadowed North Carolina’s gubernatorial debate, despite the fact that the guberatorial race is far more important to our University. As the adage says, “all politics are local” and the elections closer to home will have a more immediate impact.
Remember the news about the two percent University budget reduction? That was a state-mandated revision, meaning the people we elect into the state legislature and governor’s office have a huge say in N.C. State’s operating budget.
Yes, the presidential race gets a tremendous amount of air time. But ask public policy experts and they will tell you that more substantive policy comes from state and local governments. The College of Humanities and Social Sciences held an expert panel on the election, and Richard Kearney, director of the School of Public and International Affairs, pointed out several examples of state legislators taking the lead on issues like health care and energy policy.
A great example is California — it leads the way in energy polices and energy efficiency standards. But do we have cars that get 50 miles per gallon driving across America?
No. We do have gossip about Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol and her supposed shotgun wedding and the Web site VPILF.com. But I can’t find any of those hybrid cars that are super-efficient with a capital awesome.
We let this golden opportunity slip away. We ignored the gubernatorial debate and actually had a presidential debate on substantive issues like the economy, health care and energy policy.
And we spent the next day talking about a plumber.
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