What was meant to start as a discussion of the serious financial crisis turned into a 10-minute discussion of John McCain’s fiscal strong suit- earmarks. He has been able to tout his anti-pork record, while Obama has had to try to change the subject, and endured his $932 million-dollar figure being pounded into the audience’s conscience. This should be Obama’s part of the game, and he’s following McCain’s lead to a remarkable extent. On the other hand, I know McCain was trying to be bipartisan and fairly nice to start off the debate, but he missed an opportunity to lay out the fact that he had, in concrete ways, sought to change Fannie and Freddie regulations while Obama remained silent. He could have made that point politely, but made it nonetheless. Instead, his first punch was landed on earmarks: “Obama didn’t happen to see that light (on earmarks) until after he started running for President.” He seems to have gotten under Obama’s skin several times, from the get-go, which is a good omen for McCain’s night.
