Tonight’s Debate and a Revision to My Voting Plans

That was a good debate tonight.

Who won?  I think McCain had his best performance this go round, and I think Obama held his own.  I’d call it either a draw or a marginal McCain victory…but I do think Obama won the full series of the debates.

McCain was a little weak in frequently drifting off topic to make attacks against Obama (understandable, consider recent polling), and with his reactions while Obama was talking (remember Gore’s eye-rolling and sighing?).  However, he did exceed my low expectations…and he probably “won” by being able to possibly stop hemorrhaging public support.

Having said all that, earlier today I mentioned that I was likely to make a random choice for President when I cast my absentee ballot tonight.  That did actually change tonight.

I will vote for Obama.

I am still extremely concerned with the notion of Dems having a monopoly on power in Washington.    I didn’t like the GOP monopoly, and I don’t trust Dems to do any better.

In spite of that, there have been a couple of threads in Obama’s campaign that have intrigued me – the promotion of a culture of personal responsibility.  In nationally-covered events, I’ve only heard a hint here or there….but perhaps we saw slightly more than a hint a couple of times in tonight’s debate.   For example, consider this part of Obama’s response to an education question:

This was the second time I caught the theme in the debate.  Consider also this partial response to the deficit question:

It could very well be that such comments are the art of a skillful politician, and that he really is a creature of the Democratic party institution.  That seems likely to me at least.

Even if Obama is sincere about a culture change, it’s unlikely that the momentum of American politics will permit such change.

But, I suppose that there is a slight chance that he’s sincere, and a slight chance that he could start to effect such change.  The consequences of that would be profound…and that’s enough to shift me slightly from casting a purely random vote.