mccain & obama in tonight's civil forum

Well, I watched it. I usually don't pay attention to political things, but I figured that I have a responsibility to begin thinking about who I will vote for this November, and when I heard that Rick Warren would be interviewing each of the candidates I decided that that would be two hours well spent. And it was.

First of all, I really like the interview technique used. When candidates try and debate they always get all angry and competitive and so off the point. This way, they don't know what their opposition said, so they don't get all defensive. I enjoyed hearing them just talk about things and hopefully answer honestly.

Cool points to Google for indexing things so quickly! I can almost find a list of the questions asked right now. I think for the moment I'm just going to address the ones that stood out in my mind though.

How do you define what is rich for purposes of taxes?

Neither answer was perfect, but I much preferred Senator Obama's answer over McCain's. Obama gave a number ($150,000, I believe) and said anyone below that was middle class or below, and anyone above $250,000 was rich, and that the rich should be taxed more, and the poor taxed less. Senator McCain said that it doesn't matter, he wants tax cuts for everyone and wants everyone in America to be rich. He said that he does not favor redistribution of wealth.

I disagree with McCain on this point. I don't think that everyone should be rich, and I am very much in favor of redistribution of wealth. The growing gap between rich and poor is unacceptable and one way we can balance that is through taxes.

When does a baby get human rights?

From a moralistic perspective, I agree with McCain's answer: "At the moment of conception." From a holistic perspective, though, I enjoyed Obama's deliberation: how can we decrease the number of abortions? We have a pro-life president right now and still abortion stands; I doubt it will ever change just because that's what society wants, apparently. I appreciate McCain's pro-life stance but I would like to see him address the root issues like Obama did as well. You kind of have to take what you can get. It doesn't look like abortion is going to stop so you have to move forward from that and figure out how to make the best of the situation.

Is there evil and what should we do about it?

I appreciated Obama's broad view of what evil is and his humble admission that we can't conquer it, only God can. I thought McCain's view of evil was narrow; he only addressed terrorism related issues, and said we should defeat them. I'm all for defeating terrorism but I think that evil is more extensive than bin Laden et al. .

What is your definition of marriage, and would you support an amendment to the constitution defining marriage?

Both gave good, appropriate definitions for marriage: one man, one woman. I liked that Obama highlighted that it was a sacred union as well. Personally I think I support Obama's stance in not supporting a constitutional amendment and allowing for civil unions. I think McCain said he would support an amendment, which is actually probably okay too. I wish McCain would have talked about what he thought about civil unions.

Ummm...yeah, those are the ones that stood out. Overall observations:

- McCain tended to use more of a storytelling approach, while Obama used more of a "show my train of thought and how I got here" approach. I think that these are both valid means of expression but that each may appeal to different groups of people. For example, I think college kids will be a lot more open to Obama's "showing his work" than McCain's short, pat answers, while older generations may be much more comfortable with McCain's confidence and unapologetic stances.

- They both agreed that their quest for presidency is about inspiring Americans to live for something bigger than themselves. I thought that was cool.

- Both affirmed faith in Christ as being forgiven for all their sins.

Such difficult, weighty decisions.

In other news, I'm back from Alabama, it wasn't as bad as I expected. I survived, anyhow. :) I learned a bunch and I met new people and it was good. I'm home for a few days, visiting Clemson Monday-Tuesday, and back to school the following Sunday...ahhh craziness!

More later, I'm sure.

What'd YOU think about the interviews tonight?