Last Night's Debate

UPDATE: John Tamny talks on Fox of the need for government getting out the way. Big government fixes simply won't help in the long run. I couldn't agree more. Attempting to prevent businesses and people from any pain and failure only forestalls the inevitable comeuppance and the longer it's put off, the worst it will be.

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A good friend and I entered the hotel lobby of a Courtyard Marriott in Cincinnati, Ohio last night as the debate began. The lobby with its huge flat screen TV was packed with people and we took the last two chairs. It had been a long day of travel for both of us and we had just dined at a beautiful restaurant on the Ohio River. We couldn't wait to plop ourselves down.

Within 30 minutes, I had fallen sound asleep in my chair. My friend also went into the doze zone. After a short siesta, I awoke and by the hardest succeeded in staying awake for the duration. By the end, everyone in the room had vanished, except the two of us. As we gathered our overnight bags and walked to the elevators, we agreed: it had been uncompelling, subdued, non-electric, and nothing like the Palin/Biden debate the week before. But of the part I managed to be awake, I thought McCain did okay. Just okay. Don't think a lot of votes were won or lost on either side, but we'll see.

I continue to believe that anyone who thinks Obama, a bureaucrat with no experience in the private or business sectors and a lawyer, is better suited to deal with this financial crisis is extremely deluded. It just isn't so.

The markets are giving us a wake-up call: We've over-spent, over-promised, over-leveraged and over-lived for decades. Reality is rearing its head. And reality can have very sharp teeth. Life of Excesses as we know it is probably over, as a new more moderate chapter appears to be on the way. It may get painful, but in the end, it may be the best thing that could ever happen.

Thought McCain's two little zingers were funny: First when he referred to his health plan not necessarily covering hair transplants---a clear reference to Joe Biden's two rounds of hair plug transplants. And second when he referred to Obama's voting for Bush's overloaded energy bill as that one. Tom Brokaw was weak, boring and unappealing.

McCain absolutely has the experience for these changing times we're entering in my opinion.

This country wants change and it looks like we're going to get it. It's not going to be the kind of change we necessarily want, but no doubt it will be the kind we need.

The markets are predicted to rock today, as I and this and other friends travel and convene in Greenville, Ohio at the Garst (Annie Oakley) Museum collection. I'll be getting some reaction to markets and the debate as I travel through Ohio today and hope to be back later.

Panic is all around us, but the wisest will fasten their seat belts and know this too will pass. We are close to a bottom, perhaps today, as the markets capitulate totally. This needs to happen so that we and the global economy can move forward, even if it's into a deep global depression.