Like many Americans, I watched last Friday's presidential debate hoping to get a better gauge on each candidate's position on matters that are affecting my family.

I think we all agree that the United States must reduce its dependence on foreign oil.  Both candidates expressed the same concern, but with different plans to reach the same goal. Score 1-1

Our country's economic future is in the toilet.  Financial burden affects both rich and poor.  Although there is a wide margin between their definition of what constitutes poor ($200K vs. $5M), we still fall well below the bars.  I have zero sympathy for CEO's making million dollar bonuses.  As an entrepreneur and small business owner, I agree business people should reap the benefits of their hard work.  However, I also feel we must shoulder the responsibility for making humane and thoughtful choices in our pursuit of the American Dream and how it affects those we do business with.  My Vulcan logic says we should allow those companies who screwed the public to get screwed in return.  But there is another side of that coin.

If an American investor, be it Uncle Sam or Warren Buffet, does not bail out those giants, a foreign interest will.  I am against government interference in most cases, but in this instance, I feel it is paramount to our national security and independence as a whole.  China already holds $1,000,000,000,000 of the US's international debt.  I do not want them to own 1,000,000,000 American homes or acres of our land as well.  Both candidates speak for a plan to keep America free. Score 2-2

With regard to the war in Iraq, I support the men and women, not the fight.  I came from a military family.  My husband served on a ship during the Gulf War.  My Daddy served during Vietnam.  My Grandpa served in both WWII and Korea.  My great-grandfather served in WWI.  Politics and war have been dinner table discussion for as long as I can remember.  Should we have gone to war in Iraq?  I have no idea.  I am not privy to the information on global politics that is discussed behind closed doors between world leaders. 

I can see that Saddam Hussein was an insane and inhumane tyrant with a thirst for blood and power.  I wonder why the people he ruled did not revolt against him.  Then I remember Caesar - followed by Octavian, Tiberius, Caligula and Nero.  Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.  I wonder if the same will hold true for Iraq?  We have removed one tyrant, but is there another waiting in the wings?  I agree with Senator Obama's logic that we should not be spending American money to defend a country with a surplus budget that is eight times our cost to defend it.  From my perspective, that is little more than a mob payoff for protection in an Italian neighborhood.  The little people are paying the price for the "organization's" benefit. And who is really benefitting from this surplus in Iraq?  If the money belongs to the government, it should be spent on the citizens - but I don't believe that is where it's going.

I understand Senator McCain's assessment that sometimes one must act in a manor that, while striving for a particular outcome, may not meet with public approval.  In those cases where one must do what has to be done, "You just don't say those things out loud".  I would rather have had a covert operative assassinate Hussein, than send in our troops.  I believe Hussein had to be taken out, not because of WMD's, but because of genocide.  Did we exercise every option before we declared war?  Again, I have no idea.  Was the bottom line really based on oil?  Probably.  If we woke up tomorrow to an instant alternative to fossil fuel energy, I see our troops making the fastest mass exodus in history. 

Until that day comes, I feel our government has a responsibility to finish what it started.  We cannot turn back the clock, so continuing to discuss how things might have been different if we hadn't gone to war is irrelevant.  Let's discuss what can be done now. I am old enough to remember Neil Armstrong walking on the moon.  I didn't believe what my young eyes and ears were telling me back then, and I still believe to this day it was a hoax.  I look forward to the day humans do walk on the moon, as I believe we may see it in my lifetime.  When that day comes, I wonder if the American people will understand the necessity of effectively ending the race for space until technology caught up with humanity.  Forty years later, I am still waiting for the truth to be "declassified".  I would venture to say that some of us are also waiting to see the magic bullet that took President Kennedy's life.  There are matters both in our past and present political scenes where the United States government's official position swings far left of the truth in effort to protect the general population from self-destruction. Score 3-3

The final point of merit I keyed in on during the debate was each candidate's unwillingness to discuss what programs they intended to cut under their administration.  I remember some babble about healthcare and something about Montana bear DNA........I love the idea of a "Google Government" where the fiscal budget would be available online - just in case our enemies don't have internet access yet....

If the American people had access to how our government was really spending our hard earned tax dollars, and how comingled our economy is with foreign interests, I think the outrage would erupt like Mt. Vesuvius.  The very first thing we should cut would be government salaries.  We would see a vast difference in policies and proposals if everyone on Uncle Sam's payroll had to survive on a minimum wage salary.  What's good for the goose is good for the gander.  I envision the integrity of the person running for public office if there was no financial gain to be made. There would be no discussion surrounding illegal immigrants stealing jobs American citizens refuse to do. The lure of $25 per hour to hold a DOT caution sign near a road construction project or $160,000 annually to show up at  Congressional sessions and vote "present", (or many times not show up at all and never vote on anything) makes a sad statement about our state of affairs.  How much more efficient to create a holder for the sign or elect the next door neighbor Mayor?

I don't remember the last time my next door neighbor was elected Mayor, but I can analyze the historical impact of the presidency of Harry S. Truman - a man from my neck of the woods.  The global and domestic issues President Truman faced were not so very different from  those facing our next president - low public confidence, stock market volatility, recession, war, national healthcare, turmoil in the Middle East, civil rights, China, Soviet aggression, Pakistan, Korea, assassination attempts, government scandal.........

How many of you learned in history class that there was no Vice President from 1945-1949?  Let's stop wasting energy discussing the merits and pitfalls of the Vice Presidential nominees and start asking which PRESIDENTIAL candidate believes The Buck Stops Here.

If I could ask Senator McCain about President Truman, he's probably tell me a story about the time he and Harry invaded Atlantis, side by side, and liberated humans from aliens before sinking the island with nuclear bombs to prevent future visitations, and that Senator Obama doesn't understand why they had to do that. Senator Obama's response would be that had President Truman followed his advice, the island would still exist, that its citizens would have clean energy and national healthcare, and Atlantis  would be leader in the United Nations and NATO. President Truman  would have held that meeting behind closed doors, and I think both current candidates would have come out understanding why he was known as Give ‘Em Hell Harry!

I am tired of overpaid politicians spewing their toxic garbage all over the American public. We have plenty of examples worldwide of what happens when a people is afraid of their own government. Let's show the world what happens when a government is afraid of its people.  I urge both candidates to review the lessons history has provided.