Next topic: Iran. It was all war, all the time, in this debate. Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, and later Russia and another 9-11.
McCain claimed Iran getting a nuke would mean a second holocaust, that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, and that Iran is putting IEDs in Iraq (there's an oldie but goodie).
Obama blamed the occupation of Iraq (without saying "occupation") for Iran developing nuclear weapons, but agreed on the claim that Iran is doing that and with everything else -and said so again: "I agree".
He didn't. He cited his agreement with war-criminal Henry Kissinger on meeting with Iran without pre-conditions. And McCain backed Obama into the corner of claiming that he never meant that he, as president, would meet with Ahmadinejad.
Next topic: Russia. Obama talked semi-tough on Russia regarding Georgia. McCain talked tougher and denounced Russia as a criminal nation going to war for oil and empire and violating the norms of international behavior. (How would he know about such things?)
Obama again: "I agree." But he also said he'd warned of the problem before it was a crisis. Obama, admirably, brought in the relevance of green (and nuclear) energy.
Last question, after a list of wars and possible wars, before ever getting to diplomacy, peace, friendship, aid, global warming, poverty, trade, or immigration: Do you think we'll have another 9-11?
McCain praised the 9-11 Commission. Then he declared that we must never ever torture a prisoner again, despite his record of the past two years of supporting torture, which I guarantee neither Obama nor Lehrer will mention.
They didn't. Obama praised airport security but said more is needed in ports, etc. And he hyped the fear of terrorists with nukes (while 9-11 was done with box cutters; and scared people support McCain).
McCain claimed that Star Wars ended the Cold War, which nobody will question.
They didn't. Then McCain went back to the surge nonsense yet again. Obama agreed, yet again, but again faulted the focus on Iraq rather than Afghanistan. Obama added China to the list of countries to worry about.
McCain compared Obama to Bush (!) by claiming that he is as stubborn in refusing to praise the surge as Bush is in other things.
Obama, to his credit, refrained from again praising the surge, and instead rightly talked about America's decline in world opinion in recent years.
Lehrer gave McCain the last word, and he put in his prison stay in Vietnam and called himself a champion of veterans, his actual record notwithstanding and never mentioned.
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