Denver Metro Young Republicans

I wasn’t able to liveblog the debate tonight due to technical issues, but I did manage to watch it live.

Color me unimpressed.

No…strike that…make it frustrated and angry, at the inexplicable messaging from the McCain-Palin campaign.

A good half-dozen times tonight, Sarah Palin was set up with a perfect opportunity to hit a home run with the electorate. Time and again, the opportunity arose to discuss who was to blame for the financial crisis and what to do about it, and each time she placed the blame on “Wall Street greed”, instead of assigning blame for part if not most of the financial problems of the past few weeks to Congress itself.

Instead of her pointing a fully justified finger at Congress for its continual meddling in the mortgage industry to score points with identity groups and (let’s face it) to secure bribes masquerading as campaign donations and the like, Palin hardly even mentioned Congressional corruption, let alone identifying it as a major cause of the meltdown.

Whether the motivation for this is some misguided professional courtesy for fellow politicians or simply ignorance of and unwillingness to explore political meddling in the economy as a root cause, politically this mantra is just plain stupid. Congress’ ratings continue to hover around historic lows, so why wouldn’t a candidate make use of this discontent through a little “straight talk” about the government’s role in the financial mess? Acknowledge what the public already knows or suspects in that regard, and put the Democrat candidates in the position of having to defend sleazy weasels like Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, et al.

Does the Republican ticket realize that they’re supposed to be fighting to win, not playing patty-cake?