Obama and McCain Miss Oppurtunity for Grand-Slam...

By in large, last night's presidential debate was a series of pointing fingers and telling America what the "other-guy" really stands for and plans on doing if elected.

Of course, in between the pointing of the finger and the "you gotta be kidding me" courtesy smiles, there was quite a bit of "When I'm elected I promise to -fill in the blank-..."

For the most part, the questions were all about the economy crisis and war overseas. I suppose we can thank Tom B. for the questions selections...

Personally, it wasn't all that exciting, nor insightful, at least until the last question.

The very last question of the night, in my opinion, was a blank canvas for either of these men to really put something on the table that could set them apart, show them distinct and come real close to at least persuading this voter in their direction.

The question was something to the tune of, "What do you not know, and how do you plan to learn about that...?"

Obama, took this as a springboard for one last jab at President Bush's decision to go to war, along with Senator McCain's backing and then took us down memory lane in an attempt to communicate, "I know what it's like to be poor, etc etc etc..."

McCain, returned the favor, gave a verbal jab and also preceded to take us down memory lane of what it was like to be without a dad around, thus he too could relate to the average bear.

What both of the presidential canidates failed to do was simply answer the question.

"What don't you know....?"
And,
"How do you plan to learn...?"

Perhaps the easiest question of the evening, yet also the hardest.

On the one hand, you have to in humility admit, "I don't know what I don't know..." Which none of us do, at least alone...

But, what was most disappointing for me was, neither of them could (or choose) to tell us how they "learn." How will they as president make well informed decisions? How they plan to bring people to the table with skills that they themselves do not possess. How they as a leader are constantly challenging themselves, what they know and the conclusions they've arrived at to this point. That they know how to resource information and people to discover what they don't know and how it's affecting what they do know...

I simply wish, the would have convinced me they were a life long learner.

This in and of itself would have outweighed all the arm-wrestling, finger-pointing, circle-talking, promising-giving, know-all-the-answers-but-not-saying-anything talking that went on during most of the debate exchange. This, I think was an optimal opportunity for either Obama or McCain to finish the night with a Grand Slam... Instead, two strikes...