Tom Cruise used to be so cool, but somehow he lost his way......

I think the original point of the challenge has become lost on this blog. Let me restate it and clarify.

Obama has been accused by various conservative pundits (including Walker and davegator), and Clintonites, for being all rhetoric, and no detail. That he has no solutions or policy proposals. All hat and no cattle, as they say.

I challenged Walker and Dave to develop 10 issue statements and represent McCain. Tell us what McCain says about a national problem and how he means to solve it, in his own words.

In return, Jenny I would do our research and do a counter-statement on each issue, using Obama's words and public policy statements. Our goal is to demonstrate that despite the conventional wisdom of conservatives and Clinton drones, Obama has many very thoughtful, developed policy ideas.

The first issue, the estate/death tax, went ok. We both showed that each senator took a position and backed it up with their reasoning. Neither senator had some sort of radical restructuring of the estate tax, or some creative proposal. McCain is for a permanent extension of the current exemption levels, Obama is not. Not a whole lot to discuss. We can argue for days about the pros and cons of the estate tax, but that does nothing to help prove or disprove the point of contention: that Obama supposedly is all about rhetoric and thin on policy and proposal.

Challenge #2 re: FISA was a total misfire. I think Walker wanted to discredit Obama by making a broadside against Obama. But what is McCain's reasoning and thinking about FISA? Here is all that Walker posted about McCain on FISA:

"McCain won't comment on his judgment, but says that events have proven Obama wrong on Iraq. He also welcomed the MoveOn endorsement, the same organization that published a full-page insult to an American military commander."

NOTHING about FISA. The rest of the post is Walker's opinion and research on FISA. I at least gave Obama's policy position on FISA with specific reasons and concerns that Obama has given in public statements.

We win that round, but it might turn out different if Walker looked a little deeper for McCain's FISA statements.

Challenge #3 is a total joke. Basically, Walker doesn't want McCain to accept public financing, but he wants Obama to be forced into accepting it, because McCain can't compete otherwise.
An accusation of waffling, but where is the explanation of McCain's specific policy position on public financing? This is just a lot political maneuvering and gamesmanship. Give me some real discussion of policy, not "my candidate sucks on this issue, but yours sucks a little more."

Challenge #4 continues the degradation of the original challenge. Not one SINGLE policy statement elaborating where McCain stands on gun control. Just a lot of Obama's policy positions and a general analysis about how democrats cannot win in November if they are pro gun control. Even if I concede that Obama's gun control position will cost him votes, that doesn't mean he has not thought through the issue or doesn't have ideas for how to reduce gun violence.

Based on Walker's post, Obama totally wins #4, since he has a lot to say about guns and McCain seemingly says nothing.

So of we want to abandon the 10 issue challenge, I am fine with that. But I don't think a meandering argument about OUR political opinions, political gamesmanship, position popularity, etc. is really all that purposeful. We can do that anyway, without a format, or challenge, in which we keep tally.