I don't want to say or even suggest that Senator John McCain lost the race for the White House last night in the first presidential debate, but I will say he really didn't help his cause. He spent most of the debate trying to flash his experience and trying to belittle and label Barack Obama. He was forceful and serious. He railed against earmarks. As if eliminating earmarks would solve all of our problems. It won't.

One of the most frequent lines that John McCain used last night was that he knows how to cut government spending and how to cut government waste and will do that as president. My question is this: John McCain has been in the Senate for 26 years, so why hasn't he cut government waste and government spending in those 26 years? He is a Republican senator. Republicans have been in power for approximately 28 years. He has had sympathetic presidents in Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush I so where were all the spending cuts? He is telling us that he has all of this leadership ability yet we have never seen him "take the weed wacker" to earmarks and government spending.

Barack Obama clearly laid out his plan on economics and on foreign-policy. He stood up and pointed out the flaws in John McCain's logic and presented an alternative to business as usual. I think, overall, the debate was a draw.

Here's Senator Barack Obama discussing what he saw in the debate. John McCain did not mention the middle class once. John McCain did not offer any plan to help the middle class. He did not back away from tax cuts for the rich.

After Obama's appearance in Greensboro, North Carolina he made an appearance in Virginia. He drew a huge crowd which stood in the rain to hear him.