Have you ever been in a confrontation with someone or had a speech opportunity on a program and later thought of something else that you could have said to bring your point home? I define that as not capitalizing on a statement opportunity. I kept up with a few missed and non-missed ones last week.

According to David Wright, an ABC News correspondent who appeared on “Nightline” Friday night, two missed opportunities took place with Democratic Presidential Candidate, Sen. Barack Obama during the debate on that night with Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain. Wright said that when McCain challenged Obama by asking him how did he define a rich man, you could almost hear Obama say, “How about somebody with 11 houses or somebody with 13 cars?” Obama didn’t go there.

Another incident was a response to the statement McCain raised throughout the debate — that Obama needs experience for this job and that there is no room for on-the-job training.

Wright said the obvious comback there was, “How then can you responsibly nominate Sarah Palin to be vice president?”

A statement opportunity to enhance a comedy skit took place on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” show. Co-star Seth Meyers during his highlighted news report stated, “Barack Obama said that he would be at the debate whether John McCain showed up or not, making it the first time in history that a black man was more eager to go to Mississippi than a white one.”

Getting away from politics, a capitalizing statement for thought was made by Dr. Vaurice Chambers, pastor of Pleasant Union Baptist Church at St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in Portsmouth last Saturday night during a formal Pastoral Appreciation Banquet given in his honor.

Chambers acknowledged that many people say they can’t have a good time wearing formal clothing. He told the audience to enjoy being dressed up and said, “There’ll be a time when someone will dress you and you won’t know anything about it.”

I’m going to take a statement opportunity and say that if you take the “L” out of Palin, you have the word pain. Pain has been the subject this week. Wall Street felt the pain on Monday when the House failed to pass a $700 billion dollar bailout payment to financial institutions. We Americans will feel the pain if we are affected by this bailout.

Tomorrow night the vice presidential candidates, Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Sarah Palin will participate in a vice presidential debate to educate the public on who is more qualified to be the next vice president.

If Palin fails the test, the McCain campaign will definitely feel the pain.