It’s not all gloom, doom, and dourness here. We like to yuck it up as much as the next couple of jaded, retired, military guys. To that end here is a good web site that should bring a little levity to the proceedings.
Romney Tax Plan – Now I am a Romney supporter and will vote for him on election day and even I think this is funny.
Click the link and have a laugh. It may be the last one for a while
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It’s go time from Hofstra University in Hempstead New York. Candy Crowley of CNN is the moderator and she looks like she could spit nails. The name Candy is a little misleading. Think of a fat guy named slim.
It’s town hall style tonight. Questions coming from the audience. That by itself should be worth a little unintentional comedy. That means the candidates are free range chickens. Free to roam to and fro. This bit John McCain in the rump last time. He looked like your great grandfather, wandering around the freeway looking for his puree`ed squash and brownie cake.
Interesting to note both campaigns balked at Crowley as the moderator because she threatened ask her own questions. God forbid.
Love Crowley already. Absolutely no introductions. She just took the first question from the audience and started. Nice. Look gang if these guys have to intro themselves, we have bigger problems than these guys ducking tough debate questions.
Second man up with a question about energy. I expected a blue collar, lunch pail, NY Islanders fan. Got Droopy Dog, with coke bottle glasses, who apparently free bases helium.
The President has come out stronger. But how could he not.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! I think the Obama and Romney just traded paint there. If not, they definitely shared the same breathing air for a second. Got very close passing each other on the stage. Shit just got real, (learned that from the muppets).
Ok we are into the tax plan weeds. This all benefits the Pres. for two reasons. First Romney had not offered too many specifics about his plan and Obama can corner him on this. Second any time not talking about the Libya cover up is a win for the President.
Until Romney expertly pivots it to Obama’s record on debt and deficits. President is on, but Romney is not wilting.
Katherine something or other asks about equal pay for women in the work place. Here is the best way to describe this exchange. From Sam Youngman, former White House press corp, now writes for Reuters, and a Kentucky fan, but we give him a pass on that sometimes:
nuf said
Now we are beating on George Bush again. Man, I wasn’t a fan but let the guy fade into his sunset.He served his country with passion and a care for Americans. Will anyone just own the current situation and start with the fix already.
Mike Jones hits Obama between the eyes. “I voted for you in 08, why should I vote for you now.” Good question from the audience for once. Obama goes down a pretty impressive list of things he’s done. Three myths that dog him: 1. raised taxes – no he actually cut them 2. Made it harder to get guns – no actually guns have never been easier to get in our history. 3. soft on immigration – no the administration has deported more illegals than Bush 43 did in 8 years.
Best tweet of the night – decided by me.
Trevino was a speech writer in the Bush 43 White House. Following his twitter feed should be worth 3 college credits in history and political science.
Romney smartly highlights the problem with the past 4 years as to why Obama should not get your vote; 23 million Americans are still out of work. It’s that number and not the percentage of unemployed that’s most important. Romney is in a good groove now.
Immigration is up now. And somehow they have both segued that to each others personal finances and again they get very close to each other, are raising their voices AT each other, and have to be called to task by the moderator.
No joke, there is an obvious dislike between these two men. It’s much more obvious from Obama then Romney and it’s more than just a passive dislike. Hate is too strong, but it’s close. But as much as a mormon can bow up, Romney is doing it.
Here we go. Another great question from the audience, “what happened in Libya?” They might just come to blows here. The room is still tight with stress from that last exchange.
President still steaming from that last dust up and is speaking forcefully. However he really didn’t answer the question. Most pundits on twitter agree that there really is no good answer, that’s why the Pres. ducked it. Obama did say the buck stops with him. A lot of bucks floating around on this issue. HRC has the one that mattered. Obama is 4 weeks late a buck short on that. Pres is actually yelling in defiance during his response.
Oh Candy, bad Candy. Obama said he knew it was a terror attack the day after it happened. Mitt rightly asks then why did your UN Ambassador say other wise two weeks later, on five different Sunday talk shows? Candy cut the whole thing off. I’m not a big conspiracy type but the press has really crapped the bed on this story. And be advised this embassy story is huge, freaking huge. Shame on you Candy. Four Americans are dead. An Ambassador and 3 former military men. They were assassinated on US soil and the press seems unwilling to ask a question or allow questions to be asked.
Candy then steps on Romney bringing up Operation Fast and Furious. Google Fast and Furious, you won’t believe it. I am no longer in favor of town hall. Give me Jim Leher any day. He let them talk at least.
Barry gets the last question and asks something stupid. Sit down Barry, Thomas Jefferson doesn’t like you. Romney decides to just ignore the question and do a short bio about himself. Obama gets to answer last. We’ll see if he answers Barry’s stupid question or just blames Bush for the bad economy.
To the President’s credit, he actually answered the question. No matter, it was dumb. Something about what is the biggest misconception about you? How about housing, unions, DADT, Barry?
And thats it. No closing arguments. I like that. Now normally the two men will shake hands and chat for a bit on stage. Not tonight. I’m telling you, they were close to throwing hands. When the Pres accused Romney of investing in companies in China, Romney replied, “have you ever looked at your pension fund Mr. President?” Boom. Obama got pissed and the two men kept shouting the same thing at each other and getting closer and closer. I mean I was expecting some Secret Service agents to come on stage. That’s how tense it got.
No doubt each side will claim victory, but like the first debate there really was no clear standout in my opinion. And to me that helps Romney.
Also, the Libya thing is not going away. Romney flubbed his chance a bit and Candy blocked him some, but the question still remains, if the Pres knew it was a terror attack why did everyone else from his admin to include the UN Ambassador say otherwise?
Two final thoughts from twitter that encapsulate my opinion about debates quite well.
So same as the last time. No needle move from the debate. And if those were undecided voters I’m a Tibetan monk.
Off to Boca for the next one. That’s right, sunny Boca Raton and Lynn University, for the final Presidential debate.
That’s next Monday, 22 October. Don’t miss it.
You may not have been following the current storm cloud hovering over the Obama White House, but the shameful and disastrous way they have handled the Libya embassy attack and the murder of Ambassador Stevens and three of his security team finally turned into a hurricane over the past few days. After the attack, the US Ambassador to the United Nations went on five, count em, five Sunday morning politcal shows and peddled some hash about an anti-muslim video and the resulting protests as the cause of the heinous attack. All proven to be lies as State Department officials testifying in Congress say they were watching the attack in real time and there were no protests. The Obama administration seems to be clinging to the idea that it was not a terrorist attack. Maybe they don’t want a terrorist attack on September 11th attached to his presidency, who knows. So instead they decided a clown car style cover up might be better.
The President and his administration have given several answers to the what, why, and how this could happend questions. They’ve also retracted some answers, changed stories, and have been pushing other agencies of the government under the bus with such frequency their arms must be tired by now. As the second debate looms on the horizon, reports are that Obama is shopping for a bus with more ground clearance. What has been more interesting to me is who has not given interviews. Hillary Clinton, known as HRC in the social media world, has been oddly silent considering it was one of her ambassadors who was murdered.
Well, the President’s silver lining may have appeared last night, although it may only be the eye of the storm. And as any good north-easterner knows, it’s the ass end of the hurricane that’s the most violent and causes the most damage. Be that as it may, HRC went on CNN and talked to Wolf Blitzer. She took full responsibility for the attack, lack of security and the death of the four Americans. That’s it, end of sentence. She didn’t say, I take full responsibility but you have to understand…, she didn’t blame any other person. She did allude to the fog of war for causing some confusion as to the lies told by other members of the administration, but HRC was really just providing top cover for them.
In short, it appears Hillary Rodham Clinton was able to answer that 3am call and the President was not. My guess is the administration was out of people to push under busses and out of excuses so they asked HRC to take a bullet. And she did it. The irony, this makes her look like more of a leader and the President in need of his big sister to protect him from the bullies. In essence she was the leader that Obama should have been.
Tony loves Ronald Reagan. He’ll be happy to remember that Ronnie Raygun took full responsibility for the Beirut bombing in 1983 that killed so many Marines. Reagan did it immediately and even went as far as shielding the commanders on the ground from inquiry, claiming it was his own fault for their unpreparedness. Now any military member knows this in hogwash, we are always responsible for our immediate environment. But it’s a rare and honorable thing when the very top of the chain takes all the blame and then protects the guys on the ground.
Miss you big guy. The world misses you.
Mr. President my family voted for Ronald Reagan, I looked up to Ronald Reagan, Mr. President, you are no Ronald Reagan.
You’re not even HRC.
Mark your calendar, you are hearing it here first, (probably not), if the President wins re-elction she will resign within the next year. If he loses to Romney, HRC will stay on the edge of the national stage and she will be a candidate for President in 2016.
HRC in 2016?
First rule of Electoral College Club – don’t talk about Electoral College Club. That first rule is pretty easy to keep since most people don’t know a whole lot about the Electoral College. The second rule is a little harder to swallow. You don’t vote for President. When you vote on election day you are actually voting for Electors to the Electoral College. These Electors are then allowed to vote for who ever they want.
OK now we’re into it. Keep in mind, we do not have a democracy, we have a republic, which is a representative government system. Democracies are generally majority rule. Since Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton, Washington, Franklin, Madison and the rest loathed the masses, they sure as hell didn’t want 51% of them deciding things for the other 49%. So how do you stop that? Simple, create a form of government where the majority votes, but the results are left to the rich, educated guys, typically the 1% you keep hearing about.
Now let me just say I’m in favor of this form of government. I think the educated and successful should govern. Or at least pick the people who get to govern. But that’s just me. I’m a big proponent of letting the qualified pick their replacements. Buckle up campers, it only gets rougher from here on out.
The Electoral College was a compromise put in the constitution by the founding fathers to ensure a couple of things: 1. peaceful transfer of power every four years by letting the masses feel like they had a say in the process, and 2. the ability to unscrew a mistake made by the masses by letting the Electoral College do the actual voting for President with Congress verifying and endorsing the result.
The founding fathers, regardless of what tea-party members or staunch conservatives will tell you, did not trust the masses and didn’t want to give anyone the ability to vote unless they were highly educated and extremely wealthy to include large land holdings. Kind of ironic when you hear so many conservatives use the phrase Ivy League Elitists as a slur against liberals. Even more so when you consider the person saying that is probably a graduate of the Ivy League, and if they weren’t, the founding fathers would not consider addressing that person on any topic of conversation, let alone ask their opinion about political matters. The irony is so dense it’s impossible to see sometimes.
Anyway, so it works like this. Each state picks electors to represent each party for the presidential election. Each state party has as many electors as they have congressmen or women, plus one for each senator. So Tennessee has 9 men and women in the Congress and 2 in the Senate. That means Tennessee has 11 electoral votes. The electors are normally picked at each party’s state convention sometime in the same year as the presidential election, usually around the time of the primary election in the state. See this quick rundown on primary elections and state conventions: Unbound Delegates Explained. In some states the electors are actually listed on the ballot next to the presidential candidate they represent.
Every state is winner take all except for Maine and Nebraska. So if the masses of your state pick Obama, all of his electors from that state go to the Congress in December to vote for president. If they pick Romney then his electors would go to the Congress.
Main and Nebraska are proportional states. Meaning electors are sent based on the counties or precincts won in the state by each candidate. So if a state had 10 counties and Obama wins five and Romney wins five, each candidate’s electors from those counties would be sent to Congress in December to vote. It’s slightly more convoluted than that but that’s the basic gist.
On the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, the masses go to the polls, as provided for in the constitution. Sounds screwy, but if November 1st was a Tuesday, the election would be the next Tuesday. Those crazy founding fathers, they were so… so… old. After a winner is decided in each state, the governor of each state sends a certificate to the Congress identifying the electors who represent the winning candidate from their state. In other words, if Mitt Romney wins the state of Tennessee, Governor Haslem has to submit to the congress, by December of that same year, the certificate identifying the electors from the state of Tennessee who represent Mitt Romney. Those electors will then vote for president and the Congress will verify the count no later than the end of December.
A couple things to note. The president is not elected the first week of November, he is elected in late December, after the Electoral College votes and congress verifies the Electors vote. Now pull the buckle tighter. The electors do not have to vote for the person they represent. The whole reason they exist is to keep the vote amongst the educated and wealthy so the masses don’t screw it up and pick the wrong guy. Today, as compared to 1800, it’s tougher, but not impossible for the people to vote in one man and the electoral college to pick the other guy. Again it’s all legal as laid out in the constitution by the founding fathers.
Take the Tennessee example, if Romney won the state, the electors could still cast all their votes for Obama and Romney would have no legal standing. However, since the electors from Tennessee would be from the Republican Party, it is unlikely they would vote for Obama once they got to the Congress. If Romney were to go insane, commit a felony, or die, between November 7th and December 31st, then you may see a change of vote by the electors.
So how do you win? Well I’m sure by now, just by watching TV, you have seen or heard of this thing called electoral math. A candidate needs 270 electoral college votes to become President. Again, figure out how many representatives your state has in the Congress, plus 2 for your two senators and that’s how many electoral votes your state has. So the bigger the population of the state, the more Congressmen and women they have and the more electoral college votes they get.
This is why Obama was able to effect a landslide in total votes even though he only won the east and west coast states. The east coast: small states, big population, very angry, but a lot of congressmen. West coast: California, huge state, mucho grande` population, very mellow (it’s the weed), big time electoral college haul. Florida, Ohio, and Texas are also big electoral college hauls for the same reason.
Here is the current projection map of electoral votes.
This is the map Karl Rove is projecting as of 8 October. Rove was President Bush 43’s campaign manager. No mater what you think of him, he is a smart dude. Probably smartest in the business. I don’t agree with his politics most of he time, but I take his analysis as gospel. He called the Obama victory in 08 weeks before anybody else would speculate. And he was almost 100% on the senate races projections in that same election.
Anyway it’s blue for Obama, red for Romney. 270 electoral votes gets the prize. And no, there are not enough electoral votes for both men to hit 270. No ties, no overtime – unless you’re a hanging chad. Looking at you Florida, or as we called it in Jersey, Southern New York. The darker the color the greater chance each man will win that state. Yellow is a toss up, meaning it’s too close to call. The number next to the state is how many electoral votes the state has. The big difference here from 08 is Obama took VA and NC, but lost Ohio and Michigan.
If Rove’s math holds up Obama will win 275 electoral votes to Romney’s 191 and the 72 votes that are to close to call won’t matter. Even if Romney got all 72 toss up votes he would only reach 263. I’m a bit skeptical but I’ve learned not to doubt Rove’s predictions. Of course there are two more presidential debates to go, so this may change.
That’s all I got for now. I’m spent.
Any questions or disputes, fire away in the comment section.
Ok to recap, go vote on November 6th, but just know one thing: If you’re poor and stupid, Thomas Jefferson didn’t like you.
He didn’t?! No I just can’t… What the HELL Joe!! He did it, he really trotted out that tired old line. You know the one. You’ve been hearing it from the President since he was inaugurated, “We inherited an economy that was in free fall, we came into at…” Yeah just shut up Mr. Vice President. No one frigging cares what you inherited, we only care to know what you’re going to do about it.
To that end, Biden, who most of the time reminds you of your crazy uncle Joe, drunk as a skunk at the fourth of July BBQ, spoke passionately and with sincerity about the things the administration has tried and what they plan to do. Unfortunately, a person can be sincere and still be sincerely wrong. Biden knew this so he engaged his inner Archie Bunker ripping Meathead a new one. Joe yelled, he smirked, he gestured, he outright laughed at Paul Ryan. This shot encapsulates how the night went for both men.
Joe readying to part the Red Sea or calling down the flaming hail? We report you decide.
For the most part Crazy Joe got the better of Ryan. To his credit Ryan seemed truly surprised by Crazy Joe’s antics. The picture to the left is an actual screen shot courtesy of Reuters News Agency. That’s not shopped in any way. Crazy Joe was popping on all eight cylinders. Now as for context of what he said, well kind of hard to say.
You know it sounded good, but not really sure about some of his facts. Joe blatantly lied about the law requiring Catholic Hospitals to provide contraception as part of it’s health insurance plan for employees. I don’t give a rip one way or the other but he didn’t misstate the law he flat out lied about it’s impact.
On foreign policy he was always going to have the advantage. Incumbents know more simply because they have a higher clearance and they are privy to briefings the challengers just don’t get. However Ryan did ok, not great, with the foreign policy stuff. C- for the moderator in this area. She asked some good questions and then some good follow ups in foreign policy but stayed on that topic much longer than the average voter would ever care about. At times it did feel like Ryan was debating Biden and debate moderator Martha Raddatz.
Raddatz did a decent job, but she interrupted Ryan much more than Biden, by 2:1 margin at least. She cornered Ryan on specifics about the Romney/Ryan tax plan so on that question alone republicans and Fox will hate her. However Ryan dodged it, and with no where near the grace that Crazy Joe was dodging the questions about the shameful handling of the Libya Embassy disaster. She failed miserably to get Joe under control. Check that, she never even tried to get Joe under control. But at least it made for a fun debate.
Here is some of the reaction from Twitter:
Mike Murphy – smartest republican political strategist not on TV
Don’t know this dude, but that’s funny right there.
Truer words….
And finally this gem…
Patton Oswalt, the funniest comedian you’ve never heard of
It went on and on like that. Every time Ryan tried to make a point, Crazy Joe would have a seizure or laugh or just mumble to himself. It was a little embarrassing for the Vice President in my opinion. A little low class. Well a lot low class. At the end Ryan thanked Joe for the spirited debate, Biden just smirked at him and then never thanked Ryan for the debate. Low road continues for Team Obama.
However, that’s what they sent Joe out there to do. Look, after the last debate the democratic base is nervous. Conservatives do whiney outrage, liberals cowering fear. Crazy Joe went out there for them, not the independent voters. History shows most people aren’t swayed by debates, especially not Vice Presidential debates. Crazy Joe was the balm, the ointment, the salve if you will, to ease the burn democrats got from the blistering Obama took last time.
Forget substance, this was about payback. Romney interrupted the President several times, without paying for it. Crazy Joe went to even the score and make the democrats feel better. End of story. The President even sent out a semi-coded message to the gang cowering around their short wave, radio free America radio’s, when he said, “it’s time to let Joe be Joe.” Hell we know what that means, UNLEASH THE BIDEN!
Tweet of the night: This was in response to some of thew more wilder claims Ryan made about Syria. Ryan was overmatched by Biden in foreign policy. It showed on the exchange about Syria and Assad. But again that’s to be expected.
Follow Scahill – dude spends 350 days a year in Yemen and elsewhere. The rest of the time he’s in US just to file his story.
From the I’ve seen everything department: Sarah Palin critiquing Paul Ryan’s performance. She likened him to being trampled by some obscure Alaskan animal. What a hoot. She’s dead from the neck up, still mad because they got crushed in the election, largely because of her and she’s busting Ryan’s chops!? Amazing.
Who Won?????
Ryan, on most cards he won. Biden will get the W but Ryan won. Again history tells us that the losing VP debate candidate never wins an elected office they try for in the future. Ryan may have upped his street cred for standing toe to toe with one of the most savvy politicians in the land. Keep in mind Joe has been at this for longer than Ryan has been alive. Ryan will easily win future elections, if he’s not the Vice President in 3 weeks. That alone makes him the winner.
On facts and content, forget it, neither man was any more outlandish or dishonest than the other. But Joe looked like a crazy bastard who’s been cheeking his nutso pills and Ryan looked like what he was, a newbie getting yelled at by the crazy guy on the corner.
Overall impact – zero. You heard it here first folks. This will move the needle not one peg. Never does. But this was beyond a shadow of a doubt the best, most entertaining VP debate since they started televising the VP debates.
Anyone care to guess which VP debate was the first to be on TV? Answer in the comment section.
Actually spinning news that’s bad for you into not so bad or even good news doesn’t take a phaser, or even any science at all. It does require a lot of fiction smothered in lies.
The most obvious example is the first presidential debate of course. The Obama team was in full spin control minutes after the debate ended. The three blind mice actually blamed the moderator for Obama’s poor performance. Tsk, tsk, tsk. A good carpenter never blames his moderator, or something like that.
Then we had Al Gore claiming altitude sickness for Obama. Man-Bear-Pig! Click the link, watch the video. You will be incomplete until you do.
And then some left wing nut jobs claimed Romney had a cheat sheet, as evidenced by a super slow-mo replay of him putting his hands on the podium at the start of the debate. It’s not even worth linking to. The Zapruder film is like High Def compared to that stupid clip. Google it young people. Turns out is was his handkerchief, although it may have been Obama’s long form birth certificate, hard to tell.
The media was surprisingly forthright about it. Chris Matthews of MSNBC, who has the biggest and most unhealthy man-crush on the President, just about called Obama a freaking loser. His hissy fit was epic. Watch it here: Matthews rant
But then they had a day to recover. Tired of trying to spin a terrible performance by Obama and a stellar performance by Romney, they, meaning the media, took to the lazy man’s spin – call the other guy a liar. It’s so sad and embarrassing I don’t think it requires analysis. Calling Mitt Romney a liar because he crushed Obama in the debate just stands on its own.
Then we have the other guys, known as Conservatives. It’s hard sometimes, to discern who has the biggest pile of loons, conservatives or liberals. (It’s really the libertarians, but they are very sensitive so we don’t like to mention it.)
What was the only thing that might cut short the Romney celebration of his great debate performance – the jobs report. The report came out Friday and it was a little startling. It showed the US had added 114, 000+ jobs in September, pushing the unemployment number down to 7.8. That’s a big mental barrier. First time it’s been below 8% in forever. But there are a lot of factors contributing to that number. People stop looking, it’s not adjusted for the type, pay, and longevity of jobs, etc… The actual number with all those and a myriad of other factors is more likely somewhere north of 10% unemployment. But this formula that gave us 7.8 on Friday is the same formula that showed dismal numbers in July and August.
What is absolutely not contributing to the lower unemployment rate is number fixing by the Obama camp. But you wouldn’t know that if you have a twitter account or watch any political television.
So it goes like this. A prominent CEO, Jack Welch, a Romney financial advisor, takes to twitter to accuse the people in Chicago of cooking the unemployment figures. The sheep who follow that right wing nut job jump on the conspiracy band wagon and it’s off to the races. Never mind that Romney’s spokesperson is on CNBC’s Squawk in the Street business program saying in no way do they believe the nonsense about fixing, they just think the number is not accurate. And Romney’s guy is right, for reasons mentioned above. But not good enough for Jack. Obama’s cooking the books he cries. See his tweet below.
You don’t know Jack!
Not to be outdone, another genius CEO is heard from.
Mom: “Stevie!”
Forbes: “Well Jack said it too.”
Take at look at the amount of people who re-tweeted and favorited that one from Forbes. Now some of those people did it for the opposite reason, but I’ll bet a lot did it because they believe it. Staggering to say the least. I would be curious to poll those people about their feelings on the moon landing. I may not want to hear the answer.
What I find most curious: where were these people when the same Labor dept. using the same numbers and formulas, came up with strikingly dismal numbers for July and August? Seems like they had the utmost confidence in the numbers then. And there-in lies the problem when you deal in absolutes. Once the situation swings back the other way, what do you do? I’ll tell you what you do, you look like a freaking dope for all the world to see.
It’s similar to the gas price issue. Newt, Glenn Beck, and a host of others were screaming with their hair on fire when gas got to $4.00. Again, any right thinking person knows the President, any President or his administration, or congress for that matter, has 0.00% control over gas prices. So where were those people, looking at you Newt and Glenn, when gas snuck down towards 2.99 in early summer? It actually got under 3.00 in Knoxville but we are usually lower than the national norm on that. So where were they? Shouldn’t they have been applauding the President for getting gas prices so low? Yeah, not likely. They were obviously silent on the matter. Tougher question; where will they be when President Romney is staring $4.50 a gallon gasoline in the face. Absolutes; great to get your mindless, unwashed, lemmings to riot when the absolute favors you. Make you look pretty stupid when the pendulum swings the other way.
Well done Jack. Nicely played Stevie. You have confirmed yourselves as the Sith Lords we all figured you were.
Because as every 5th grader knows, “Only a Sith deals in absolutes.” – Obi Wan Kenobi.
Absolute video evidence Welch and Forbes are the Sith Lords we’ve been looking for. – click it!
This won’t end well.
At the first Presidential debate, Romney said he would defund PBS. For most people, PBS means Big Bird and his buddies on Sesame Street. Mitt’s actual line was, ” “I’m going to stop other things. I like PBS. I love Big Bird. I actually like you, too, Jim [Lehrer, PBS newsman and debate moderator]. But I’m not going to … keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it.”
And that was the point of this throw away line. There will be no sacred cows when it comes to the budget. If it requires borrowing to pay for it, it’s gone. I like where Romney’s head is right now. This is the Bain Capital Mitt we need to fix the economy. Now if Debate Mitt shows up two more times, he just might have a fighting chance.
The Obama damage control is trying to spin this as a gaffe. It isn’t. It’s a very real and rational response to our current financial woes. But you can put your knife down Ernie, drop the fake tough guy scowl Bert, even if the money for PBS and NPR is cut off, both will remain on the air. Romney knows, as most clear thinking people do, PBS and NPR (National Public Radio) receive little government subsidy. They derive their money from several sources, the largest of which is their yearly three day fund drive. They receive so little government money that to eradicate the deficit of lets just say 16 trillion, you would have to defund 160,000 trillion PBS stations and another 160,000 trillion NPR stations. Still not a gaffe but an indication of Romney’s fiscal mind set. A good one in my opinion. Plus what a set of stones on Mitt to tell the debate moderator, during the debate, he’s fired from his day job if Mitt becomes President.
Of all the people who came to the President’s defense after his debate fizzle, I bet Obama wished Al Gore had just got drunk and fell in a gutter somewhere. But he didn’t. Big Al was right there on his Current TV station, (ch. 172 on Comcast in Knoxville, check your local listings), giving a full throated defense of the President. It turns out, according to Al, the President doesn’t have an attitude problem as much as he has an altitude problem. Yes, the man who has become the butt joke of global warming, claims Romney had the advantage because he arrived in Denver two days prior, while the President rolled in the day of the debate. This put the President at a 2 day disadvantage adapting to the altitude and thus caused him to stammer and stumble his way through the 90 minute debate.
Great Al. You just proclaimed to the world that the President of the United States can’t make key decision or be engaged unless he’s at sea level.
Gore’s comments prompted this tweet, winner of tweet of the debate, decided by me.
Nice work Al!
I’ll leave you with this. The best line of the night, decided by me. After a lengthy professorial diatribe by the President about China, monetary tariffs, job outsourcing, and a bunch of other things nobody listened to, Mitt uncorked this gem.
“Mr. President I’ve been in business over 25yrs and I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
The only way that line could have been better is if Mitt added, And we’re all now dumber for having heard it.
The VP candidates are up next. 11 October in Danville Kentucky.
Then Romney and Obama go at it again on the 16th in New York, town hall style. Careful Mitt, the Muppets took Manhattan, Hempstead is just a hop, skip, and a jump from there.
I tuned in for the debate. I’m not sure I got one, but here’s my thoughts.
I was initially impressed by the red, blue, tie selections. Nice fellas, somebody work that up for you, to have to those plain, coordinated ties? I was actually reminded of George Bush when Obama started talking and said “…blah, blah, blah, the ‘Merican People.”
So, I’m not a professional political pundit (nice alliteration, eh!), nor am I a debate coach, but I think if you’re nodding your heading when the other guys talking, you’re not doing well. Also, try not to say “ok” when the moderator’s talking to the other guy, it makes it seem like you’re guilty of something.
I had to wonder if someone told Obama he was going on Letterman instead participating in a debate. I mean, the guy has done a lot of TV shows, and they never argue with him when he’s on “The View.” Maybe he’s a little rusty in the old “debate 101” tactics. Romney showed expertise, while Obama’s responses showed that the economy is not Obama’s strong suite. To quote another politician involved in the race, no one should be surprised that “the middle class have been buried the last four years.” Obama’s expertise is in, uh, well, let me get back to you on that. Oh that’s right, “community organizing.” Which, by the way, he’s done a nice job with. No, I don’t know what that means, just trying to say something nice.
So here I am, Joe average (not a plumber) sitting on my couch, trying to follow this, and I keep hearing the word “trillions.” I gotta tell you, it really puts me off. I think someone should tell them to at least bring it down to “billions” you know, stuff the average guy can relate with. When someone’s trying to scratch out a couple hundred for a weekend at Myrtle Beach, you gotta bring it down where people can relate, that’s all I’m saying.
Finally. Did you ever think it. We have arrived at the precipice. From that long ago, far away state fair in Iowa in August of 2011, yeah folks read that again, 2011, we’ve arrived. It was a long but enjoyable slog through the primary. We survived it and we’re stronger for it. So here we are at the first Presidential debate.
Hello from Denver, the University of, to be exact. Jim Leher from PBS, (Yes Tony Government TV), is the lead off hitter for debate moderators. He looks like the absent minded professor but he is a viper. Don’t sleep on Jim Leher, he’ll cut you.
This debate is already better than the primaries for the simple fact Jim didn’t make the candidates intro themselves and didn’t do that creepy example intro that Wolf Blitzer always did. They went with a little thank you to the crowd and then the major thrust of their platforms. Romney was all economy as was the President. Obama however led off with his normal mantra, “As you know we inherited the worst economy in the history of…. Thanks Mr. President , no I didn’t know that. Very nice of you to alert me to the problem. And by very nice I mean agonizingly repetitive.
Buckle up folks, this is a domestic debate centered mostly on the economy. In other words – snooze fest.
So who will be the big winner? Well if you believe Romney’s camp, the President will win in a walk. Same thing from the Obama side, Romney will be the big winner. Of course both sides are playing the age old game of lowering expectations. Both sides have made them so low, just staying upright for the 90 minutes would be considered victory.
Be advised, the challenger, in this case Romney, usually does better in the first debate. But currently Romney is not just doing better, he is schooling the President. We are in Romney’s wheelhouse right now – talking money, getas, greenbacks, mullah, dare I say Dead Presidents. Romney is owning the President so badly at the moment, when Leher said you’re over your two minutes, Obama apologized; Leher was talking to Romney.
Whoa, Jim Leher sternly tells the President to move it along as he gets long winded on an answer. I told you people don’t test Leher, he don’t suffer no fools.
The President is playing prevent defense. As they say in the NFL, prevent defense only prevents the win. He is in professor mode big time and I stopped listening several sentences ago.
And we’re into the medicare debate. Just die already old people, it would make it so much easier and we wouldn’t have to talk about this. Bathroom break!
The substance of this first debate is pretty boring if you’re not deep into public and government policy. Did you ever think you would miss the old gang, The Herminator and his 999 plan, The old kook Ron Paul, Rick Perry not being able to count to 3 on his hand, Crazy Santorum wanting war with China and my old buddy Newt, eviscerating debate moderators like a kid burning ants with a magnifying glass.
Wow take a quick trip to the can and miss Jim Leher getting steamed rolled by Romney. Jim has lost control a little bit. I would not have believed it.
Not sure how the pundits will score this but from my chair Romney was sharp, excited and all over the President from the jump. The President looked bored at times, annoyed at others. Romney refuted most of the claims the President made about him. At one point Romney looked right at the President and said “I know you and your running mate are fond of saying that, but it’s simply not true. Stop saying it.” The President actually said “OK” in response. Amazing.
Lets talk about looks for a minute. The President looked at the moderator or the camera when he responded, even though his responses were to Romney. Romney on the other hand looked at the President when he spoke to him, and looked at him when the President was speaking. Mitt throwing down that laser like focus he busted out on Rick Perry, when Perry tried to be the alpha candidate.
For the content, they mostly made claims about each other’s policy’s and then spent their time refuting what each had just said.
So we got the first one out of the way. The next might be a little more exciting. That should be the foreign policy debate. This one was about economics and the President seemed disengaged. Interesting, maybe why we’re still in the muck financially in this country.
I know the Vice Presidential debate will be good. Crazy Uncle Joe vs Eddie Munster, are you kidding me, a barn burner to be sure.
Unfiltered and Unfettered 