As I noted in my
last post, I over tweeted myself and got booted.
eh
So let's look at this debate we had tonight between President Obama and Mitt Romney. This time we had a town hall format debate. Which means that the candidate stand up, occasionally sitting on a stool (Word out is Romney practiced this hard the last few days.) and receive questions for different people and answer. The idea is to be more informal and offer more back and forth, which we got. This format was not, it seems, well suited to Romney, who became quite pissy and grouchy, with people calling him out on lies and bad math.
Also, following on Martha Radditch, Candy Crowley finely proved herself as a moderator. While both candidates at times went longer than they should have, or (Mitt) had added goes at the other (Obama), overall, she kept them on point, and worked to keep them reasonable. She even took a blatant attempt to lie about a major foreign policy issue and put it straight.
Quick and simple. Obama did talk about acts of terrorism. Romney and the GOP may want to pretend otherwise, but no.
Of course. The Right Wing is eager to fight over this, like with Fast and Furious, the minutia of the issue is all they have to hope can, in some way, smear and bring down the president. It is pathetic. But, look who leads this charge:
They just want to quibble. "Obama didn't really really say it right.
For shame."
But this is what they have, and what Romney brought. And Obama gave a sober answer the question of who takes responsibility when deaths happen as president. And it was bad for Romney, who clearly looked like a man never without someone to shift blame onto.
And I could go into the discussion that went into women's health, but the President blew Romney out of the water on that.
And he pulled out the Apology Tour BS. Who does this work with? Are the undecided impressed by it? He just flung it out sadly. Last gasps of that line? Maybe? Please?
Other oddities:
Binder of Women.
To explain how Mitt really got the issues of women in the workplace and the trouble of getting fair pay, Romney hearkened back to when he was hiring as governor. I knew as Obama was talking this would be tricky for Romney, he has so little connection to people trying to get paid properly. So instead he just talked about, gosh, trying to get some women into government.
And that, apparently, required a binder of women who he could pick from. Flattering, right? Also, apparently neither he nor his advisers had any women around them that seemed like immediately obvious choices to work with Mitt. Odd that (No it isn't.).
Also imagine did he also need binders to figure out if any Hispanics, Blacks, or Asians were available to serve. And what about at Bain and the Olympics? No binders then? No interest in that sorted diversity business at the time?
And, yes, Romneys Binders (at
@RomneysBinders on Twitter) now exists. The wonder of Twitter.
Gun violence arises from single parent homes.
Another weird bit from Mitt. He seemed to go off when talking about gun control and gun violence and point at single parent homes as a major problem. Also education. Weird. And easily critiqued.
It may seem odd that Romney tried to point at the under educated and single family kids here, unless you remember my
previous post on dog whistles. To the GOP, and the people that think like Romney, the problem is "those people" who come from broken homes and get themselves a good education...you know, those...urban folk. Those...type. ...Romney is talking about black people! He thinks the problem is among blacks, and his friends at the NRA would like you to think that as well...regardless of how many white guys shoot up groups of people.
Oh, yeah, he also tried desperately to pivot on to
Fast and Furious.
Remember that? It was the go nowhere conspiracy/scandal that the GOP was trying to foist on the president, before they got around to trying to turn the assassination in Libya into the new one.
Wow. He tried to plop out 2 scandals over 90 minutes, and got big fails on both accounts.
Answer to jobs going overseas? Make us more desirable to business -- Which want cheap labor, low regulation on safety, and an easier time dumping waste. Paradise.
So Romney had a ready answer to address job loses to other countries. Make America more palatable to business.
What business likes in China, currently, is the very low wages they have to pay. They also don't have to give health care support. Also, they can work people quite hard for longer periods of time.
Sweat shops. That is the Romney America. We either work cheaply with little free time, and low a standard of living, or we get, as Romney apparently sees it, what we deserve. Lovely, isn't it?
He also wants to take on China (snert). He'll take on their currency. He'll shake his finger at them. He'll really shake things up...He'll get nothing done.
As well, apparently, now the Chinese currency is growing closer to parity to the US dollar already. There's a long way to go, but the shift is underway.
And, noted by
Think Progress, the tax plan that Romney has presented makes it easier for business to exit the United States. And, as we stand, our effective corporate tax rate is the lowest in the developed world.
Also,
Trickle Down Government? I know Frank Luntz loves his little terms. And going after the all too accurate description of their economic philosophy, Trickle Down Economics, must be so fun for them. But is this resonating with anyone. The only people who probably remember it's origins are bitter Reaganites who are already sold, and those that remember how telling the original term was. Odd desperate choice.
Immigration, if only Obama cared.
Romney tried to sell the idea that Obama has been silent for four years on immigration. That is patently false.
In 2009 he had a immigration bill in Congress. But Republicans were staunchly opposed, and some Democrats joined in, killing the bill. And with the efforts now with the DREAM Act, it got to the point where Obama just had to act on his own, thanks to the feet dragging of Republicans.
Also.
Fake sympathy from Romney. That isn't winning plan for the Hispanic vote.
To end the night,
Mitt tried to share what voters don't know about him.
And to start off, he, for some reason, started to list off his resume to the audience. ...Honestly, it made me flashback to the last episode of
The Thick Of It, when two advisers to the DoSAC minister are being made to justify why they shouldn't be forced to resign in the wake of a scandal. And one, Phil Smith, just starts rattling off, in a distracted panic, his job description.
It was kind of sad to watch...I mean in the episode of the TV show. Here it was almost funny.
Then he kept saying we don't have to settle. Again and again. Because, a vote for Mitt Romney isn't settling at all.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
So?
Are We Better Off Now Then We Were Four Years Ago?
Think Progress has some charts to remind us how things have changed for the better over these last four years.
Here's one chart:
Under Democratic leadership a steep fall has been shifted. After heavy losses, economically, we are returning. We have a distance to go. But the turnaround and success we've had so far comes from Democratic efforts, despite Republican roadblocks. Turning things back over to those that drove us into the red, who promise
now they've learned their lesson...That is mad.
We are coming back, as we'll see with Barack Obama and Four More Years.
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