Category Archives: Debates

Aftermath…

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It seems almost obligatory to review last night’s debate.  Frankly, I’m not all that enthused. The outcome was exactly as I expected. Romney faced two debaters—Obama and Crowley. The moderator was biased. We knew that going in. Obama lied and Crowley supported the lies. That was expected as well. The MSM claims Obama won. ‘Pub pundits like Charles Krauthammer agree. The rest of us disagree.

I think Ed Morrisey writing for Hot Air said it best.

Video: Luntz focus group unloads on Obama after debate

posted at 8:41 am on October 17, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

In my estimation, last night’s debate was a draw.  Both men did what they needed to do for the debate, but neither had enough of a breakout performance to make much of a difference in the race. I’d expect to see very little impact to the Mitt-mentum that developed after the first debate, for reasons which I’ll address in a moment.

That wasn’t the conclusion reached by Frank Luntz’ focus group of former Barack Obama voters, and now undecideds, in Nevada.  That panel overwhelmingly chose Mitt Romney as the winner, with observations about Romney’s presidential mien and Obama’s defensiveness and lack of vision for a second term.  But one woman, whom (as Luntz jokes) bears a strong resemblance to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, neatly sums up the status of many undecideds, as well as Obama’s big problem with these debates:

“I was not undecided between Obama and Romney.  I was undecided between Romney and not voting.”

That’s the problem for any incumbent President in the final days of the election.  They get almost four years to make the case for another term.  If voters are still undecided with three weeks left to go, the best an incumbent can hope to do is convince them not to vote at all.  That has been the explicit campaign strategy of Team Obama since Romney wrapped up the nomination in May — to make him so toxic that the protest vote against Obama stays home.

Unfortunately, that strategy collapsed after the first debate, and its collapse made the strategy obvious enough to be offensive.  Last night, Obama finally decided to show some passion about wanting a second term, but he still hasn’t explained why he wants it or what he’ll do with it, even during last night’s debate.  The only case he offered was that he wasn’t Mitt Romney, the same argument that Obama used before the first debate.  And he spent most of the evening speaking with an oddly high-pitched tone, as if he was offended that he even needed to go that far.

Obama gave those undecideds no reason last night to vote for him or to stay home on Election Day.  That’s why nothing that happened in the debate will change the trajectory of the race.

Meanwhile, if you’re unimpressed with a Fox focus group, you can always balance that out with MSNBC’s focus group of undecideds from last night.  Final score there: Obama 1, Romney 1, with the other six abstaining from a choice until after the next debate:

That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement for an Obama victory claim.

‘Nuff said.

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The world came close to nuclear war fifty years ago this week. That crisis was known as the Cuban Missile Crisis.  I was in high school at the time in Southern Illinois and I  remember those times well.

I was reminded of this with the arrival of today’s Morning Bell from the Heritage Foundation that spoke of the anniversary of that crisis. That e-mail caused me to remember the runup to that crisis—of reports of Russian bombers and then IRBM missiles being based in Cuba. Those reports were followed by the release of reconnaissance photos by our Ambassador to the UN, Adlai Stevenson.

As the crisis grews, we examined the missile coverage mapped in our local daily paper. I remember noticing St. Louis, 90 miles to our northwest was within range of those missiles. Our local Red Cross distributed plans for building fallout shelters and a number of our neighbors built them.

We also practiced “duck and cover” in school…handy during tornado season but that practice suddenly acquired new meaning. I remember standing in our yard one clear, cool afternoon and watched four B-52s circling far overhead. during lunch-time at school we brought our maps to see where there were likely targets in our area.

To say that everyone was tense was an understatement.

If it weren’t for the events last week, those memories would be just that—a remembrance of a long past event. But, now, we see just how important it is to have competent people as our national leaders. Joe Biden’s maniacal antics last week brought that home.

This idiot—Joe Biden—is next in line to lead us in a crisis!?!?

For all the multitude of reasons to remove Obama, Biden and the democrats from power, the revelation of Joe Biden’s instability is sufficient reason why the nation must wrest power away from the democrats.  We fear that it’s likely in a crisis Obama will do nothing. On the other hand, if Joe Biden rose to the Presidency, he, in a crisis, would do anything!

The revelation of Joe Biden has helped change the trend of this election. That trend shifted after the first Presidential Debate. Biden’s arrogance, disrespect and strange behavior during the VP Debate increased that trend. We all hope and pray that tomorrow’s 2nd Presidential Debate will accelerate the trend towards a ‘Pub win three weeks from tomorrow.

With the increased tensions in the Middle-East, with a resurgent, militaristic Russia, with continued Chinese resource imperialism in the South China Sea, the last thing we need is continuing incompetence in the White House.

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Politics…as usual

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I attended a local candidate forum yesterday evening. This was the second of three forums scheduled before the election in a few weeks.  There wasn’t anything really new. 

The ‘Pubs spoke about individual liberty, personal and governmental fiscal responsibility and service to people.  The dems spoke…well, of everything else.

Once dem candidate running for the state Senate bragged about being a union member—as if that was something to brag about. He wasn’t clear want he wanted to do in Jeff City other than toe the dem party line. Another dem running for the legislature spoke about “cooperation.” He, too, wasn’t clear why that was a good thing nor who would cooperate with whom. Every time there’s “cooperation” in Jeff City, it seems our taxes go up, the state spends more, and there is less liberty for everyone.

At the local level, the ‘Pub candidates spoke about service to the people, insuring the county spent no more than the revenues it received and methods of implementing real transparency in government. I noticed the dems didn’t once speak about service nor serving the people of the county. One bragged about getting more federal funds as if that was something to brag about.  Being a government bureaucrat, to me, is not an endorsement of competency.

The two candidates for Sheriff is an example. current Sheriff Dwight Diehl simply read the Sheriff’s Office Mission Statement he created when he first took office 16 years ago.  Throughout the statement, the constant theme was service, respect, enforcing the law and maintaining the peace.  When Diehl’s opponent rose to speak, he repeated the same tired theme from his last forum appearance—build alliances, cooperate with other agencies. At no time did he mention service nor serving the residents of the county. The contrast between the two was stark.

The forum ended at 8PM. I arrived home when the Ryan-Biden debate had been on for thirty minutes.  It was disgusting!

Instead of being a one-on-one debate, it was Ryan against Biden and the moderator.  All the speculation about the moderator’s bias before the debate was verified. Biden appeared to be a laughing, grinning fool, constantly interrupting Ryan as did the moderator.  I watched about 10 minutes of the farce and turned it off.

Question: why are the debates always organized by the partisan MSM? Why can’t there be at least one debate organized by us or at least a neutral party?  As lib as he is, at least Jim Lehrer treated both Romney and Obama equally.

From the reports from CNN and FOX, Biden’s and the moderator’s antics have back-fired.  The liberal core thought it was great. Everyone else, including the independents and undecided thought Biden’s performance was arrogant, condescending and disrespectful. The early morning reports today appear to confirm those opinions. Ryan held his own against the laughing hyena and his handler.

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Reflections

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My wife and I didn’t watch the debates last night. It’s just as well. Twitter kept my phone and tablet beeping. We watched some video excerpts later. It was a pitiful performance by Obama—an example of an amateur meeting a professional.

The dems were so outraged they attacked their own—Jim Lehrer of PBS, the moderator.

Obama’s Stephanie Cutter knocks Lehrer

DENVER, Colo. — Obama spokesperson Stephanie Cutter took a swipe at moderator Jim Lehrer’s largely passive debate performance tonight, saying the PBS anchor had allowed Mitt Romney to act as the moderator.

“I sometimes wondered if we even needed a moderator because we had Mitt Romney,” Cutter told CNN shortly after the debate, though she told POLITICO that Lehrer did his job as moderator and that her comments were strictly about Romney.

Pitiful! But, I’m not in the pitying mood.

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Univision had an expose’ over the weekend—on Fast and Furious. It was the first many in the Hispanic communities heard of it.  They aren’t happy.

Fast & Furious: Univision Continuing to Ask the Tough Questions

On the heels of staging a successful presidential forum, Univision, the largest Spanish-language network in the U.S., has uncovered more information on the failed Operation Fast and Furious.

Fast and Furious resulted in nearly 2,000 high-powered weapons travelling across the border to be used by Mexican drug cartels that has resulted in the deaths of dozens, if not hundreds, of innocent civilians.

…

As we have been reporting, Administration officials have been less than revealing about what they knew about the ill-conceived Fast and Furious Operation, including the strong possibility that Attorney General Eric Holder may have contradicted himself in sworn congressional testimony.

It was embarrassing to Obama so he took steps to correct the situation.

He selected the wife of the owner of Univision to be an Ambassador. I guess if you can’t refute the facts, try bribery.

Obama appoints wife of Univision owner to UN diplomatic post

By El Nuevo Herald Staff Report

President Barack Obama appointed Cheryl Saban, wife of the owner of Univision, as U.S. representative to the United Nations, according to reports from various news blogs.

According to the Politico blog, Haim Saban, owner of the television network, backed Hillary Clinton in 2008, but during the summer donated $1 million to groups supporting the campaigns of Democrats. And according to another blog in Spanish of Yahoo, the appointment of Cheryl Saban to the diplomatic post was made last Wednesday, the day before Obama appeared at a forum at the University of Miami hosted by Univision.

Quid pro quo?

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As a parting shot today, I’ll give you this link.  I’ll not quote it. But if you follow the link, I think you’ll agree with the article.  We’re suffering from “Obama fatique.”

EDITORIAL: Obama fatigue

Familiarity with the president breeds desire to vote for someone else