Romney vs. Obama First Debate Editor's Live Blog
Editor's Live Blog:
Wow, so much BS in this debate there is not enough time to hope to respond to it all in a timely manner.
Obama's tax cuts for small businesses aren't tax cuts at all, they are tax credits meaning that if you jump through government hoop A & B - and then meet stipulation circumstance A, B, C and D - you get a tax credit. Well that doesn't work because people aren't doing when is best for their business or the economy, they are doing what government wants. These "tax cuts" are so targeted only a few get them. This is no different from government picking winners and losers. Economic growth happens when people have money AND freedom.
Actually Mitt lowering the rates and cleaning up the deductions has been done before, Reagan did it and it worked. Remember Kemp/Roth in 1981 followed up with TEFRA in 1986? Romney needed to hit the mortgage collapse out of the park and he just didn't. He needs me on his communications team to show him how. This is not difficult.
Romney - I will eliminate any program I have to borrow money from China to keep going that are not working and important. I hope and wish.
Obama talked about going after some wasteful over duplicated education programs - he went after education programs alright, like the working and very successful DC voucher program.... all to make the teachers union happy (and screwed the kids).
I liked Romney's "I have five boys" comment - nicest way to call out a lie I have ever heard ;)
Well the stock in those who make small planes will now drop due to that comment Obama. That will cost jobs just in the coming weeks. Mark me.
Obama says Social Security is structurally sound. Like heck it is. Social Security does not even try to grow a pot of money to prefund people's retirement.
Romney's point on Medicare is right on. OK Romney now boot that voucher talking point out of the park - you had better....and he didn't. It is Medicare part D expanded because Part D came in 40% under budget, gives more choice and works. It is not just a voucher system.
Obama talks about being at the mercy of insurance companies - What you DONT want to be is at the mercy of ObamaCares IPAB - Case in point -http://politicalarena.org/2012/10/03/obamacare-panel-targeting-womens-health-screenings-again/
Romney hits Obama on his unelected board making decisions about your care in Obamacare - FINALLY! Survey's of Small Businesses show that ObamaCare is scrapping hiring plans - WHAM - Go MITT!
Romney - government as well as private studies show that millions of people will lose their employer based insurance as a result of ObamaCare - that is true. Obama is pretending like that problem doesn't exist.
Obama is a broken record "Romney just wants to help the rich"...
Veteran Communications Strategist Lisa Marie Cashman - They are both trying to be too civil.
ME - They are both trying to remember their talking points and get them out, it is better to use such minutia for rebuttals and comebacks. Dear Mitt, please go watch Reagan's debate with Carter. Thanks.
Cashman - They are both reaching to meet the middle. The independent and enrolled votes are equally important; however Obamacare restricts growth. I wish Romney would hit the tack on the medical devices tax and the real estate tax.
Obama - The IPAB (ObamaCare panel) by law cannot tell doctors what to do - But the ObamaCare board can do is say what they will pay for. And they can say that doctors have to jump through every hoop they wish or they will not get paid on any of their patients...and if they are not paid for the care will not be given. Nice try Barack.
Romney - $90 billion for failed green jobs programs would have hired 2 million teachers - ZAP!!
Mitt - Education funds should follow the child. (Obama - they should follow the teachers's UNIONS).
The problems with "federal support" in education Obama is that such support comes with thousands of strings attached that pick winners and losers and that make for political agendas and make everything more expensive overall. Race to the Top has been a bureaucratic nightmare.
Mitt, meeting with Democrat leaders in Congress will not be like meeting legislators in your state. The likes of Pelosi and Reid are far more partisan and radical than anyone you face in state government. So either the current Dem Leadership will have to be swept away or you will have to defeat them.
Our friend CSteven Tucker of the Insurance Tips & Advice Blog says - NOT ONE REPUBLICAN VOTED FOR OBAMACARE & The Senate has BLOCKED more than 30 GOP proposals. He wouldn't know working together if it slapped him...
So true Steven. The Republicans were locked out of the room and we didn't get many of the details of what was in ObamaCare until after it was passed.
Final thoughts - Well "hope and change" vs Romney won't work. It sold when he faced a non existent Bush domestic policy in his second term vs McCain. But now Obama has a record to defend. Obama has used one office to run for the next and/or used tricks to get his serious opponents tossed off the ballot in Illinois. So he is not used to having to have a record to defend and tonight it showed.
Both sides had a lot of emotional investment in this debate and now that investment is being vented. All in all this debate was not a game changer. Both sides got facts wrong, but Obama was in the larger truth deficit. In the area of "non-verbals" Romney was the clear winner. He was more energized and assertive and as a result he looked more presidential because he came into the debate with a better posture.
Pretty much sums it up for me - LINK