On substance, Obama missed one opportunity after another, after another. Obama stuck to his wonkishness; after all, it's what he does best. But why did he never mention Rmoney's 47%? Why did he emphasize his bipartisanship, allowing Rmoney to play bipartisan master in Massachusetts, when there is so little evident advantage to Obama in either impression? Why did he allow the "cuts to Medicare" mythology to stand unchallenged? [Enron_Ad] Why? why? why? ... [/Enron_Ad]
I suppose I am obligated to see what the snap polls show, though I expect no surprises...
AFTERTHOUGHT: why do I detest Jim Lehrer? Here's FAIR.org, in 1995:
The man soon to become chief anchor of the NewsHour, Jim Lehrer, has little patience with calls for genuine diversity. Former NewsHour staffers have told us that Lehrer dismisses progressive policy critics as "moaners" and "whiners" unfit to appear on the show.Any other questions?
AFTERTHOUGHT: I just spent several hours (!) listening to an audio stream of Amy Goodman of DemocracyNow.org in a recorded-live broadcast of the presidential debate "expanded" by her interleaving of two additional candidates, Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party and Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party.
Without the visuals, with audio alone, President Obama sounded more convincing than with the full TV broadcast I watched earlier. Certainly neither major candidate committed any major gaffe, and Obama may have acquitted himself better than I thought on first viewing.
Both of the minor party candidates Goodman interviewed appear to have politics nearer to my own than either Rmoney's or Obama's, but as regular readers know, I'm a strategic voter: no matter whom I may find more personally or even politically appealing, when I stand before that e-voting machine I shall vote for Mr. Obama.
UPDATE: Rmoney's claim that his post-Obamacare health care plan includes coverage for pre-existing conditions turns out to be false. Such a plan would leave me... and probably most Americans... high and dry. Rmoney is a flim‑flam artist as surely as any used car salesman.
What a disaster! I am seriously depressed about that debate.
ReplyDeleteMad, I was astonished, not that Rmoney was supercharged (surely he has access to the best drugs money can buy), but that Obama was not. The debate really did play better as audio-only than as video: for reasons I cannot explain, Obama sounded more poised and confident than he looked. But Mr. O certainly didn't help his cause last night.
DeleteRomney gave Obama a double wedgie and stole his lunch money. Still, Romney came across as an aggressive liar and bully fraud. This debate pushed me over the line to vote for Obama.
ReplyDeletekarmanot, senior journalist Helen Thomas confirmed that GeeDubya Bush was the "Worst. President. Ever.". She did NOT say that Bush was the "Worst. President. Possible." Oh, yes: Rmoney could be worse by far than Bush dreamed of being. And if by some twist of fate Paul Ryan should ever end up being president...
DeleteYes, of course, I shall put aside all Obama's flaws and vote for him with an increasingly clear conscience. I am not required to vote for the best president in the world. I... we all... are required to vote so as to promote the strategic long-term survival of the republic. Under the circumstances, that means voting for Obama, flawed though he may be.