President Obama And Mitt Romney Are Preparing to Square Off in Their Second Debate Tonight...
By louisehartmann
And the stakes are high. Polls now show a dead heat between the two men – and even swing state polls show a much tighter race. Mitt Romney has already made his debate strategy very clear – which is to lie every chance he gets – and run away from every far right position he’s taken over the last year in hopes of painting himself as a moderate.
In the first debate – Romney employed the Ronald Reagan strategy of saying whatever he needs to to win, just as long as he says it sincerely. And it worked because President Obama adopted the Jimmy Carter strategy and didn’t call out any of Romney’s lies. Tonight, with Joe Biden’s blistering debate performance still fresh in the minds of progressives – the President must channel his inner fighter and not let Mitt Romney the liar go unchallenged for an hour and a half again.
If the President fails, then there’s a good chance he could suffer the same fate as Jimmy Carter – a one-term failed President. Not because he actually failed in his first term, but because he let Republicans convince the American people that he did.
Stay tuned tonight.
Comments
#2
Polls are not in a dead heat , Obama still leads. These "debates" are frauds. Their purpose is to generate revenue for media outlets, and they are saving a ton of money by not having to buy content for these time slots. All that needed to be done was to run some adds claiming that they are important. Viagra and feminine hygene products are flying off the shelves around these dog and pony shows, Prediction, Romney will be the dog tonight.
#3
For the record, as you should know, my congressmember Joe Crowley pronounces his last name rhyming with growl -- if Candy says it differently, it is HER choice. I just hope she can make tonight's debate theatre more sincere and real.
Peace hugs from NYC,
Kate Anne
@PeaceHugs
#4
I notice that this time Obama is not promising to stop the renditioning of people who have not been charged with any crimes; apparently after he renditioned his first few innocent people, he realized that it's sort of fun. I mean, I can see him talking with his daughters, saying, "It's time for bed, girls. But first, would you like to guess what daddy did today? He sent a man to the Middle East to be tortured and possibly murdered. No, sweetheart, as far as I know he didn't do anything wrong. I just did it because I felt like it. Are you proud of your daddy? Would you like to be president someday, so you can send people to be tortured? Well, darling, torture is when you cut off parts of someone's body, a few at a time, and listen to him scream in pain. Ok, sweetheart, goodnight, sleep well."
"What's that, sweetheart? Why doesn't daddy have an American place to rendition innocent people to? We do, we have one in Cuba, although they don't want us there. No, darling, if Cuba tried to have a place in America where they could torture people, I would have Cuba bombed and kill lots of innocent Cuban people. That's right, darling, it is ok for us to do it to them, but it's not ok for them to do it to us. It's called American exceptionalism. Now go to sleep, sweetheart. What's that? I don't understand, why do you want me to leave on the night light? Are you scared of something?"
And for my part, I am confused. Would someone please tell me whether Obama is running as a democrat or as a republican?
#5
When and if we, The People ever reform our system, we need to address these "debates" -- which are to real debates, what "Wrasslin" is to real (olympic) wrestling. They, like so much of Teevey these days (see: News) are primarilly Entertainment (filler for commercials), with little real content or value.
I don't see much TV, so I can still see the contrast with what they may have been, or how they might could be.
Reform? We can't look to the entertainment or political industries to reform it for us -- they've already done that, for themselves. It's one more example where we, The People will somehow have to find ways to regain control from the social (economic/political) forces that are so so skillfully mustering our systems against us, to their own ends.
Meanwhile through alternative (Internet/Cyber) media-channels, we ARE finding ways to communicate information amongst ourselves. {We ansolutely MUST defend these new communication channels from (inevitible) corruption and control}.
The problem remaining however, is our tendency to self-select information and opinions that agree with our accumulated world views. Thus, "critical-thinking" is the most critical core-skill that we need to pass forward. Otherwise, the manipulating elites simply have more powerful tools for playing their ancient manipulative self-serving games.
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#6
this is how brainwashed the right is! i just posed the question of fair taxation to my right wing associate who is not only anti tax but at the end of the year has a year end sale charges the client sales tax and then doesn't pay it. the question was in reflects to my summary comparison of cap gain earners verses w-2 earners and is it fair. as not only a schedule C filier but also a w-2 earner i thought by citing absolutes to my right winger that they might begin to see the picture. man did my associate lock down on the idea that a lower cap gain rate is more then fair. my associate sounded exactly like they listen to Fox blow holes everynight in that this person cited that the lower rate is fair because it encourages people to invest? so in my rebute then i asked then why not drop the w-2 earners tax to encourage people to work! i saw the wisps of smoke coming out my associates ears as they ehaded out the door to go watch mittens likely lie another 20 times. Oh, and i also asked asscoiate why it is we have not heard or read about any "real" action ideas that mit the twit and lyin ryan might have that are remotely plausable. the reply? well, uh, hmm 'cuz, uh, hmm uh, well if they do the left will put holes in it. I said duh! holes that are worthy of being put in it. do you really read anything or just watch the littel red dog?
#7
Google "Gish Gallop" to find out about the "creationist" debate strategy taught to Romney....denigrate and then lie repeatedly. Daily Kos article also has good strategy for attacking it immediately. This is our "American" extremist fundamentalism gone insane and blatantly psychopathic......right wing has 'normalized' sociopathy/psychopathology. Frightening, and we are easily duped by fake certainty, however phoney.
#8
I'm writing this after having seen the debate and I hope someone reads what I have to say.
There is one thing that is never mentioned relative to jobs and the number of people who have been out of work for a long time. The number of people out of work is primarily based on the number that couldn't find a job or lost a job during the 8 years of the Goerge W. Bush presidency and the few months after Obama was inaugurated.
That period equals 100 months. During that time between 125,000 to 150,000 people per month entered the work force. That means that during that period 12.5 million to 15 million people entered to work force.
During that same period there were not only NO net jobs created, but the 4.5 million jobs created during the Bush administration were all lost, plus several million more. That means, that the total number of people that could not find jobs during that period approached 20 million.
That is the unemployment mountain that Obama had to climb when his presidency bagan to take hold. No wonder there are so many unemployed, in poverty and on food stamps, this number of years later. The President needs to make clear that this is the basis for the jobs problem.
#9
Does anyone really believe that there would be much change for the betterment of America if Romney won or if Obama retains his crown? Besides healthcare and perhaps the increase of taxes on the wealthy, what difference is there between the two men on stage telling us what they think we want to hear? My answer is there is very little difference. Obama passed a healthcare bill that benefits the insurance companies primarily, when he could have passed a single payer plan that would have been better for the American public. But he wanted to throw the insurance companies a bone so they would support his campaign for re-election. He had the Senate and the House of Representatives and could have passed many bills that would have made life better for the 99% of Americans. struggling in this economy. He has stripped us of many of our civil rights and is instrumental in sending our jobs to Asia via the Free Trade agreements. He knows damn well the direct result of Free Trade is fewer jobs in America, but he signed it anyway because it benefits the wealthy and the multi-national corporations in obtaining higher profits. So excuse me if I don't get excited over the idea Obama will be our next president. Why is it that we are supposed to be happy because Obama is the lesser of the two evils? Manufacturing is gone in America, as it is in Europe and this effects blue collar jobs and the white collar jobs that are needed to support them. When we lose manufacturing as a base for the economy all other jobs that are related are gone, just like in the domino theory, one falls and then all the other dominos (jobs) fall that are directly and indirectly connected to it. Great, Obama did a better job in defending himself against Romney in this debate, but he failed to mention what he is going to do too bring back manufacturing to America. The reason why he failed to say anything is that nothing can be or will be done to bring all those jobs back to our shores. He once stated," Americans are going to have to re-educate themselves for the 21st. century because the jobs that are gone probably won't be coming back. They won't be coming back because the revenue needed for re-engineering and reopening our factories is staggering once they are gone. And, he like everyone else realizes Americans cannot survive on the wages paid to Chinese workers and corporations cannot make the Hugh profits they are now making if they had to pay Americans a living wage, period. So all the promises made by both Obama and Romney about being the jobs president is just bull shit...Americans will wake up one morning and realize that it is over for the American worker, and hoping the good old days will come back to our nation is just wasted dreams and we have been screwed by our politicians. When that day finally happens, then you will see massive civil demonstrations and riots, just like we see happening in Spain and Greece. Americans seem to be more violent than our counter-parts in Europe and I believe we will experience civil unrest and riots not seen before in American history. So if I am not enthusiastic about the debates, it is because it is all just a smoke and mirrors trick to make Americans think change will happen if one or the other of these two candidates is elected.......
#10
To be honest, with Jill Stein's arrest outside the debate, I no longer see what difference it makes who wins. Pick your way of getting feudalized: subtle or obvious. At least here in Australia we have proportional representation so third parties actually have a voice in parliament. For the US to change the progressives may as well forget federal government and start targetting state legislatures. You really need 36 states win against such an entrenched system as the corporate/bankster kleptocracy. Its even more entrenched in Australia, its just better hidden.
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While I don't disagree with you, Obama has to do more than just call out Romney's lies. George Lakoff has spelled out several times recently what Obama needs to do. See AlterNet on 10/2/12: http://www.alternet.org/print/election-2012/george-lakoff-what-watch-presidential-debates Lakoff says that "all politics is based on moral values and that all issues are conceptually framed. Effective political speech uses language based on one's own frames and avoids language based on the opponent's frames." Hopefully those who are prepping Obama for the debate will work with him to be more than a policy wonk, using some of Lakoff's clear and direct suggestions.