What’s The Point of Presidential Debates...
By louisehartmann
If one candidate can lie for a half-hour and then be declared the winner? That’s the question we should all ask ourselves one day after the first presidential debate in Denver, Colorado. The consensus among pundits is that Mitt Romney won the debate – and strictly in terms of style – he did win – taking the fight all night to a lethargic President Obama.
But as the Center for American Progress points out this morning – Romney told 27 lies or half-truths in a matter of just 38 minutes on stage last night. Romney lied about his own tax plan – saying that it’s not a $5 trillion tax cut, despite independent analysis of his plan saying it is. He lied about Obamacare – repeating the same debunked myth that the President cut over $700 billion from Medicare. He lied about the President’s Wall Street reform law – saying it designates five banks as too big to fail and deserving of blank check bailouts. There’s no such provision in the law. And he even flirted with the idea of death panels in Obamacare!
Rather than acting like sportscasters this morning and declaring Mitt Romney the winner – the media needs to be doing its job and fact-checking. But ultimately – President Obama did fail last night. He failed at calling out Mitt Romney as an agent of the oligarchs. The President didn’t mention the “47%” comments – he didn’t mention Romney’s ultra-low tax rate and offshore tax havens – he didn’t mention Romney’s career harvesting businesses at Bain.
If the President can’t make the argument that Romney is only looking out for the 1% - then he’s going to lose.
Comments
#2
@mserhuie: Agreed. But Obama's paucity of pasion regarding his record didn't help either. Not once did President Obama mention, Bain Capital's closure of Sensata Technologies relocating plant to China. Its a clear assault on living wage employment for American workers which provide middle class life style.
I listened to the debate on DemocracyNow.org. Amy Goodman had Jill Stein -Green Party Candidate and Rocky Anderson -Justice Party Candidate answering same questions as Obama and Romney. Stein and Anderson's replies were markedly different and better for domestic policy. The Presidential debates should not exclude Third Party Candidates.
#3
Check out Romney's "27 Myths in 38 Minutes" here: http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/10/04/958801/at-last-nights-debate-romney-told-27-myths-in-38-minutes/
#4
Was Romney high on something? His mind was overstimulated, speeded up, and aggressive. He couldn't wait his turn to talk. He was illogical in his reasoning, and the things he said were not true, and didn't make sense. It looked to me like he was high on something like amphetamine? That's the stuff the military gives soldiers to keep them going on the battlefield in Iraq and Afganistan. "Kill baby Kill", that's the drug! Just look at that smile on his face! Something wasn't right. He wasn't his normal self! I think we should require him to take a drug test. He is running for public office. Why not? I think we should demand drug testing for him! I'll bet he was stoned!
#5
What made me sick was when Romney spouted off about how he thought our national debt was "immoral". His whole business model at Bain was based on leveraging failing companies with debt so he could later "harvest" (bilk) them for every last dime he could line his pockets with. He needs to be called on that. You can bet that if he's president, he will do the same thing to Medicaid and Medicare. He's as immoral as they come.
#6
What part of the unemployment rate is unacceptable, we have 23 million people unemployed, underemployed or stop looking for work Is a lie? What part of we have 47 million people on food stamps is a lie? What part of the middle class is getting crushed by this Obama economy is a lie? focus on reality for a change and change leadership. Also, how can Thom possibly bring up racism in the Romney quote about his five boys. That is showing my point again that the liberals make up racism when they have nothing else. It really is totally absurd.
#7
"was Romney high or something" Russell, he is a mormon they don't even drink. MDMAN, companies can't give you "living wage" if they are not making a "living profit".
Finally Romney brought up how much hard earned tax money (or borrowed from China money) has been wasted on green projects. Almost 100 billion, as I said here many times how many teachers, fire and police could have been hired instead. None of it has changed the climate at all.
Obama wants to put more money into education, why so they can stand in the unempolyment line the the rest of the students that graduated while Obama was president are. jobs jobs jobs that is whats needed.
#8
We saw CEO-style bullying. It's how Romney got rich. Lie with a straight face, interrupt and discount everyone as beneath you. Demand the last word on everything. Act like you know what you're talking about even when you don't. Change opinions at will. CEOs can get away with that stuff because "The boss ain't always right, but he's always boss." It's also why CEOs make terrible Presidents.
How to deal with a CEO bully? Interrupt him, stand up to every lie when spoken. Don't back down. A CEO is used to talking down to staff. Let them know early on that YOU are not staff. Government can't be operated like a for-profit fiefdom.
It's not surprising that gentleman Obama was taken aback for awhile by the CEO bullying. He expected a real debate, rather than a monologue of lies from Romney. But Jim Lehrer was most to blame for leaving the CEO bully free. He's the real loser of the debate.
We tend to rate debates like sports events, awarding the "win" to the dominant participant who "scored the most points," regardless of the merit or veracity of their argument. In real debating, it is the merit of the arguments that carries the day. And for President of the United States, the people, at the end of the debate should ask themselves "Which one of these cares about me and will act in my interests." That's still, hands-down, President Obama.
#9
YES I agree - after all his years as a corporate raider - maximizing profits for himself and his 1% investors - how is he now gonna do a 180 degree mental reverse and care about the poor, working, and middle classes
#10
You know there's only one thing to be said for Romney, what a poser. This guy is nothing more than a suit filled with hot air. There is no substance or no relevance to what he says. When you check the facts , Romney is a liar, and for him to stand up on that stage using protected speech to accuse the President of the United States of lying. This is a sad state of affairs,Romney actually thinks he's a real man, mind you. Ted Nugent is a real man that guy actually stinks. If I were Romney's child I would be embarrassed for him. A man who would verbally Flail in front of 50 million people for political gain or any other reason, is an embarrassment!.
#11
I could not improve upon that! lets drug test the bum!
#12
Global,
Why don't you ask the republican congress who blocked the Presidents Jobs Bill your question about our current unemployment rate? All republicans do is obstruct. They don't have solutions. If you think that the Ryan budget plan is good for this country then you need to pull your head out and get a clue.
#13
Gordon Gekko for President - Greed is Good! Screw the 47%. Hell, screw the 99%!
#14
It was disturbing that everyone with an opinion was racing to get it online before everyone else; here at home we were still shaking our heads at how many Huge lies we'd just been subjected to. Maybe its common practice to lie or embellish during job interviews but most people know about the Internet and how easy it is to look up the facts! Mr Romney just mowed down Jim Lehrer...he kept interrupting the President like he had a right to bully people-in Public! Right there on the TV he was this big jerk and we're supposed to what? Swallow his phony math and just roll over again like we did in the Bush years? Well I don't think so!
We thought we had lost everything when the stock market and housing prices crashed, now back on track and we can only hope and pray that RWNJ isn't elected. And I might add: When I first looked into Mitt Romney before the primaries got going I said it wouldn't be that different from Obama! Boy was that wrong!
#15
Always the progressive solution is to spend money you don't have and steal money from who has it. Do you realize that printing more fake money deflates the value of the dollar and you will wake up ten years from now and wonder why your standard of living has been crushed. Inflation destroys the middle class, the one percent gang will be unfazed. You can't spend yourself out of this recession, if you want to stimulate the economy cut taxes for everybody and let us spend our own money on what we want. As Romney was saying -- we have to grow the GDP not temporary government work jobs.
#16
Gouverneur Morris was renowned among his fellow Federal Convention colleagues. He authored the words of the final version of the Constitution. He made a strong case for the establishment of a strong chief executive. He contended that the executive should act as “the guardian of the people, even of the lower classes, against legislative tyranny, against the great and the wealthy who in the course of things will necessarily compose the legislative body.”
President Obama did not look like the guardian of the people last night. In order to play it safe he looked like a guy that did not want to hurt the feelings of the plutocrats that have purchased our republic, put much of the middle class in poverty, and the poor into abject poverty.
Obama needed a Bobby Kennedy telling him to kick him in the balls last night instead of a wimpy staff doing everything they could to make him play it safe. Don’t Obama’s people understand the American people are hurting, and our very democracy is being threatened? They need to act like they get it and fight for “We the People” and our democracy.
#17
By the way, the Obama jobs bill did not even get through the democrat senate.
#18
When I first looked up Romney on Wikipedia and other sites, and basically got his history at refining and perfecting "Vulture Capitalism" I thought what a pushover for Democrats. Well nothing happened in the Republican debates until Newt Gingrich did the Dems work for them, and claimed "Vulture-Capitalist."
Now, we are into the pablum muck of drivil-politics, babbling words and phrases back and forth, tip-towing around all issues of substance --saying and signifying NOTHING.
WHEN is someboddy gonna start callin-it as it is, holding anyone accountable and kicking-ass?
#19
I have learned that you can not have a debate of substance when it is clocked. Was there any time for calling out lies, further explanations, covering other serious topics? No. It is exasperating to watch these debates. Is this the best we can do? Last nights debate was about image management. Disgusting.
#20
People need to remember that this is a faux debate where the private corporation that runs the debate is financed by Anheuser Busch, so much so that the Anheuser Busch eagle logo was used as the logo for the debate in what is probably the most successful non-fiction product placement ever. The private corporation is the Commission on Presidential Debates and its two co-chairs are ex-functionaries of the Republican and Democratic parties.and both currently have day jobs as corporate lobbyists. The two parties decide between themselves how the debates will take place, who the moderators will be, and what areas of questions will be allowed and then they dictate thier agreement on the Commission which accepts this because they are tools of the two parties. And generally we the people accept this hijacking of our presidential debates by the private corporations that are largely in control of the two parties. It is a closed circle in which the leadership of the two parties agree to keep any other party out of the debate and the corporations are allowed to pay for it so that the people will have no say in the process or be able to demand fairness.
#21
Why not tell the truth? The Jobs Bill didn't get through the Senate because the Republicans filibustered and so instead of 51 votes it needed 60 votes and the Republicans all voted NO.
#22
I talk to ordinary Republicans every day online, and they are in an incredible state of mind. They tend to be fierce, xenophobic, irrational, and robotic. They have no idea that they are screwing themselves and the republic they claim to solely represent. Since I was one of them, I find this very disturbing. It's like walking into a mine field, because they will gang up and denigrate. Are we in Germany in the '30s?
I thought Obama's performance was a bit strange and uncharacteristic. He's been dropping hints this year that he will morph when he is reelected; but will he? Is the Rove/Koch Machine too much? Yes, it is not only a crock of lies and supremely dangerous, but it is as crooked as a bent nail. I've been reading Palast's account of the massive, secret ballot destruction that the media tends to ignore.
The GOP knows it has lost the democracy game. The few can't take over the commons without resorting to crime, propaganda, and every parlor trick they can think up. We are watching, almost hapless, as barbarians dressed as saints are running roughshod over what democracy we had for a pittance. Traitors dressed as patriots.
#23
Yeah of course Romney was high. Romney talks out of both sides of his mouth. No money was wasted on green projects because as a venture capitalist, Romney knows that sometimes the investments don't pay out. An investment that doesn't pan out is not a waste, it is a cost of doing business. If you want to look at a source for hiring teacher, fire, and police, then look to the sacred cows of the Defense Dept,, Dept of Homeland Security, the the black box budgets of the CIA, NSA, and other covert lying and spying agencies.
There is no such thing as a "living profit." Profit is what is left over after living expenses have been paid. A company that pays a living wage doesn't pay the wage out of profits, the profits are what are left over AFTER the wages have been paid. The idea of a "living profit" is the phony voodoo economic theory that gave us the big lie of "trickle down that will lift all boats."
#24
Here's the link to the three hour debate that includes Jill Stein of the Green Party and Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party.
#25
Everything Obama does seems to cost tax payers millions. No wonder nothing passes. Are you not worried that the US has a 16 Trillion dollar debt. Who is going to pay for this? Compare it to other countries per person:
US 51K, Canada 16K, Australia 18K, UK 16, Italy 40K, Greece 37K, France 34.
Like Greece pretty soon know one will lend any money to the US.
#26
The Usual Suspect Lies SNAFU, and I think that President Obama ,as President or an average Adult Human Being, is'nt led into child like behavior and lies. Romney on the other hand,is'nt even ashamed of telling the world that his children are liers as well.?
#27
It is true that there are 23 million unemployed or underemployed, but it is necessary to examine the cause for condition, rather than just blaming it on the Obama administration. The cause for most of this number and the number of families on food stamps and in poverty.
From the beginning of this century, as George W. Bush took office, his administration did not keep up with the natural increase in the labor force, which amounts to between 125,000 to 150,000 people per month. Extending these numbers to a full year means that 1,500,000 to 1,800,000 jobs must be created to keep up with this growth. That's 6 million to 7.2 million jobs during his first term or a total of 12 million to 14.4 million by the end of his second term. Unfortunately, the maximum number of jobs created during the 8 years of President Bush's two terms was 4.5 million, all of which were lost, plus a few million more, by the time he left office. That means that as many as 15 million people entered the ranks of the unemployed when Obama took over the presidency and more losses continued for the next few months. Many of these people have now been out of work for up to 8 to 10 years, so that the 5 million plus jobs that have been created during the past 30 months, which is more than Bush created in 8 years, has only made a dent in the overall unemployment figures.
We should put the blame for our economic situation where it belongs.
#28
I learned several things:
1. Jim Lehrer should be retired. What a disgrace! Not only could he not control the debate (he could have cut off Romney's mike the first time he tried to overspeak him), his smarmy questions were non-specific to issues and were framed to encourage responses by both sides that were nothing more than modified stump speeches.
2. From most of the responses I've seen from progressives, I think there's a lot of wishful thinking going on. Frankly, I think that most of the people likely to have their opinions of the candidates influenced by the debate, likely are intellectually incapable of recognizing the lies and exaggerations for what they were. The sad fact is that Romney clearly won on style and demeanor - period. Sure he told a bunch of lies, but they were "organized" lies. He made it sound good to the casual listener. He was prepared to expound of many of them with point-by-point statements that I'm sure made it seem like he knew what he was talking about. And Obama let him get away with it scot free. Which leads me to the final thing I learned:
3. Much as I support Obama, he still needs to grow a pair of balls. Throughout the entire debate, he stood there head down, with a pathetic hang-dog look on his face. Not once did he forcefully and directly confront Romney on any of his BS. Not even on the famous 700 billion Medicare figure. Tepid responses at best and too much talking about his grandmother, etc. Where was the fire of the convention speech? Where was any comment about Republican obstructionism for the past four years? Where was anything to engender the kind of enthusiastic support we desperately need to hopefully influence down-ballot voting?
A thoroughly disgusting and discouraging night all the way around.
#29
In a sense the politics of today, as in redistribution by the media, is made as a complex methodological argument for the grand conspiracies. It is characterized in this first debate. Lies with partnerships, the Bush boys are back.
We have before America a proven theorem of wrecked journalism.
MSNBC bristled with astonishment the president Obama didn’t do what “They” thought he should do. The president must move his facial muscles a certain way. Or look up seriously into the camera, which he did. From my view the President seem intensive on note taking. Perhaps wondering like me or others when oh when will the conspiracy which is a kind of criminal partnership are finally exposed. From my view legions of political persons are now in jeopardy according to Basic Elements (18 U.S.C. § 371).
Acts to Commit an Offense against the United States, clearly voter fraud across the nation yet News media will not yield to this catastrophe. Or perhaps clearly show the President as a statesman. The silence was golden, for from my opinion the last thing President Obama wanted to do is explain elements of the Republican being targeted by the justice department for voter fraud so the Republicans can yell foul.
Perhaps Obama is contemplating how the Congress and Senate give him a hard time throughout his Presidency; moreover the Republicans openly refuse to do something good for President Obama to make him seem successful. Then send in send in the master of tyranny and corporate greed, Mitt Romney. And to watch Romney gesture and argue openly vainly to the moderator as Romney, when he will be president with gusto will fire the very moderator Jim Lehrer journalist. Hello America did you get that? The Everest of arrogance to openly say well I like you, but you will be gone soon and big bird too. Yikes with half of America will want such crap is disgusting, and the media declaring Romney the debate winner is worse than any last judgment day. This is absolutely insane to even suggest Romney won.
#30
I did not percieve President Obama as lethargic as much as just plain pissed. I can't blame him. Mitt Romney was a dedicated and obedient agent of the 1 % special interest. Romney was well rehersed
and obviously intensly coached for talking points which were mis- represented. If this had been a game show where accuracy determined the winner Obama would have won hands down. The most unfortunate thing about this debate is that Obama is a moral gentleman with important issues regarding
the nation.
#31
This will never happen, but it would be nice:
Formal rules of debate like debating teams follow. Four judges -2 conservative 2 liberal - two from Britain, two from Canada, thus no interest in winner. 10 concise questions, 4 minute response. When time is up - mike is shut off. Judges score on accuracy of answers, relevance of answer to actual question, completeness of answer, presentation, logical development, etc. Score debate in real time on scoreboard for all to see.
Anybody who calls these fiascos debates nowadays is nuts.
Perhaps a step in this direction could happen if the entertainment world developed a popular game-like/reality show around real debating. It could happen - they did it with something as boring as ballroom dancing.
#32
I agree with Mr. Hartmann. President Obama absolutely must take off the gloves. No more democratic nicety. If he can find the moxie to bring out the statistics like Clinton did at the convention then he will invigorate those in the middle class who work and vote for truth. If he remains passive then I suspect he will lose to the mendacious republican royalists.
#33
What I learned:
1 - Obama is not the smartest guy in the room.....with out his pre-developed talking points and teleprompter, he is just another passionate law professor disposed to an anti-white colonial view point, AKA redistrabutionist. He also can't lead. Who would follow a whimp like that into a fire.....
2 - Jim Leher is a whimp
3 - Romney is a fantastic CEO and business leader, he has presidential skills like a Kennedy, Reagan and Ike. However, can he be strong enough to bitch slap the far right wing nuts as well a Pelosi and Reid....I doubt it. The good news is that he does not need the money and that is not what drives his passion. He may be too "normal" to be the president.
4 - The main stream media are whimps too....Fox continues to shine and will grow. However, Maddow, Shultz, Hannity and Rush all need to be sent to an Island and see who survives....then stay there.
5 - The country is basically stupid. But, 60 million of us saw the awful truth of what we have elected and could elect. If we want to seriously change, we need to seriously be able to accept the truth and take the pain. Otherwise, we will fall apart like all good democracies in the past have with a revolution and typically a dictatorship until the cycle repeats for another 200 years.
6 - I am so glad I was born in 1950 and I am so sorry my generation is leaving behind such shit for the younger of you. I wont be around for the fall out.....but you 20 and 30 somethings could learn some good lessons from my parents generation. I suggest you read up on the greatest generation and mirror them. It was sure a nice time and place to grow up. I am grateful.
I am also voting, you should too.
#34
Update about that "boy" thing: seems like there IS a coordinated pattern. Rachel exposed Newt's use of the words "rhythm", "performer", about Obama as he made references to basketball and laziness and said Obama was not a "real president" (Oct. 2nd show, clip at website). Now today John Sununu loudly proclaimed that Obama flubbed the debate because he is "LAZY"... this is embedded dog whistle stuff all over the place. Just more subtle and harder to pin down as being racist. There are more such seedings going on, I'll bet.
#35
Sir:
I learned from the debate, and the reaction of the media and the viewers, that things are far worse than even I thought.
For thirty years I have been watching Democrats wither in the face of untrue conservative rant.
I believe the problem is existential and physiological.
I am currently living in one of the most most shallow and conservative areas of the country, Flathead Valley, Montana
I see first hand how this process is working.
lf I truly believed that America had been taken over by a foreign born, Muslim, out to install Sharia law, I might want to revolt too. And I think, it quite likely they will revolt shall Mr. Obama win again. There is no amount of reason or fact that can reach them.
The problem can be simplified to: There is no consensus reality anymore.
As I state in my new, first blog on your site, I believe there is one power responsible, and only one way to return to rational reality.
The Head of The Beast, is Fox News. And it must be confronted head on. Then all else will fall into place. If not, then all else is useless.
In the late nineties, Fox won through appeal, the constitutional right to lie on the news, in the name of freedom of speech.
Akre-Wilson vs Fox.
I think, that unless we attack the head of the beast directly, there is no hope for a cure in my lifetime.
Eventually all will be fine, since evolution has a liberal bias, as higher parts of the brain become activated, but as you know, evolution is excruciatingly slow.
I am going to give it my best, to implore all liberal and moderate talkers to take up this fight.
Good song by the way,,,,Fight the Good Fight, by Triumph.
Thank you for letting me speak to you.
Tag, you're it.
#36
Wow, you progressives really need to get a life if you look for a racist behind every tree. It must be really depressing in your world.
#37
On point 3 - you are absolutly right. Further, when given the chance to talk of the role of Government he could have read from the constitution - We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. He could have blasted MR using the Life Liberty and persute of happiness relating all of it to his policies. Instead, he let M.R. falsly use the declration of indenpendence -
He let M.R. use religion - faith, when he could have used Mt. where Jesus says "What you have done to the least of these you have done to me" in referring to helping the poor. For health care he could have used the Marine "Never leave a man behind" to refer to health care. He could have said "How can we leave 40 million americans to die on the battlefield of injury and disease, and still claim to be patriots, much less Americans?!"
Where was his passion? Listening to Obama was like eating lukewarm oatmeal - good and healthy, but yuck! If he does not learn how to speak the truth in a passionate way, he could loose!
#38
Ditto for drug testing Romney. Did the candidates know what the questions were going to be before the debate? It seemed to me Romney started answering the questions almost before he was asked. He didn't have to think at all about what his answer would be.
#39
What did I learn from the debate...well nothing really! But I will say that if Romney is truly proud of his performance of compulsive lies, then he is clinically delusional. Or was he showing us the degree of depravity some rich guys are willing to lower themselves to for wealth and power.
The problem is, his quest for wealth and power is not a victimless situation, many are suffering as a direct result of his actions. The corp. media is being complicit by not exposing the truth behind his past exploits as a vulture capitalist. I don't care if it was legal or not, it was GD wrong, and we all know it. In my opinion the fight will get violent and end up in the streets if he and his type are not brought under control by our Democratic process!
His type of wealth comes at an enormous cost to society.
#40
Very well said flyguy Forturnatly, I have done very well in my life and have nothing to worry about except my Grandchildrens future. That massive debt will be theirs to pay off. Wow.
#41
Imagine having spent over 3-years dealing with the minutia of a trillion-dollar operation, crisis after global-crisis, everything ultimately landing on your desk, with continuous vicious opposition from opponents, and frankly weak-support from your own party and the public -- and tonight finding yourself on a carnival stage with an arrogant pompous-ass spewing simplistic lie after misrepresentation after fabrication, of grossly oversimplified banalities. How do you begin to respond in half of 90-minutes? -- -- Then suddenly the futility of three long years might become distressingly clear. The very fact that this poser is across the stage from you . . . . acting like he's important. And you're supposed to take this seriously? Me . . . I'd be silently wagging my head asking myself, "What the hell am I doing here, wasting my time with this loser, on a pseudo-reality-show, little more than gladiatorial entertainment for millions of folks -- when I have real work to do?"Or more likely, I'da long ago said: "Take this job and shove it. I'm outta-here; who needs-it."
#42
#43
I think Romney is a vampire, for real. You can always tell by the hairstyling.
#44
To me, the President seemed to be waiting for Romney to try to defend the positions he has been taking. However, he dodged every attempt by Obama to discuss any actual political policy. Instead, he repeated a few overused right wing talking points. All in all, he and Obama didn't really have a debate, which would dictate that they would touch bases enough to have an honest disagreement. They both agreed that there are a lot of issues at stake. But Romney wouldn't actually talk about these issues.
Romney must have studied old videos of Wm. Buckley, who often affected an air of disdain. He wore it, like a mask, the whole night. Unlike Buckley, there was no evidence of a mind working behind the mask.
I'm personally feeling extremely depressed, that such a man might be elected. He cannot represent the people of the United States, and keep all his loyalties with corporate America.
#45
This is John Kerry being swiftboated, all over again. Except that it's Obama being called "boy," and a liar, by a man who can't string two words together without lying, by a man whose one and only talent is a calculating look of pity which is more than a little ironic when you consider that Romney has no pity for any of the thousands of people he has harmed, and he will have no pity for the millions of people he plans to harm if he becomes president.
And there stands Obama, smiling like a twelve year old boy at his first school dance. This is the Obama who said that if our unions were threatened, he would be there to support them, and then when our unions were threatened, he sat on his hands and did nothing.
I could understand Kerry not fighting back, because after all both he and Bush belonged to Skull and Bones, and Kerry was probably told to just sit there and take it like a good S&B, and let Bush literally steal the election. But Obama and Romney aren't even the same species: Obama is human, and romney is a komodo dragon capitalist.
Let's take up a collection: Give a testicle to Obama. And to get the ball rolling as it were, I will donate one of mine. I am serious: I would give Obama one of my nuts, if it would help him stand up and act like a man!
#46
Hi, Well, today I became agitated listening to your show, talking loudly to the radio again... wondering if I should call. First, your, and your callers', comments that the moderator didn't interfere, and, for example, ask Romney, "How are you going to do that?" When Romney made some kind of claim or other. Criticism of the moderator. Look, I agree that Romney stomped on the moderator (Lehrer) (and Obama did, too, a little in a more cute littel bad-boy way,) and he should have put his foot down. BUT since WHEN does that moderator take part in the debate? I respect you so much, Thom, and when you suggested that the moderator should have asked Romney his own questions, like, challenging him, well, I began to feel discouraged with you. I'm a 71 year old used-to-be-independent and now-am-Progressive, largely because of YOU – and I'm SURE that the moderator does not take part in the debate at ALL. I'll be listening tomorrow to see if you comment on this. Also, I heard one of your callers complain that there were a lot of important topics that "should have" been brought up. I didn't hear you tell her that at the beginning of the debate, it was made very clear that only CERTAIN topics were going to be discussed, and it was made very clear what they were. (Other topics were left for the subsequent two debates.) Why didn't you remind her of that??
From my point of view here, I watched the debate .... and the next day I'm getting a lot of MoveOn type emails telling me to contribute to them because Romney lied so much. "Well, why do I have to contribute to them because Romney lied?" I said to my computer monitor. "That was Obama's job to counter those lies." So here I agree with you, and the fellow that has the show before you "Ed," that poor Obama just did not stand up for himself. (DID he have the flu?) And on the evening news, on my local TV today some local woman commented on how Romney seemed more "sure of himself" and so she likes him! Yes, Lie in a very confident way! I loved your discovery that HE IS JUST LIKE REAGAN!!! And your dual clips... even playing Reagan saying "Trickle down government." I thought Romney had made that up. Nope!! It's the job of the liberal and progressive media to define EXACTLY WHY Romney's lies are LIES. *I* don't even know that. Duhh... The American people must be told! By you! And then we will tell our neighbors!! Oh, and you know what? I blame "Capitalism" – at least the advertizing part of Capitalism - for that phenomenon working. All our lives we get confidently lied to by actors on advertisements.
Oh, and one more thing... I watched the debate on CSpan, so it wouldn't get interrupted by blah blah blah, and then turned to Public TV, and a was disappointed that that little pannel said nothing about that disgusting fake disdainful smile that Romney had on his face most of the time. Did you feel grossed out by that? What a phony he is. He's a typical religious human. Protect your friends and family and screw everyone else. That includes in the context of war, especially.
I really do feel that Obama is a spiritual man. Hope I'm not wrong!!
Thanks for all you do!!!
Wendalore
#47
Yes, Obama made ONE comment about Republican obstructionism. It was very short.
#48
When you cut taxes during times like this, people take the money and put it under the mattress.
#49
YES!! The disdainful smile! No one I saw on TV commented on it! And you are right. No mind behind that face. All an "act." And William Buckley really WAS disdainful. Romney was only pretending to be disdainful. He's got the mind of a shark, and you know sharks don't have the intelligence to feel disdain.
#50
Pointing out two clearly racist remarks as "racist" is not "looking for a racist behind every tree." That exaggeration (along with the silly sarcasm of "get a life" and "must be depressing in your world") renders this a meaningless comment, and besides – don't you understand that racism still exists??
Thom's Blog Is On the Move
By webmaster
Hello All
Thom's blog in this space and moving to a new home.
Please follow us across to hartmannreport.com - this will be the only place going forward to read Thom's blog posts and articles.
Images of Thom
At Mondragon - both the mountain and the cooperative city - in Spain (written about in "Threshold" book)
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From Unequal Protection, 2nd Edition:
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I listened to the debate on the radio. I felt Romney was more forceful but he did not win! He lied. How can he be for the middle class and small business when his whole business career was to dismantle american companies and send the work overseas. Or just spend them into bankruptcy.