Better and Better

Now that I've had a little time to reread the transcript from the debate, I have to say Romney looks better and better and better the more I read.  To be honest, he trounced Obama in terms of ideas and policies.

Let me give one example.  Here's a question where a voter asked what he (Obama) could do to improve gas prices (they have doubled under Obama):

QUESTION: Your energy secretary, Steven Chu, has now been on record three times stating it's not policy of his department to help lower gas prices. Do you agree with Secretary Chu that this is not the job of the Energy Department? 

OBAMA: The most important thing we can do is to make sure we control our own energy. So here's what I've done since I've been president. We have increased oil production to the highest levels in 16 years. 

Natural gas production is the highest it's been in decades. We have seen increases in coal production and coal employment. But what I've also said is we can't just produce traditional source of energy. We've also got to look to the future. That's why we doubled fuel efficiency standards on cars. That means that in the middle of the next decade, any car you buy, you're going to end up going twice as far on a gallon of gas. That's why we doubled clean -- clean energy production like wind and solar and biofuels. 

ROMNEY: Well, let's look at the president's policies, all right, as opposed to the rhetoric, because we've had four years of policies being played out. And the president's right in terms of the additional oil production, but none of it came on federal land. As a matter of fact, oil production is down 14 percent this year on federal land, and gas production was down 9 percent. Why? Because the president cut in half the number of licenses and permits for drilling on federal lands, and in federal waters.

So where'd the increase come from? Well a lot of it came from the Bakken Range in North Dakota. What was his participation there? The administration brought a criminal action against the people drilling up there for oil, this massive new resource we have. And what was the cost? 20 or 25 birds were killed and he brought out a migratory bird act to go after them on a criminal basis.

Look, I want to make sure we use our oil, our coal, our gas, our nuclear, our renewables. I believe very much in our renewable capabilities; ethanol, wind, solar will be an important part of our energy mix.

But what we don't need is to have the president keeping us from taking advantage of oil, coal and gas. This has not been Mr. Oil, or Mr. Gas, or Mr. Coal. Talk to the people that are working in those industries. I was in coal country. People grabbed my arms and said, "Please save my job." The head of the EPA said, "You can't build a coal plant. You'll virtually -- it's virtually impossible given our regulations." When the president ran for office, he said if you build a coal plant, you can go ahead, but you'll go bankrupt. That's not the right course for America...

We're going to bring that pipeline in from Canada. How in the world the president said no to that pipeline, I will never know.

Seriously?  Romney smashed Obama here.  First, Obama didn't even answer the person's question. Second,  Obama gave a general stat about amount of domestic oil production and a potpourri of his environmental agenda items.  Romney swipes all this off the table by saying "let's look at the actual record, not just hear nice sounding words" and proceeds to demonstrate in brutally efficient detail that the increase in oil production not only has nothing to do with Obama's policies (the increase is almost entirely on private lands developed by private businesses), but that Obama's administration has in fact worked hard against the development of these natural resources, with his EPA legally targeting developers.  Obama tried to claim the mantle as if he's the only one who wants to develop renewable energy sources.  Romney wouldn't let himself be defined by the President, saying 'of course we will continue to develop these areas' then personalized Obama's harsh rhetoric and record against coal by telling how Obama's policies are hurting the coal industry, then quoting Obama from the last campaign, and Obama's EPA chief since then, both slamming coal.  Bam.  Then for the cherry on top, he asks why in the world Obama said no to the Keystone oil pipeline from Canada (it's going to be built anyway, only an issue of whether it will benefit China or America more).  Check mate.

Read more about Obama's record of the last four years on energy here.