Can You Fix It?

"I looked him in the face and I asked him one thing. I said, can you fix this?" Foxworthy said. "And he did not blink, he said 'yes, I can.'"

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Romney Domination

Well, that was unexpected.  But maybe it shouldn't have been.  In the first presidential debate last night in Denver, Mitt Romney was everything you would want to see from our next president: he was smart, quick, focused, aggressive but still respectful, he had a command of the issues and the stage; he directly addressed questions but expanded to broader issues, he connected policy to real lives of real people, he showed that he cared.  And he showed that he would have a laser focus on the creation of jobs as his top priority as president - and explained why this is so important to our nation and our ability to get out from under our crushing debt, our ability to help one another, to freely live our lives and our dreams, and to keep our nation strong with a strong national defense.

Obama, in contrast, was defensive, somewhat insecure and even appeared lost at times.  He stared down much of the time and just seemed unhappy to be there, unhappy to be challenged.  It's been said that in the debate he was hurt by having had an uncritical, sycophantic press during his presidency, and I think that's true.  The man is not used to being challenged directly, and it showed.

As I say, maybe this should not have been unexpected.  Romney's command of policy knowledge being both broad and detailed, and his sense of presence and command in debates, are not surprising to me. Obama's style in the past has been giving broad sunny generalizations of his own plans (with few details), and ominous sounding generalizations of his opponent's plans (with few and sketchy details), and without anybody seriously challenging them in a detailed and factual way to show how weak his generalizations are. Put those together, and it should not have been surprising to see Romney effectively poke numerous holes in the picture Obama was trying to paint, and Obama unable to effectively counter and in fact looking irritated and at times a bit overwhelmed.

Tell me this photo doesn't express the outcome of this debate:

Some of my favorite lines from the debate:
"This is obviously a very tender topic. I've had the occasion over the last couple of years of meeting people across the country. I was in Dayton, Ohio, and a woman grabbed my arm, and she said, "I've been out of work since May. Can you help me?"  Ann yesterday was at a rally in Denver, and a woman came up to her with a baby in her arms, and said, "Ann, my husband has had four jobs in three years, part-time jobs. He's lost his most recent job. And we've now just lost our home. Can you help us?"
And the answer is, yes, we can help, but it's going to take a different path, not the one we've been on."  
My priority is putting people back to work in America,” Romney said during an exchange early in the debate. “They're suffering in this country. And we talk about evidence. Look at the evidence of the last four years. It's absolutely extraordinary. We've got 23 million people out of work or stopped looking for work in this country. When the president took office, 32 million people on food stamps; 47 million on food stamps today; economic growth this year slower than last year, and last year slower than the year before. Going forward with the status quo is not going to cut it for the American people who are struggling today.”
"But don't forget, you put $90 billion, like 50 years' worth of breaks, into -- into solar and wind, to Solyndra and Fisker and Tester and Ener1. I mean, I had a friend who said you don't just pick the winners and losers, you pick the losers, all right? So this -- this is not -- this is not the kind of policy you want to have if you want to get America energy secure."
"ROMNEY: In my opinion, the government is not effective in -- in bringing down the cost of almost anything. As a matter of fact, free people and free enterprises trying to find ways to do things better are able to be more effective in bringing down the cost than the government will ever be."
"The role of government: Look behind us. The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The role of government is to promote and protect the principles of those documents.
First, life and liberty. We have a responsibility to protect the lives and liberties of our people, and that means a military second to none. I do not believe in cutting our military. I believe in maintaining the strength of America's military.
Second, in that line that says we are endowed by our creator with our rights, I believe we must maintain our commitment to religious tolerance and freedom in this country. That statement also says that we are endowed by our creator with the right to pursue happiness as we choose. I interpret that as, one, making sure that those people who are less fortunate and can't care for themselves are cared by -- by one another.
We're a nation that believes that we're all children of the same god and we care for those that have difficulties, those that are elderly and have problems and challenges, those that are disabled. We care for them. And we -- we look for discovery and innovation, all these things desired out of the American heart to provide the pursuit of happiness for our citizens.
But we also believe in maintaining for individuals the right to pursue their dreams and not to have the government substitute itself for the rights of free individuals. And what we're seeing right now is, in my view, a -- a trickle-down government approach, which has government thinking it can do a better job than free people pursuing their dreams. And it's not working."
And...
OBAMA: "Jim, I — you may want to move on to another topic…" 
That kind of sums it up as well.

Watch this Frank Luntze focus group of previously undecided or "softly leaning" voters...it's quite amazing:



Much more to come...the president got hit hard and you have to expect they'll come back in a nasty way. Prepare yourself for the worst.

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