During last night's presidential debate, I tried my hand at live-blogging. . .or live-tweeting. . . or tweet-blogging--whatever you call it. And I rocked! Took to it like a duck takes to. . . whatever it is ducks take to. Juice, maybe? But today I'm back at my normal station to offer some final thoughts (for now) on last night's political festivities.
I suppose Romney "won" the debate, for what it's worth, which is not much. President Obama seems to be maintaining a comfortable lead in the major swing states. His main goal last night was simply to avoid any "47% of Americans are bloodsucking parasites"-like gaffe, and by that standard, I'd say he did fine. That being said, there were a few things I wish he had pounced on.
Everybody is jumping all over Romney for first praising and then threatening to whack Big Bird. (DIGRESSION: I keep envisioning Romney and Ryan as Caiaphas and Annas:: "Like Henson before him / This Big Bird must die / Must die, must die / This Big Bird must die / For the sake of the Nation / This Big Bird must diiiiiiiiiieeeeeeee." And before you ask, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SvJhOO_EfQ) EOD) President Obama probably should have pointed out that, even cutting all funding for PBS would do approximately nothing to balance the budget. Still, he could afford to let that one slide, as folks like America's favorite astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson can take up the fight: "Cutting PBS support (0.012% of budget) to help balance the Federal budget is like deleting text files to make room on your 500Gig hard drive."
There were a couple of points, though, where President Obama truly needed to go for the throat. First were Romney's repeated claims that President Obama "cut" $716 billion from Medicare. (A) Obama "cut" $716 billion in the same way that, if your landlord decides to reduce your rent by $100 a month, you would "cut" your rent budget. It's called savings, jackass. Excuse me. That's rude. This man could be our President. It's called savings, Governor Jackass. (B) The exact same $716 billion "cut" was endorsed by Romney's running-mate Paul Ryan! Maybe President Obama feels that this claim, since it has been thoroughly and repeatedly debunked, needed no response. Except it really did! Sure, the president's supporters know Romney's full of shit, and Romney's supporters don't care. But those seven uncommitted voters in Ohio who are going to decide the election may NOT know it yet, and President Obama must call shenanigans loud and clear every chance he gets.
I also couldn't believe the gall of Romney's repeated assertions that he is more bipartisan than President Obama because he, Romney, had to work with an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature in Massachusetts. Does Mitford not realize that this attests less to his bipartisanship than to that of the Bay State Democrats? Did the leader of the Massachusetts State Senate Democrats state in the early days of the Romney administration that his number one goal was to make sure that the Mittster was a one-term governor? Come on, Barack! This is easy!
Anyway, there are a couple more debates, as well as a Biden-Ryan showdown, still to come. I hope the President brings some good ol' Chicago-style brass knuckles to the next fight.
No comments:
Post a Comment