The debate

Political commentary is my brother’s forte, not mine. But, I feel a bit compelled to comment on tonight’s festivities.

At many times the debate seemed like a “free for all”. 

I suppose this is good for the President as he seemed pretty comatose during the last debate.  So, this time he was “fired up and ready to go”.

But, toward the end of the debate a question was asked of the President about Benghazi.

The President said that the next day in the Rose Garden he told America that the Benghazi attack was an an act of terrorism.

Governor Romney called him on that.  The President’s response…”please proceed Mr. Governor”, i.e., move along, nothing to see here.

My simple reaction to the debate is pretty meaningless. 

It’s you’re reaction that matters.  So, what do you say?

 

Posted in ,

SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

24 Comments

  1. gillie28 on October 17, 2012 at 7:19 am

    This second debate didn’t make any difference to my views on both men’s capabilities, experience and potential.? For me, the first one was much more meaningful as far as gauging them – think they were both more “real” than in the second one.?

    The sparring probably made for interesting tv – apparently (according to Krauthammer) men like this and?(according to Megyn Kelly) women don’t.? I just find it detracts from having them respond to the real questions and issues at hand.? For this reason, I preferred Jim Lehrer’s format.

    Being a good debater is not a compelling qualification for President – ?as far as I’m concerned – and in this case, we have both men’s records to examine.? Unfortunately, both were leaning toward the Biden-Model of debating (or “debacling”). ?Shouting louder, interrupting, being obnoxious in general (yes, Mr. Biden, I’m referring to YOU!)?does not add to one’s leadership stature.??Regarding Libya, it seems Obama?believes that if you say a lie often enough and loud enough it is the truth.? Also,?think these “who won” polls and instant “analysis” can be somewhat specious as 90 minutes does not a candidate make, although understand it’s part of the “testing and probing” process for…



    • gillie28 on October 17, 2012 at 7:22 am

      last sentence should read “90 minutes does not a PRESIDENT make…”



  2. JBS on October 17, 2012 at 8:13 am

    This was political theater, staged and managed. Unless there were huge faux pas or some revealing gaffe, the “results” were a foregone conclusion. Neither man is dull. The Obama camp will trumpet about this and that; their guy prevailed. The same for the Romney camp. The truth is that both held their own. Nothing changed. Only partisanship became more entrenched.
    The Planned Parenthood/Mammogram lie needs to be vigorously challenged. I can’t believe (O.K., sadly, yes) Obama would play so loosely with the truth about women’s health and access to health care services — one third of their funding, $363 million is from the government. PP doesn’t offer mammograms, or cervical cancer screening services. But, everything is fair game with the Democrats. Lies and shades of the truth are their path to continuance.
    Obama and the Democrats will say and do anything to stay in power.



  3. Plainvillian on October 17, 2012 at 9:09 am

    The real Obama showed up.? He’s still an incompetent lying wimp.



    • Dimsdale on October 19, 2012 at 9:24 am

      Well, to be fair, he is very competent at being a lying wimp!? 😉



  4. Dimsdale on October 17, 2012 at 9:19 am

    The lib media had to grab onto CBS’s spot poll to claim a win for ?bama, but it was really a near tie.?? Both groups see what they wanted to see.? I gave the edge to Romney (who crushed ?bama again on the economy, even in CBS’s polls) and put questions directly to ?bama which he could not, or would not answer, or answered with a non answer.? Not convincing in my mind.
    ?
    Sure, ?bama did better than the first debate.? It is easy to do better than the lousy performance he had on debate 1.? No where to go but up from that.? ? dialed in a bit too much Biden at times; great for the base, but bad if you are trying to attract undecideds.? Why does ? have to reinforce his base?? 😉
    ?
    ? seemed to have a very halting speech cadence, particularly at the beginning of the debate.? It did smooth out, but demonstrated that he is off his game without a teleprompter.? Romney was smooth and composed, at least until Crowley started humping for the preezy.? Glad she brought her knee pads.
    ?
    Once again, ?bama got an extra four minutes to spin.
    ?
    I loved when Romney interjected the Fast and Furious topic, which anyone reading the MSM is probably unaware of.? I don’t notice that…



    • Dimsdale on October 17, 2012 at 9:20 am

      ?…. I don’t notice that being brought up much in the post debate spin on the MSM side.
      ?
      Romney hammered ?bama on his performance in gun control, illegal immigration and the economy.??
      ?
      Crowley was predictably abysmal in her performance: time handling, ? positive interjections, question ordering, interupting Romney with promises to allow him to address it later which never happened.? CNN and Crowley are walking back her “Rose garden terrorist” comments http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=athcyCTnTTs&feature=youtu.be



  5. gillie28 on October 17, 2012 at 10:42 am

    Crowley = Halloween Candy treat for Obama; trick for Romney.
    I can’t believe she had the arrogance to say (in her “walkback”) “Romney was right in the main but picked the wrong word…” or “the wrong way of saying it” depending on whose version you read.???Who is she to determine whether or not he used the right or wrong word, or way of saying it???? Good grief, the press used to at least have a semblance of objectivity and ethical approach.? Now?most of them have huge?egos and?try and make themselves the stars of the show….and it IS a show, not journalism.



  6. Lynn on October 17, 2012 at 11:18 am

    Who could imagine that Candy could leave such a bad taste in your mouth.



  7. Lynn on October 17, 2012 at 11:21 am

    As for the debate, had Romney gotten to call the President on his lies about Libya, it would have been a hands down win for him. As it was, he eked out the win.



  8. sammy22 on October 17, 2012 at 11:40 am

    I heard Mitt throw George W under the bus. Anybody else hear it? I also liked the “binders of women” line.



    • Dimsdale on October 17, 2012 at 12:25 pm

      I heard it: all tempered with the line “different time period”, i.e. there are different conditions.? I think we all had our complaints about things Bush did.?? He was still better than a Gore or Kerry would have been though, IMHO.
      ?
      If you want to hear Bush get thrown under the bus, listen to just about any statement ?bama makes.



    • PatRiot on October 17, 2012 at 6:23 pm

      1.? You are right. Romney isn’t afraid to say what he likes and doesn’t like about?another politician’s policies – regardless of party.
      2.? If you?took the comment of “binders of women” as?a dis to women -?
      a.? You must have been fuming when Obama came this close )( to saying women?were?equal and?just couldn’t bring himself to say it.
      b.??You were assuming the worst from Romney.? I thought liberals prided themselves?on being?open minded, so as to?gather all of the facts in order to make a measured judgement. ????

      ?



  9. Dimsdale on October 17, 2012 at 12:30 pm

    Here is how? you tell who really won: look at the explosion of riot threats on Twitter by liberals if Romney wins: http://www.infowars.com/threats-to-assassinate-romney-explode-after-debate/
    ?
    Now why would that happen if they were confident that the big ? won?



    • Lynn on October 17, 2012 at 3:50 pm

      Wow and they talk about the Tea Party being hateful! I never heard anything like this at any Tea Party event. How sad this will not be reported by MSM.



  10. yeah on October 17, 2012 at 1:16 pm

    “If the US government cut all government services except Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and interest payments, federal spending would still outpace revenues. As we noted here, these four mandatory items dominate costs. All the arguing over sequestration and the fiscal cliff are moot since as Professor Antony Davis notes in this brief clip, there are no specific cust that will enable government to balance the budget; in fact “nothing less than a complete redesign will solve the problem.” That redesign begins with determing the proper role of government.”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=asRDOhgN70Q



  11. PatRiot on October 17, 2012 at 6:01 pm

    Romney landed more valid punches than Obama.?
    Candy was abysmal.? Asked almost as many questions as us regular folks did.? How rude.? No control of the candidates and theri time.? Even a liberal could see she gave favor to Obama.



  12. zedgar2 on October 17, 2012 at 10:49 pm

    Two quick points. One, note that Obama did not answer Romney’s question re “Did you call this an act of terror on Sept. 12” when it would have been logical for him to say yes. Instead, he said, “Proceed”. He wanted Romney to go further for a reason.? When Romney went on to say that it took two weeks for the President to call this a terror attack, Obama said to Crowley, “Get the transcript” and pointed to the paper that Crowley had in her hand. So how did Obama know that she had the transcript? Did the Obama campaign give the transcript in advance to Crowley and Obama led Romney into saying something where he could tell Crowley to go to the transcript.
    Second, there’s been a lot of talk about context of the Rose Garden speech on Sept. 12. If you read the entire transcript, you’ll see that “acts of terror” was used in a general context of 9/11, Iraq,Afghanistan, etc. But Obama used the term “senseless violence” in a specific reference to Benghazi and linked it to denigrating religious beliefs.? Acts of terror are not senseless violence – they are purposeful and coordinated. So it’s clear that he was not using “act of terror” to refer to Benghazi. And Crowley knew this which is why she threw Romney a bone…



    • gillie28 on October 18, 2012 at 3:51 am

      Zedgar – what a great catch!? Thought I heard “look at the transcript” but never occured to me that it was actually the moderator who had it in front of her.? THAT would be scandalous…maybe even msmbc might give it a whirl….nah.



    • JBS on October 18, 2012 at 6:04 pm

      I have to wonder if that was a setup. Obama waits for the subject to come up and turns to lap-dog Crawley, KNOWING she has the transcript there in her enabling hands!
      “Yup, yup, sure . . . what ever you say, Mr. Prezzy-dent.”
      ?
      Candy is now having a large serving of crow with her kibbles for fetching on command.
      ?
      ?



  13. zedgar2 on October 17, 2012 at 10:50 pm

    …..but gave a big benefit to Obama



  14. Linda Mae on October 18, 2012 at 1:17 am

    I await Bob S. with baited breath – another liberal who will give Obama @ 4 minutes more and cut Romney off while he is explaining his ideas.? I wish Romney would throw in “Now, listen to my specifics for ——–” or “Remember my plan will —-.” techniques that teachers? – and lawyers? – use to redirect the students attention or prepare them that a point is being made.? These tags are like punctuation marks—-.? Also, he should start his next debate extolling the virtue of those 47% who are trying to get out of the bottom.? He needs to acknowledge some are retirees – whatever – but that many of them are people who are suffering because of what this administration has done.? And he is going to help them earn more than the $32,000 cap in that group.? Oh, well , the press will still ignore and make up their stories. ??



  15. gillie28 on October 18, 2012 at 3:53 am

    Linda – send in those suggestions to his campaign managers.? You never know….



  16. Murphy on October 18, 2012 at 9:06 am

    I listened to the Obamanation lie about Benghazi broadcast live from the Rose garden. I specifically pointed out to my “there he goes again, he cannot call it a terrorist act. There have been no terrorist attacks since his regime took over.” An when he did use the term terror in a general historic sense I said “Yep sticking that in there for Plausible deniability!”? I even replayed it thrice (dvr) to be sure.



frontpg-angry-voter

The website's content and articles were migrated to a new framework in October 2023. You may see [shortcodes in brackets] that do not make any sense. Please ignore that stuff. We may fix it at some point, but we do not have the time now.

You'll also note comments migrated over may have misplaced question marks and missing spaces. All comments were migrated, but trackbacks may not show.

The site is not broken.