Presidential Debate #1 – Mitt Rocks! Preezy Looks Queasy

Oh, wow! I just watched the worst one-on-one political Massacre since the Ronald Reagan Presidential Debates. In the parlance of professional wrestling: It was a squash match.

Obama looked like he really did not want to be there last night. He remembered his talking points okay, but, he had no fire. He just smirked a lot, as if, somehow this whole thing was beneath a suuuuper-genius like himself.

Even poor old Mr. PBS himself, Jim Lehrer, could not save his bacon last night. However, that did not stop him from trying. At least a couple of times, Lehrer was obviously trying to coach Obama, and it seemed as if Obama was given a lot longer than 2 minutes to answer the questions asked.

Obama was on defense the entire evening.

Gov. Romney, on the other hand, was flawless. He looked presidential and seemed totally prepared. He was respectful, friendly, and merciless. Romney was a Human Jackhammer, riveting him on every point with deadly accuracy.

From the get-go in last night’s debate, it was apparent that the 44th President of the United States of America was waaay out of his league.

By the time the evening was done, Obama looked like one would expect Pee Wee Herman to look after a Hell in a Cell Cage Match with the Undertaker.

TheHill.com summarized the debate in the following manner:

Mitt Romney came out firing on President Obama in the opening minutes of the presidential debate, drawing sharp contrasts with the president’s economic plan and accusing him of misleading the public on Romney’s own plan.

Romney peppered his attacks with memorable phrases, claiming Obama’s policies were “trickle-down government” and that the president was instituting an “economy tax” on the middle class.

“The president has a view very similar to the view he had when he ran four years ago, that a bigger government, spending more, taxing more, regulating more — if you will, trickle-down government — would work. That’s not the right answer for America,” the GOP nominee said.

Obama responded by slamming Romney’s economic plan, saying the GOP nominee hadn’t explained how he’d pay for his proposed tax cuts.

“Governor Romney’s central economic plan calls for a $5 trillion tax cut, on top of the extension of the Bush tax cuts — that’s another trillion dollars — and $2 trillion in additional military spending that the military hasn’t asked for. That’s $8 trillion. How we pay for that, reduce the deficit, and make the investments that we need to make, without dumping those costs onto middle-class Americans, I think is one of the central questions of this campaign,” he said.

Romney charged back that the president was misrepresenting his plan.

“I don’t have a $5 trillion tax cut. I don’t have a tax cut of a scale that you’re talking about,” he said.

“I’ve got 5 boys. I’m used to people saying something that’s not always true but just keep repeating it and ultimately hoping I’ll believe it,” he added.

Economic issues dominated the first 45 minutes of the president debate, the first showdown between the two contenders.

There was a noticeable contrast in the candidate’s demeanor: Romney was much more animated and punchy than the president, who came off as subdued, tentative and at times irritable.

Romney, who has narrowly trailed Obama in recent polls, seemed to be looking to shake up the race with a strong attack on Obama’s record, talking directly to the president as he spoke.

He repeatedly attacked Obama’s record: among his charges were that Obama was instituting an “economy tax.”

“The people who are having the hard time right now are middle-income Americans,” he argued. “Under the president’s policies, middle-income Americans have been buried. They’re just being crushed. Middle-income Americans have seen their income come down by $4,300. This is a — this is a tax in and of itself. I’ll call it the economy tax. It’s been crushing.”

Obama fired back: “I believe that we do best when the middle class is doing well. And by giving them those tax cuts, they had a little more money in their pocket, and so maybe they can buy a new car. They are certainly in a better position to weather the extraordinary recession that we went through. They can buy a computer for their kid who’s going off to college, which means they’re spending more money, businesses have more customers, businesses make more profits, and then hire more workers.”

Romney also charged Obama with doubling the federal debt.

“The president said he’d cut the deficit in half. Unfortunately, he doubled it. Trillion-dollar deficits for the last four years. The president’s put it in place as much public debt — almost as much debt held by the public as all prior presidents combined,” he said.

Obama replied: “When I walked into the Oval Office, I had more than a trillion-dollar deficit greeting me. And we know where it came from: two wars that were paid for on a credit card; two tax cuts that were not paid for; and a whole bunch of programs that were not paid for; and then a massive economic crisis.”

Dr. Charles Krauthammer on Fox News said that Romney “won by two knockouts” and Obama “phoned it in”.

I agree.

Pride goeth before the fall.

Campaign 2012: Chain of Fools

Just when you thought that he couldn’t say anything more inapproriate or stupid, Herr Gaffemeister, Vice-President Joe Biden, has done it again.

Unchain My Heart…

Realclearpolitics.com has the story:

Vice President Joe Biden told supporters that Republicans would “put y’all back in chains,” during a campaign speech Tuesday in Danville, Va.

VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: They’ve said it. Every Republican’s voted for it. Look at what they value and look at their budget and what they’re proposing. Romney wants to let the—he said in the first 100 days, he’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules–unchain Wall Street. They’re going to put y’all back in chains. He’s said he’s going to do nothing about stopping the practice of outsourcing…

Per businessweek.com:

The Romney campaign said the remarks show that President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign wants to steer voters away from concerns about the economy.

“Whether it’s accusing Mitt Romney of being a felon, having been responsible for a woman’s tragic death or now wanting to put people in chains, there’s no question that because of the president’s failed record he’s been reduced to a desperate campaign based on division and demonization,” said Andrea Saul, a Romney spokeswoman said in a written statement.

The Obama campaign’s deputy campaign manager, Stephanie Cutter, defended the vice president’s remarks, saying that Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan, Romney’s running mate, and House Speaker John Boehner, both Republicans, “have called for the ‘unshackling’ of the private sector from regulations that protect Americans from risky financial deals and other reckless behavior that crashed our economy.”

And, realclearpolitics.com adds this quote:

Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter says the campaign has “no problem” with Vice President Joe Biden’s comment about putting people back in chains.

“I think he probably agrees with Joe Biden’s sentiments,” Cutter said on behalf of President Obama. “He’s using a metaphor to talk about what’s going to happen.”

“I appreciate the faux outrage from the Romney campaign,” Cutter said in reaction to a statement from the campaign. “If you want to talk about the use of words then take a look at Mitt Romney’s stump speech where he basically calls the president un-American.”

“The bottom line is that we have no problem with those comments,” Cutter said.

Uh-huh. Stephanie, precious, the sound you’re hearing as the result of Obama’s failed economic plains? That’s “The Sound of the Men Working on the Chain Gang”.

Remember a couple of weeks ago, the hue and cry from the concerned about a special pair of tennis shoes?

The London Daily Mail reported at the time, that

Adidas has come under fire for creating a pair of trainers with ‘shackles’.

Critics have compared the ‘JS Roundhouse Mids’, to be released in August, to the chains worn by black slaves in the 19th century.

The firm unveiled the trainers on its Facebook page. They feature plastic orange ‘shackles’ attached to the ankles by chains in the same colour.

The shoes have sparked an angry debate online. More than 2,000 Facebook users have commented, with many calling the design ‘offensive’ and ‘ignorant’, saying the firm has ‘sunk to new lows’ with its ‘slavewear’ product.

One, ‘Kay Tee’, said: ‘It’s offensive and inappropriate in many ways… How would a Jewish person feel if they decided to have a shoe with a swastika on it and tried to claim it was OK in the name of fashion?’

Dr Boyce Watkins, writing for Your Black World, said: ‘Shackles. The stuff that our ancestors wore for 400 years while experiencing the most horrific atrocities imaginable.

‘Most of which were never documented in the history books and kept away from you in the educational system, all so you’d be willing to put shackles on your ankles today and not be so sensitive about it.’

The Professor at Syracuse University said he accepted some people would accuse him of overreacting.

But he added: ‘There is always a group of negroes who are more than happy to resubmit themselves to slavery.

‘I’m offended by these shoes as there is nothing funny about the prison industrial complex, which is the most genocidal thing to happen to the black family since slavery itself.’

Others have likened the shoes’ orange ‘bracelets’ to the shackles worn by prisoners across the America, or said the firm is ‘promoting slavery’.

Kay Tee added: ‘Regardless if the company was saying the shoes are so hot you have to chain them to you, or they were capitalising on the whole prison style popularity.

‘But corporate business has a social responsibility above all to consider these perceptions before releasing a product like this.

Adidas has not yet commented.

So…when VP Biden alludes to slavery it’s okey-dokey, but producing a pair of tennis shoes with orange chains on the top of them is egregious?

Sounds like the Libs are singing the same ol’ “Unchained Melody”.