I regret, maybe, that I will be out this evening and cannot live blog the debate, but I will set up a post specifically for debate comments. I’ll probably get home about the time the debate is ending.
My only prediction is that this debate will be different from the first one. President Obama is capable of learning from mistakes, and I don’t doubt he will strive to be more assertive this time.
I am hardly an expert on the sport of boxing. But, it seems to me that a champion can lose in an upset to a challenger, but, in a rematch, the better boxer has learned to beat his opponent.
President Obama has a particularly difficult task, because he can’t be seen as being “angry” and there are probably many people predisposed to see him that way. Let’s hope he can summon the “right stuff” and Mitt Romney will expose himself as the slippery conman he is.
I’m very anxious that we are going to lose. And it’s just inconceivable to me that people could completely forget about “corporations are people”, the 47%, Bin Laden, the ACA, saving Detroit, ending DADT, the Supreme Court, social security, medicaid, and George W. Bush based on ONE poor debate performance. Especially, with lots of numbers starting to look better regarding mortgages and jobs; and Biden kicking butt last week.
Let’s all breath, and remain calm and redouble our efforts to GOTV.
maha,
I’m hoping you’ll be doing something pleasant.
Me and my Obama-lovin’ Mama will be glued to the TV tonight, so, I’ll come here first thing in the morning, to see what everyone’s contributions were.
Ok, maybe not first thing, since I probably won’t be able to get to sleep right away – either from joy, or mourning.
I wish Martha Raddatz was the moderator. She was terrific.
I have no faith in Candy Crowley at all. She’s almost as bad a David Gregory on CNN’s version of “If It’s Sunday, It’s Time To Kiss some Conservatives @$$es.”
I hope she proves me wrong.
Mr. President – KICK SOME ROMNEY @$$!!!
Tom_B,
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, if Obama was a white man, this election wouldn’t even be close.
The legacy of slavery and racism – that is the great shame of this country. Still…
Have a lovely evening, Maha.
In case you were sleeping too well, here’s a piece about how the people behind the newer electronic voting machines are Mitt supporters, and many of them are former Bain employees:
http://wonkette.com/486698/meet-your-new-diebold#more-486698
Nothing can go wrong with this, can it?
In a sane country, electronic voting machines would be outlawed until they were 99.999% secure from tampering, and gave everyone a little receipt to take home, in case of a recount.
Obama needs a big turnout, and the buffer of a few point lead in the polls going into Election Day, or, like 2004, everyone will wonder how the “Exit Polls” could possibly have differed so dramatically from the tabulated results?
Yes, how did THAT happen?
And believe me, if McCain and Palin were close going into Election Day in 2008, McCain would be the one running for reelection in 3 weeks.
Does anyone doubt they’d have flipped the vote if it was close that year?
And this year looks prime for people who hate democracy, and are looking to grab what’s left of the country for themselves, and fellow Fascistic Plutocrats.
Lagging in the polls, lackluster in the premier debate, voters disenfranchised, voting machines rigged; what could possibly go wrong in November?
This is it, people. Romney simply cannot win. We cannot let this empty suit of a Republican amalgam take leadership of this country. Remind your friends to vote. No one sits out in this election. My mom says she’s tired of all the lies, and I told her it would only get worse if Romney is elected, so she has to vote. No excuses.
Other predictions, which I don’t really agree with, are that it will be even more style and less substance. I believe Obama is intelligent enough to compellingly intertwine the two, especially now that he knows he has to. Someone, Chris Matthews I think, made the point that governing happens with a team therefore they should allow 3-4 additional persons to be consulted during the debate sort of like the “lifeline” on “Do you want to be a millionaire”.
It’s a really difficult thing to dredge up the appropriate facts to effectively counter a given talking point or, in the parlance of the field of advanced thought control, “thought-terminating cliche” (“they all do it” is my favorite). But P & VP seem to fall so short at times. I wonder whether that’s not just (mis-)calculated or whether I’m thinking that it’s easier than it really is to stay on one’s toes.
Tonight will answer a lot of the questions I ask myself.
they should allow 3-4 additional persons to be consulted during the debate sort of like the “lifeline†on “Do you want to be a millionaireâ€
That sounds fun, actually, and would be quite telling as to who the “phone-a-friends” are. I wonder who GW Bush’s would have been, and I shudder. Unfortunately, one of Obama’s would have to be Geithner, and I still shudder.
No lack of spirit amongst the Tarheels this afternoon, when the First Lady came out and spoke to a full house.
It wouldn’t even be that hard to make electronic voting tamper-proof. Just have the voter do their electronic voting thing, and when done print out a clear, extremely easy to understand ballot for one candidate or the other. Give that paper ballot to the voter, and then the voter, after checking to make sure they voted for who they were trying to vote for, drops that paper ballot into the vote counter, and then that paper balot is THE official vote for that individual. At the end of voting some random portion of the paper ballots are machine counted, and if the phyical counts don’t match the electronic counts to witing
Grrrrr …. stupid computer decided to click post for me …. to finish: **to within some (very high) percentage, that automatically triggers a hand count of ALL ballots.
Should be idiot-proof.
-me
Romney has shown he’s not trustworthy..Obama has shown that he is. Inspite of all the distortions and attempts to destroy Obama’s presidency he hasn’t faltered from being a leader with integrity and honor. I trust the American people will respond positively to Obama quality of character.
I hope obama does show some anger in tonights debate. There’s nothing wrong with anger if it’s channeled correctly.. as long as he doesn’t kick Romney in the nuts.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38191766@N07/3516363817/