Folks, I am just going to sit and wait for the show to begin......Lets Wait and See how Lies can Triumph over the Truth.......Wow !!! it shall be a New World Unknown to many of us.......... Judy Miriga Diaspora Spokesperson Executive Director Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc., USA http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com There's really only one story in politics today: the Biden-Ryan showdown at 9 p.m. EDT at Centre College in Danville, Ky. It's the only vice presidential debate in 2012. Vice President Joe Biden's mission: Reclaim some of the momentum lost after what was perceived by many as a lackluster performance last week by President Barack Obama in the first presidential debate. Paul Ryan's mission: Just the opposite. Maintain the momentum Mitt Romney picked up after the debate. While Biden is getting ready for the debate, Obama will be in Florida campaigning. His day includes a fundraiser emceed by actress Eva Longoria. Romney will be campaigning in North Carolina. His day includes teaming up with Mike Huckabee. Also worth noting on Thursday: Dick Cheney attends a Romney fundraiser in Virginia; Michelle Obama campaigns in Colorado; and Tagg Romney and Ben Romney, two of Mitt Romney's five sons, campaign in Virginia. And then there is this: Thursday marks the 10th anniversary of former President Jimmy Carter winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Sources: Yahoo! News, Reuters, Associated Press What Ryan Says to Morris: Morris: Ryan will be at his best, Biden not in his league  James • Report Abuse
Progressives lavished praise on Fox for publishing a "fact check" of Ryan's GOP convention speech that called it "an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies." Naturally the highly retweeted column included too-good-to-check falsehoods like this one:
Paul Ryan's Roadmap to Nowhere Ryan claims that his Roadmap to Privatization will save the country, but it does NOT balance the budget until 2063 and no surplus will materialize until 2080. It's a total fraud. ......."Where are Their Manifesto Plan, how they wish to rule" "Thanks to House budget chief Paul Ryan, it's possible to measure the size of this fraud. And it's colossal," Miller wrote. "As can never be said often enough, Ryan is absurdly hailed as a fiscal 'conservative' for a 'roadmap' that doesn't balance the budget until the 2060s and that adds an unthinkable $62 trillion to the national debt between now and then." Miller said that Ryan "pretends we can keep federal taxes at their recent historic levels of 19 percent of gross domestic product as the boomers age. No can do. The math doesn't work. Ryan's endless red ink proves this." For the question of when the budget reaches balance, Miller is correct. The percentage of GDP shifts from negative (representing a deficit) to positive (a surplus) in 2063. From that point on, the percentage stays in positive territory -- that is, in surplus -- through 2083. An analysis by the Congressional Budget Office -- Congress's non-partisan arbiter of budgetary figures -- doesn't list the exact year that surpluses first occur under Ryan's plan, but it agrees that it will happen sometime between 2060 and 2080. So on this point Miller appears to be correct. Paul Ryan's speech in 3 wordsPublished August 30, 2012 FoxNews.com
1. Dazzling At least a quarter of Americans still don't know who Paul Ryan is, and only about half who know and have an opinion of him view him favorably  . So, Ryan's primary job tonight was to introduce himself and make himself seem likeable, and he did that well. The personal parts of the speech were very personally delivered, especially the touching parts where Ryan talked about his father and mother and their roles in his life. And at the end of the speech, when Ryan cheered the crowd to its feet, he showed an energy and enthusiasm that's what voters want in leaders and what Republicans have been desperately lacking in this campaign. To anyone watching Ryan's speech who hasn't been paying much attention to the ins and outs and accusations of the campaign, I suspect Ryan came across as a smart, passionate and all-around nice guy — the sort of guy you can imagine having a friendly chat with while watching your kids play soccer together. And for a lot of voters, what matters isn't what candidates have done or what they promise to do —it's personality. On this measure, Mitt Romney has been catastrophically struggling and with his speech, Ryan humanized himself and presumably by extension, the top of the ticket. 2. Deceiving On the other hand, to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to facts, Ryan's speech was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech. On this measure, while it was Romney who ran the Olympics, Ryan earned the gold. The good news is that the Romney-Ryan campaign has likely created dozens of new jobs among the legions of additional fact checkers that media outlets are rushing to hire to sift through the mountain of cow dung that flowed from Ryan's mouth. Said fact checkers have already condemned certain arguments that Ryan still irresponsibly repeated. Fact: While Ryan tried to pin the downgrade of the United States' credit rating on spending under President Obama, the credit rating was actually downgraded because Republicans threatened not to raise the debt ceiling .Fact: While Ryan blamed President Obama for the shut down of a GM plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, the plant was actually closed under President George W. Bush . Ryan actually asked for federal spending to save the plant, while Romney has criticized the auto industry bailout that President Obama ultimately enacted to prevent other plants from closing.Fact: Though Ryan insisted that President Obama wants to give all the credit for private sector success to government, that isn't what the president said. Period. Fact: Though Paul Ryan accused President Obama of taking $716 billion out of Medicare, the fact is that that amount was savings in Medicare reimbursement rates (which, incidentally, save Medicare recipients out-of-pocket costs, too) and Ryan himself embraced these savings in his budget plan.Elections should be about competing based on your record in the past and your vision for the future, not competing to see who can get away with the most lies and distortions without voters noticing or bother to care. Both parties should hold themselves to that standard. Republicans should be ashamed that there was even one misrepresentation in Ryan's speech but sadly, there were many. 3. Distracting And then there's what Ryan didn't talk about. Ryan didn't mention his extremist stance on banning all abortions with no exception for rape or incest, a stance that is out of touch with 75% of American voters . Ryan didn't mention his previous plan to hand over Social Security to Wall Street. Ryan didn't mention his numerous votes to raise spending and balloon the deficit when George W. Bush was president . Ryan didn't mention how his budget would eviscerate programs that help the poor and raise taxes on 95% of Americans in order to cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires even further and increase — yes, increase —the deficit . These aspects of Ryan's resume and ideology are sticky to say the least. He would have been wise to tackle them head on and try and explain them away in his first real introduction to voters. But instead of Ryan airing his own dirty laundry, Democrats will get the chance. At the end of his speech, Ryan quoted his dad, who used to say to him, ""Son. You have a choice: You can be part of the problem, or you can be part of the solution." Ryan may have helped solve some of the likeability problems facing Romney, but ultimately by trying to deceive voters about basic facts and trying to distract voters from his own record, Ryan's speech caused a much larger problem for himself and his running mate. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/08/30/paul-ryans-speech-in-three-words/#ixzz295bpvlGQ Fox News Points Out Paul Ryan's Lies ... and Pigs Fly?Posted on Aug 31, 2012Fox News used the words "deceiving" and "dazzling" to describe Paul Ryan's speech at the GOP convention; British support of possible American military intervention in Syria could signal another blunder as terrible as the Iraq War; meanwhile, Israeli ex-soldiers finally admit to heinous treatment of Palestinian children. These discoveries and more below.
On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that have found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.
The links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top. FOX News Calls Paul Ryan's RNC Speech "Deceiving" — Hell Freezes Over What the Washington Post Can Learn From Vogue Paul Ryan and the Post-Truth Convention Speech The Incoherence of Antonin Scalia Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital UK support for military action in Syria is not in America's best interest Bollywood and Bangalore as Clusters of Creativity Things the Postal Service Won't Tell You Israel Breaks Silence Over Army Abuses
The List of Lies The media coverage of Paul Ryan's speech: 15 euphemisms for 'lying'Journalists are going to awkward lengths to avoid the L-word when reviewing Ryan's address — even though the veep candidate told several brazen whoppersposted on August 30, 2012, at 2:08 PM  As fact-checkers have established, Paul Ryan's GOP convention speech was filled with lies. Or as some members of the media might have it, "disingenuous assertions." Photo: Win McNamee/Getty ImagesSEE ALL 18 PHOTOS Republicans are delighted with Paul Ryan's GOP convention speech, hailing it as an out-of-the-ballpark hit that demolished President Obama's case for re-election. The nation's fact-checkers, however, are not as pleased. Ryan suggested that Obama's policies failed to save a GM plant in Ryan's hometown of Janesville, Wis. (It closed before Obama was inaugurated.) He accused Obama of raiding Medicare of $716 billion "at the expense of the elderly." (Ryan's own budget includes the same savings, achieved, as in Obama's plan, by cutting reimbursement rates to health care providers, not seniors' benefits.) And Ryan even chastised Obama for ignoring the recommendations of a presidential bipartisan debt commission. (Ryan sat on the commission and voted against its report.) Truly, Ryan was apparently trying to "set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech," says Sally Kohn at Fox News. However, since it's impolitic to accuse a vice presidential candidate of being a liar, most news organizations have tip-toed around the L-word. Here, 15 euphemisms they're employing instead (emphasis added in all cases):
1. "GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan took some factual shortcuts during the Republican convention when he attacked President Barack Obama." (Cal Woodward and Jack Gillum at The Associated Press)
2. "It was just one of several striking and demonstrably misleading elements of Ryan's much-anticipated acceptance speech." (Ryan Grim at The Huffington Post)
3. "Ryan misleads on GM plant closing in hometown: Paul Ryan appeared to suggest that President Obama was responsible for the closing of a GM plant in Ryan's hometown of Janesville, Wisc. That's not true." (Glenn Kessler at The Washington Post)
4. "Ryan's misleading speech... was part introduction of himself and his small-town origins, part testimonial to his running mate and — in largest part — a slashing and, in many elements, misleading indictment of President Obama as both a spent force and a threat to American freedom." (The editorial board at The Washington Post)
5. "Paul Ryan's factually shaky Republican convention speech... is getting slammed for some pretty heavy inaccuracies." (Brett LoGiurato at Business Insider)
6. "Paul Ryan's headlining speech at the GOP convention in Tampa Wednesday night touched on many of the election's defining issues. But it was also filled with prevarications." (Brian Beutler at Talking Points Memo)
7. "Paul Ryan is the newest new Nixon, a moocher belied." (Charles P. Pierce at Esquire)
8. "Paul Ryan's Medicare doublespeak." (Brian Fung at The Atlantic)
9. "I'd like to talk, instead, about what Ryan actually said — not because I find Ryan's ideas so objectionable, although I do, but because I thought he was so brazenly willing to twist the truth." (Jonathan Cohn at The New Republic)
10. "Paul Ryan's acceptance speech at the Republican convention contained several false claims and misleading statements." (Robert Farley at USA Today)
11. "Rep. Paul Ryan stretched some truths Wednesday night when he accepted the Republican Party's 2012 vice presidential nomination..." (Mark Memmott at NPR)
12. "Ryan's speech veered from empty rhetoric to outright distortion, with little in between." (Jean MacKenzie at Global Post)
13. "The speech didn't require policy expertise, particularly. Indeed, an expert might feel compelled to avoid the series of inconsistencies and contradictions that were woven through Ryan's jeremiad." (John Dickerson at Slate)
14. "I marked at least seven or eight points I'm sure the fact checkers will have some opportunities to dispute if they want to go forward, I'm sure they will." (Wolf Blitzer at CNN)
15. "We were jotting down points. There will be issues with some of the facts. But it motivated people." (Erin Burnett at CNN)  Vice presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is taking flack on the morning news shows for his keynote address at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night. His speech was riddled with false claims, so much so that even Fox News wrote, "To anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to facts, Ryan's speech was an apparent attempt to set the world record for the greatest number of blatant lies and misrepresentations slipped into a single political speech."Here are the most glaring lies from his speech: 1. "A downgraded America." Ryan blamed the president for the nation's credit downgrade in August 2011 after Republicans threatened to allow the government to default on its debt for the first time in history. But the ratings agency explicitly blamed "Republicans saying that they refuse to accept any tax increases as part of a larger deal." 2. "More debt than any other president before him, and more than all the troubled governments of Europe combined." Romney has made the almost identical claim, that Obama has amassed more debt "as almost all of the other presidents combined." But their math doesn't add up: when Obama took office, the national debt was $10.626 trillion. It has increased to slightly above $15 trillion. 3. Shuttered General Motors plant is "one more broken promise." Ryan described a GM plant that closed down in his hometown, Janesville, Wisconsin, and blamed Obama for breaking his promise to keep the plant open when he visited during his campaign. But Obama never made that promise, and the plant shut down in December 2008, before Obama even took office. 4. Obama "did exactly nothing" on Bowles-Simpson. Ryan said, "He created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way, and then did exactly nothing." In fact, Ryan was instrumental in sabotaging the commission, leading the other House Republicans in voting against the plan. 5. "$716 billion, funneled out of Medicare by President Obama." Ryan's favorite lie is a deliberate distortion of Obamacare's savings from eliminating inefficiencies. Furthermore, Ryan's own plan for Medicare includes these savings. Romney has vowed to restore these cuts, which would render the trust fund insolvent 8 years ahead of schedule. 6. "The greatest of all responsibilities is that of the strong to protect the weak." Ryan closed the speech with an invocation of social responsibility, saying, "The truest measure of any society is how it treats those who cannot defend or care for themselves." However, numerous clergy members have condemned Ryan's budget plan as "cruel," and "an immoral disaster" because of its devastating cuts in social programs the poor and sick rely on. Meanwhile, Ryan would give ultra-rich individuals and corporations $3 trillion in tax breaks. PM Note: Exclusive Interview - Obama Wants a Second Go at Romney - Romney Re-Clarifies on Abortion, A Notable Benghazi Hearing, A Spike in 'Sassy' Big Bird CostumesBy Z. Byron Wolf | ABC OTUS News – 13 hrs ago@jonkarl - Moderator-cam. @martharaddatz checks out the debate stage. pic.twitter.com/8diNdZsS Barack Obama Wants a Second Go at Romney - In an interview with Diane Sawyer, the president admitted he had a "bad night" last week and said he can't wait for next Tuesday. He's determined to win. Will he win, Sawyer asked? "Yes," said Obama. Choice quotes - On Romney and abortion - "Four weeks before an election, he is trying to cloud the question" on abortion rights, Obama said, "because he understands that most women think they can make their own health care decisions." On recovering from last week - "This was one event. We've got four weeks to go. Nobody is going to be fighting harder than I am," Obama told Sawyer, aiming to reassure his base. "What they need is to make sure they tune in on Tuesday next week." The full write-up of Sawyer's interview with Obama from Devin Dwyer - http://abcn.ws/Rg5tj7 Earlier in the Day Obama Said He Was 'Too Polite' Last Week - http://abcn.ws/ReHkcH Benghazi Hearing - Security Officer on State Department Blocking Requests: "For Me the Taliban Is Inside the Building" - http://abcn.ws/Rgiar6Tapper asks Carney if the President Shot First and Aimed Later - http://abcn.ws/SQuOCeMore on the Benghazi Security Debacle - http://abcn.ws/SRbYoc Vice Presidential Debate: 5 Most Infamous Veeps - Dick Cheney isn't the only VP who shot a guy - We're looking at you, Aaron Burr - http://abcn.ws/UQRTQP (Jilian Fama) Apparently "Sassy" Big Bird Costumes are Hot This Year. -http://abcn.ws/ThlDVG "Mitt Romney is holding a rally at Rob Portman's haunted hotel on Saturday yhoo.it/O3sh5c" - Tweet From Yahoo!s Chris Moody (who has owned the haunted hotel beat). Mitt Romney Re-Clarifies Abortion Position - http://abcn.ws/URN5e9Mitt Romney's Ten Year Abortion Evolution - http://abcn.ws/Rf4q2M Ryan Says He and Romney are Unified on Abortion - http://abcn.ws/Rg9VhS Romney Drops SEAL Story After Mother Complains- Mitt Romney's campaign said today he will stop citing his meeting with a former Navy Seal killed in last month's terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya after the victim's mother protested his use of her son's death. http://abcn.ws/RPFqyv (Michael Falcone and Emily Friedman) Court Blocks S.C. Voter ID Law for 2012, But Clears It For the Future-A federal court in Washington today blocked South Carolina's Voter ID law from going into effect for the 2012 elections, but said it could go into effect for future elections. http://abcn.ws/URKtNs (Ariane de Vogue) Romney Says Ohio Ads Could Give Him High Blood Pressure-Mitt Romney said the barrage of political advertisements on television in Ohio would give him high blood pressure if he had to watch them every day. http://abcn.ws/RPJr60 (Emily Friedman) Florida Gov. Scott Accidentally Cites Phone-Sex Hotline in Meeting-An honest mistake led to a racy recording after Florida Gov. Rick Scott misread the toll-free number for his state's Health Department during a cabinet meeting Tuesday, rattling off the digits for a phone-sex hotline instead. http://abcn.ws/URBKL6 (Amy Bingham) Obama Camp Claims Romney Hides Abortion Stance-The Obama campaign today accused Mitt Romney of "trying to hide his real position" on abortion in an effort to woo women voters in the closing weeks of the campaign. http://abcn.ws/URmwG2 (Devin Dwyer) The Grieving Widow Behind Romney's Personal Story-Jane Horton began crying on the other end of the phone when she learned that Mitt Romney had been using the story of her husband, Chris Horton, who was killed in Afghanistan, as a part of his stump speech. http://abcn.ws/PWEi8D (Emily Friedman) At polls, fears of voter suppression, intimidationBy CURT ANDERSON | Associated Press – 5 hrs agoMIAMI (AP) — Kimberly Kelley of Tampa has provided Florida elections officials with thousands of names of people she thinks may be ineligible to vote and should be removed from the rolls. On Election Day, she'll join thousands more — people of all political stripes — to monitor balloting. "I believe there is fraud both ways. I don't think it's a specific group," said Kelley, a registered Republican whose group is called Tampa Vote Fair. "We're just there to observe. We're not going to intimidate anyone." Poll watchers from unions, immigration groups and other organizations favoring greater voter access will also be on hand. Gihan Perera of the group Florida New Majority said training sessions are being held for observers and communications lines set up to respond to problems. "We'll be aware and vigilant so that all of the rules and processes are honored and that our people are able to vote with ease," he said. With polls showing a close race between President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney, a relative handful of votes either way in a battleground state like Florida or Ohio could make all the difference. The potential for disruptive crowds of observers at some precincts has sparked fears that voters may be intimidated or harassed or have their eligibility to vote challenged directly. The concern is particularly intense among African-American and Hispanic voters, who historically have suffered discrimination and were targeted anew in more recent elections, civil rights leaders say. "People have suffered and bled for our right to vote," said the Rev. Victor T. Curry, pastor of New Birth Baptist Church in Dania Beach, north of Miami. "We will have monitors who will monitor the monitors." Groups such as True the Vote, a Houston-based organization with links to the tea party, refer to their activities as "election integrity." For those fearing suppression attempts, it's all about "voter protection." Both sides are organizing people around the country to be their poll watchers. True the Vote has said it hopes to recruit 1 million people nationwide to be monitors. Its founder, Catherine Engelbrecht, said that her group is nonpartisan and that its goal is "renewing faith in our election system" through its growing national coalition. "Every eligible American voter deserves the opportunity to participate in a fair and legal election process, even those Democrats and left-leaning organizations who continually cast false aspersions about our efforts," Engelbrecht said in an email. "We support lawful election processes." Recent studies by New York University's Brennan Center for Justice and by the research and advocacy organization Demos show that voter intimidation and challenges are not relics from the past: —In a 2011 state legislative election in Massachusetts, dozens of challenges were filed by poll monitors affiliated with tea party groups against Latino voters in Southbridge. Several voters said they felt intimidated in a vote that wound up in a court-ordered tie. Justice Department officials were on hand to observe the second vote, which was settled by just 56 votes. —In 2010, a coalition of Minnesota conservative groups called Election Integrity Watch offered $500 to anyone who provided tips about fraud and encouraged volunteers to take photos and videotape voters at the polls, according to Demos research. It's unclear if these tactics were widely deployed or whether they deterred voters from casting ballots. —True the Vote poll watchers used inaccurate voter lists to challenge a number of college students during the 2012 recall election of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, resulting in a disruptive atmosphere in which an undetermined number of students opted not to vote rather than wait in long lines. The impact on the recall's outcome is uncertain, but Walker prevailed in the overall vote. True the Vote's activities, especially its pre-election challenges of thousands of voter registrations, have drawn the attention of Democratic members of Congress, including Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. Cummings said in a letter to Engelbrecht that many of the challenges appear to have no legitimate basis and "could amount to a criminal conspiracy to deny legitimate voters their constitutional rights." In a written response, Engelbrecht offered to meet with Cummings and said the group has found evidence of election law violations. "Election integrity is a serious concern across the nation," she wrote. States have specific rules regarding who is allowed inside polling places and how close outside observers can get. In Florida, those on the outside must stay at least 100 feet away. Most states also allow private citizens to directly challenge the eligibility of voters — for example, claiming they don't have proper identification — although not all of those challenges can be made on Election Day. Federal and state agencies also play a role in poll monitoring. The Justice Department, for example, will appoint observers under the 1965 Voting Rights Act who are geared mainly toward guaranteeing that minority voters are not interfered with at the ballot box. This third group of monitors will be sent to precincts that officials deem most at risk of voting access violations. "The effort in more recent years is to have teams in place and procedures in place so problems can be dealt with," said Paul Hancock, a former Justice Department voting rights attorney now in private practice. At the same time, Hancock added, "you've got to have balance. You want to be able to deal with any group that comes in and tries to intimidate voters. But you don't want the place loaded with police officers because some people see that as a form of intimidation as well." If any violations such as those happen this year and the election result is close in that particular state, teams of lawyers from both sides and many of the interest groups are posed to head to the courts. "Everybody is just so concerned that something could go wrong that they're geared up to deal with it," Hancock said. Feds charge 91 people in $429M Medicare fraudBy PETE YOST | Associated Press – 4 hrs agoWASHINGTON (AP) — A federal strike force has charged 91 people, including a hospital president, doctors and nurses, with Medicare fraud schemes in seven cities involving $429 million in false billings. At a news conference Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder said the case reveals an alarming trend in criminal efforts to steal billions of taxpayer dollars for personal gain. Holder called the action one of the largest such law enforcement efforts of its kind. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that that in addition to the newly announced criminal charges, her agency used new authority under the Obama administration's health care law to stop future payments to many of the health care providers suspected of fraud. The law enforcement effort focused on fraudulent Medicare schemes in Baton Rouge, La.; Brooklyn, N.Y.; Chicago; Dallas; Houston; Los Angeles and Miami. In Houston, a federal indictment charged the president of an unnamed hospital with participating along with six other people in $158 million in fraudulent billings for community mental health services. In Dallas, two doctors and two registered nurses were charged with participating in over $103 million in false billings. In Brooklyn, a doctor and four chiropractors allegedly participated in $23 million in false billings. 107 Charged in Medicare Fraud Busts in 7 Cities Published on May 2, 2012 by AssociatedPress Federal authorities charged 107 doctors, nurses and social workers in seven cities with Medicare fraud on unrelated scams that allegedly bilked the program of $452 million, the highest dollar amount in a single Medicare bust in history. (May 2) Obama accuses Romney of dishonesty in debateupdated 6:09 PM EDT, Thu October 4, 2012  Reporters STORY HIGHLIGHTS
watch the final minutes of the debate between President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in Denver on Wednesday, October 3. The first of four debates for the 2012 election -- three presidential and one vice-presidential -- was moderated by PBS's Jim Lehrer. A member of the U.S. Secret Service keeps watch from the top of a building as Obama takes part in a debate walk-through at the University of Denver on Wednesday. Did you miss the first presidential debate? You can watch the full event online on CNN.com. (CNN) -- A day after losing the first presidential debate to Mitt Romney, President Barack Obama and his campaign accused the Republican challenger of dishonesty over tax policy and other issues. "If you want to be president, you owe the American people the truth," Obama told a campaign rally Thursday in Denver in reference to the former Massachusetts governor, who is challenging him in next month's election. "So here's the truth: Governor Romney cannot pay for his $5 trillion tax plan without blowing up the deficit or sticking it to the middle class. That's the math." Romney's pledge: No tax cut for the rich The president's top aides were even more blunt. "Romney's performance was one that's probably unprecedented in its dishonesty," senior adviser David Plouffe told reporters. However, senior campaign adviser David Axelrod acknowledged that Obama would examine his debate strategy for the next two contests -- on October 16 in New York and October 22 in Florida. The president opted against "serial fact-checking with Governor Romney, which can be a never-ending, exhausting pursuit," Axelrod said. "Obviously, going forward, we're going to have to look at this and we're going to have make some adjustments." Meanwhile, Romney continued to push his debate theme of too much federal spending under Obama, complaining of "trickle-down government" that has failed to solve the nation's economic woes. "We have two very different courses for America -- trickle-down government or prosperity through freedom," Romney said in an unannounced visit Thursday to a conservative conference in Colorado. "And trickle-down government that the president proposes is one where he will raise taxes on small business, which will kill jobs. I instead want to keep taxes down on small business so we can create jobs." Romney will campaign later Thursday in Virginia, hoping to build momentum from the debate that analysts and a snap poll agreed was won by the Republican challenger. His supporters crowed about his performance, saying it reshaped a race that Romney had appeared in danger of losing. Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, who played the role of Obama in debate rehearsals for Romney, said the GOP candidate had a "terrific night." "He did exactly what he had to do for the undecided voter in Ohio or around the country," Portman said. "They were looking for two things: One, a discussion of the last four years and why we can't afford it for the next four, I thought he explained that well. Most importantly, he talked about his own policies and he was able to set the record straight on some of the misleading ads the Obama campaign has put out there about his tax plan about his budget plan, about his health care ideas and so on." To Ed Gillespie, a senor adviser to Romney, the GOP challenger brought focus to the sharp contrast between the candidates by showing voters that "we can't afford four more years like the last four years." In exchanges full of policy proposals, facts and figures, Romney was more aggressive in the 90-minute encounter on Wednesday night at the University of Denver. A forceful Romney criticized Obama's record and depicted the president's vision as one of big government, while the Democratic incumbent defended his achievements and challenged his rival's prescriptions as unworkable. The post-debate verdict swung clearly to Romney.
"A week ago, people were saying this was over. We've got a horse race," said CNN Senior Political Analyst David Gergen, who called the debate Romney's best so far after the 22 the former Massachusetts governor took part in during the GOP primary campaign. Alex Castellanos, a Republican strategist and CNN contributor, expressed surprise at Romney's strong performance, saying he "rose to the moment" and seemed to benefit from the multiple primary debates. "It looked like Romney wanted to be there and President Obama didn't want to be there," noted Democratic strategist and CNN contributor James Carville. "The president didn't bring his 'A' game." The CNN/ORC International poll of 430 people who watched the debate showed 67% thought Romney won, compared with 25% for Obama. Obama joked Thursday that a different Romney appeared at the debate from the conservative candidate who won a grueling Republican primary campaign to challenge him on November 6. "When I got on to the stage I met this very spirited fellow who claimed to be Mitt Romney," Obama said to laughter from the crowd of more than 12,000 at a Denver park. "But it couldn't have been Mitt Romney because the real Mitt Romney has been running around the country for the last year promising $5 trillion in tax cuts that favor the wealthy. The fellow on stage last night said he didn't know anything about that." At the Denver rally and a later event in Wisconsin, Obama also went after Romney's pledge during the debate to cut funding for public broadcasting, referring specifically to the popular Sesame Street character Big Bird. "He'll get rid of regulations on Wall Street, but he's going to crack down on Sesame Street," Obama joked about Romney's pledge to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act that reforms the financial sector. "Thank goodness somebody is finally getting tough on Big Bird," Obama added. "It's about time. We didn't know that Big Bird was driving the federal deficit." 5 things we learned from the presidential debate On Wednesday, neither presidential candidate scored dramatic blows that will make future highlight reels, and neither veered from campaign themes and policies to date. But Romney came off as the more energized candidate overall by repeatedly attacking Obama on red-meat issues for Republicans such as health care reform and higher taxes, while the president began with lengthy explanations and only later focused more on what his opponent was saying. Moderator Jim Lehrer of PBS had trouble keeping the duo within time limits for responses, especially Obama, who ended up speaking four minutes longer than Romney. Romney's strongest moments came in emphasizing his frequent criticism of Obama's record, saying the nation's high unemployment and sluggish economic recovery showed the president's policies haven't worked. Complete coverage of CNN fact-checking the candidates "There's no question in my mind if the president is re-elected, you'll continue to see a middle-class squeeze," Romney said, adding that another term for Obama also will mean the 2010 Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, "will be fully installed." Obama: Occasionally you have to say no At another point, he noted how $90 billion spent on programs and policies to develop alternative energy sources could have been devoted to hiring teachers or other needs that would bring down unemployment. Obama argued that his policies were working to bring America back from the financial and economic crisis he inherited, and that Romney refused to divulge specifics about his proposed tax plans and replacements for the health care law and Wall Street reform that the Republican has pledged to repeal. "At some point, the American people have to ask themselves if the reason that Governor Romney is keeping all these plans secret is because they're too good," Obama said, adding the answer was "no" and that the lack of details reflected the difficulty in making touch decisions. At crossroads of economic crisis, debate disappoints In his strongest line of the night, Obama said Romney lacked the important leadership quality of being able to say "no" when necessary. "I've got to tell you, Governor Romney, when it comes to his own party during the course of this campaign, has not displayed that willingness to say no to some of the more extreme parts of his party," Obama said in reference to his challenger's swing to the right during the primaries to appeal to the GOP's conservative base. Romney rejected Obama's characterization of his tax plan, insisting it won't add to the deficit, and criticized the president's call to allow tax rates on income over $250,000 for families and $200,000 for individuals to return to higher 1990s rates as a job-snuffing tax hike on small business. Romney repeatedly went after Obama on the health care reform bill, criticizing the president for focusing so strongly on a measure that passed with no Republican support instead of devoting more attention to creating jobs. "I just don't know how the president could have come into office, facing 23 million people out of work, rising unemployment, an economic crisis at the -- at the kitchen table, and spend his energy and passion for two years fighting for Obamacare instead of fighting for jobs for the American people," Romney said. "The right answer is not to have the federal government take over health care," Romney added, quickly noting his plan would include popular provisions of Obamacare such as allowing children up to age 26 stay on family plans and preventing insurers from denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. In response, Obama said Romney's stance to have states craft their own health care plans would allow insurance companies to return to past practices that hurt consumers. On Thursday, Axelrod described Romney in the debate as a "serial evader" and "artful dodger" for avoiding specifics on tax loopholes and deductions he would eliminate or proposals to replace health care reforms and Wall Street reforms he promises to repeal. Read a transcript of the debate Romney came under similar criticism from opponents in the Republican primary campaign, with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich calling him a liar in January. Before the debate, Romney warned that Obama would be untruthful, and he accused the president of dishonesty and distortion during Wednesday night's event. With polls narrowing less than five weeks before Election Day, Obama and Romney launched a new phase in a bitter race dominated so far by negative advertising as both camps try to frame the election to their advantage. Whether it matters is itself a topic of debate. According to an analysis by Gallup, televised debates have affected the outcome of only two elections in the past half century -- Nixon-Kennedy in 1960 and Bush-Gore in 2000. 25 funniest tweets about the debate
|
Karibu Jukwaa la www.mwanabidii.com
Pata nafasi mpya za Kazi www.kazibongo.blogspot.com
Blogu ya Habari na Picha www.patahabari.blogspot.com
Kujiondoa Tuma Email kwenda
wanabidii+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com Utapata Email ya kudhibitisha ukishatuma
Disclaimer:
Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.
0 comments:
Post a Comment