Click on WORD or PDF for full content
Jennifer Rubin sums up last night.
… On assault weapons, neither made a pitch for gun control. Romney was able to turn the conversation to families, schools and parents as well as bipartisanship. He also got in a slam on Fast and Furious.
On outsourcing, Romney reverted to explainer-in-chief, making a case for making the United States attractive to business and throwing in some China bashing.
On how they were mischaracterized, Romney assured people that he cares about the whole country. Obama launched a belated attack on the 47 percent.
On style, Romney was generally more commanding throughout and at his best when explaining policies. He faltered on Libya, perhaps surprised to have a layup handed to him. Obama was feistier but at times strained and grasped to intervene.
Crowley was generally competent and kept things moving, but her taking sides on the Libya question was a rare and noticeable breach in moderator etiquette. At times, both candidates tried to push her around, usually to no avail.
Winners: Romney (overall a draw, so he prevents a change in momentum), especially his answers on energy, the Obama record, his pivot to families and schools on the gun question and his answer on hiring women.
Losers: Romney’s Libya answer, the myth of undecided voters (nearly all of the questioners had an ax to grind), Obama supporters who were hoping for a change in momentum.
Just in time for last night’s debate Michigan Capitol Confidential has the story of the latest Obama funded company to go bankrupt.
Electric car battery-maker A123 Systems has filed for bankruptcy, according to Bloomberg News.
The company was promoted heavily by President Barack Obama and Michigan politicians and received hundreds of millions of dollars through federal “stimulus” and Michigan Economic Development Corp. programs. Earlier this year, Michigan Capitol Confidential uncovered a video of these politicians promising “hundreds” and “thousands” of jobs – the video was eventually taken down by the MEDC but saved by CapCon.
Despite known financial trouble, just a few months ago A123 awarded sweetened severance packages to its top executives. From CapCon:
“Vice President and General Manager of Energy Solutions Group Robert Johnson, for example, would see his severance increase an extra $200,000 from the agreement, boosting it from $400,000 to $600,000. Johnson’s base salary is $400,000 this year, up 21 percent from his 2011 base salary of $331,250. That raise is consistent with a pattern of large pay increases top executives at A123 Systems have received.”
In sum: The president of the United States, Michigan’s former governor, the state’s two U.S. senators and the U.S. Secretary of Energy promised thousands of jobs from a company that in a mere two years went bankrupt. Despite a bankruptcy or buyout predicted by outside observers, the company continued to reward its top executives while laying off most of its workforce.
Taxpayers should not be surprised: This is only the latest example where political calculations trumped market ones. Only government bureaucrats spending other people’s money would think this was a good investment.
Mark Steyn visits Benghazi.
“The entire reason that this has become the political topic it is, is because of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.”
Thus, Stephanie Cutter, President Obama’s deputy campaign manager, speaking on CNN about an armed attack on the 9/11 anniversary that left a U.S. consulate a smoking ruin and killed four diplomatic staff, including the first American ambassador to be murdered in a third of a century. To discuss this event is apparently to “politicize” it and to distract from the real issues the American people are concerned about. For example, Obama spokesperson Jen Psaki, speaking on board Air Force One on Thursday:
“There’s only one candidate in this race who is going to continue to fight for Big Bird and Elmo, and he is riding on this plane.”
She’s right! The United States is the first nation in history whose democracy has evolved to the point where its leader is provided with a wide-body transatlantic jet in order to campaign on the vital issue of public funding for sock puppets. Sure, Caligula put his horse in the Senate, but it was a real horse. At OhioStateUniversity, the rapper will.i.am introduced the President by playing the Sesame Street theme tune, which, oddly enough, seems more apt presidential walk-on music for the Obama era than “Hail To The Chief.
Obviously, Miss Cutter is right: A healthy mature democracy should spend its quadrennial election on critical issues like the Republican Party’s war on puppets rather than attempting to “politicize” the debate by dragging in stuff like foreign policy, national security, the economy and other obscure peripheral subjects. But, alas, it was her boss who chose to “politicize” a security fiasco and national humiliation in Benghazi. At 8.30 p.m., when Ambassador Stevens strolled outside the gate and bid his Turkish guest good night, the streets were calm and quiet. At 9.40 p.m., an armed assault on the compound began, well-planned and executed by men not only armed with mortars but capable of firing them to lethal purpose – a rare combination among the excitable mobs of the Middle East. There was no demonstration against an Islamophobic movie that just got a little out of hand. Indeed, there was no movie protest at all. Instead, a U.S. consulate was destroyed and four of its personnel were murdered in one of the most sophisticated military attacks ever launched at a diplomatic facility.
Looks like the main stream media won’t be able to drag the president across the finish line this time. Howard Fineman starts the excuse machine.
Last spring a leading Democrat in the Hispanic community begged top officials in President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign to find at least one new, inspiring idea for the 2012 campaign.
It didn’t have to be costly, this adviser said, just something to project optimism and a crusading sense of novelty into what, even at that time, was a nasty, essentially defensive campaign against Mitt Romney.
Obama officials hinted — but didn’t quite promise — that they would unveil a new proposal at the Democratic convention in Charlotte.
The convention came and went. Nothing.
As the polls and Electoral College map have tightened in the last two weeks, some Democrats privately are second-guessing “Chicago,” aka the Obama high command, on everything from basic strategic doctrine to diplomatic relations with Capitol Hill.
If the president ends up losing the race to Romney, here are some of the reasons — in addition to the lack of a fresh second-term agenda — that Democrats will eventually, but certainly, cite in public: …
Late Night Humor with A. Malcolm.
Fallon: Debate polls show Obama trailing Romney by one point. One point. Or as it’s also known, “The thing Obama failed to make during his first debate.”
Letterman: These debates are supposed to appeal to Americans in the working class. America still has a working class? I don’t think so.
Fallon: Did you see last night? One QVC saleswoman fainted on-air. Her co-host kept talking like everything was fine. So, one person unconscious, the other kept talking, just like the first presidential debate.
Tweet of the Week: @TheTransom; What really hurt Obama was the format of the debate, where he had to talk to Romney about stuff.