Tag: Presidential Debates

Step Right Up! Debate Tonight!

For my last post of the day I would like to say a few words about the GOP debate tonight featured on FOX News…….the first part of debate night will be the “kiddie table” debate of those poor souls that could not find a way to break into the top 10……sad that this debate will have more actual candidates than the “big dance” later………

My friends and I have been talking about the possible questions that will be asked by FOX……I say there will be Planned Parenthood, Iran nuke deal and a whole array of softball questions…..nothing of substance……since it i the GOP there never is any substance……

But what do others think  about the questions that should be asked?

The first GOP primary debate is tonight and while the questions—just like the participants—will be chosen by Fox News, there are a lot of interesting suggestions out there for the 10 candidates to face.

  • Thomas Friedman at the New York Times would ask this: “As part of a 1982 transportation bill, President Ronald Reagan agreed to boost the then 4-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax to 9 cents, saying, ‘When we first built our highways, we paid for them with a gas tax,’ adding, ‘It was a fair concept then, and it is today.’ Do you believe Reagan was right then, and would you agree to raise the gasoline tax by 5 cents a gallon today so we can pay for our highway bill, which is now stalled in Congress over funding?” If no candidate answered yes, Friedman would have another question: Why has the center-right in this country completely disappeared?
  • The conservative Daily Caller has no fewer than 27 questions for the candidates: Seven general ones, including “Do you believe President Obama is a bad person, or just politically misguided?” and two for each candidate. One of its questions for Trump asks him to explain exactly what he got in return for making political donations to Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi.
  • Katrina vanden Heuvel at the Washington Post also has a lot of questions, few of which are likely to be asked on Fox. Among them: “What’s the matter with Kansas?” “Republicans have argued for decades that lower taxes, less government spending, and less regulation would boost the economy,” she notes, but that’s not how things have worked out under Gov. Sam Brownback.
  • The Dallas Morning News suggests seven questions, including: “Two Muslim gunmen were shot dead in Garland, Texas, illustrating the danger of radicalized Islam. How would your policies toward terrorism and the Islamic State differ from the Obama administration’s?”
  • Twitter users have offered plenty of questions under the hashtag #DebateQuestionsWeWantToHear, including “Which of your relatives did worse as president?”
  • Charles F. Pierce at Esquire has personalized, one-liner questions for each candidate. For Trump: “Dude, seriously?”

Do you have any ideas on the questions?

In case you would like something to do while the clowns perform……….

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Time for some rest……and Down The Rabbit Hole!

Cannot Wait For 2016 GOP Debates

If everybody that has shown interest in running for the GOP nomination actually gets in the race…..where will they hold the debates?

There will be more candidates on stage than people in the audience…….

2016 will go down in history as the biggest FARCE in American political history!  And we can thank the GOP for the show….The Greatest Show On Earth!

 

The Humor That Is Debates

We have had the presidential debates for well over 100 years, but in the last 50 years it has become a joke….they are NOT debates….they are allowing candidates to give talking points and when you have more then 3 people on a stage then it is a circus, NOT a debate…all that aside….we have had a scenario playing out where a couple of networks will be airing a biopic of Clinton, Hillary not Bill, and the RNC sees it as a way to promote her as an anointed winner……(in case anyone is interested, I believe that the biopic will be produced by FOX, but that is somehow okay)……

Any way the head man of the RNC is turning this into a clown act……he wanted the RNC summer meeting to vote to not allow these two networks to ask questions in the upcoming endless season of debates……he has an answer to the gaping hole of creditable questioners……

Report from the Washington Examiner:

The Republican National Committee, already threatening to block CNN and NBC from hosting 2016 primary debates if they air planned features on Hillary Clinton, is also looking to scrap the old model of having reporters and news personalities ask the questions at candidate forums.

Miffed that their candidates were singled out for personal questions or CNN John King’s “This or That,” when he asked candidates quirky questions like “Elvis or Johnny Cash,” GOP insiders tell Secrets that they are considering other choices, even a heavyweight panel of radio bigs Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Mark Levin.

They told Secrets that they are eager to bring in questioners who understand Republican policies and beliefs and who have the ability to get candidates to differentiate their positions on core conservative values.

The move comes as several conservatives are pressuring the party to have Limbaugh, Hannity and Levin ask the debate questions. “It makes a lot of sense. We’d get a huge viewership, they’d make a lot of news and maybe have some fun too,” said one of the advocates of the radio trio hosting debates.

Now there is an idea….allow the media spokespersons for the Right to ask sofball questions…that ought to be informative, that is assuming that Repubs want to be informed….

Meanwhile back at the summer meeting……..

Report from The Washington Post:

The Republican National Committee formally decided Friday not to partner with CNN and NBC News for any presidential primary debates during the 2016 election cycle, a rebuke of the networks’ plans to air programs about Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Top RNC leaders voted unanimously on a resolution stating that the national party will not partner with the networks nor sanction any primary debates they plan to sponsor and broadcast.

Cable and broadcast television networks have sponsored and produced dozens of presidential primary debates during the recent presidential election cycles, often partnering with state parties or other political organizations in order to draw candidates to the televised events. During the 2012 cycle, top networks sponsored at least 20 debates that stretched from May 2011 to February 2012; CNN hosted seven debates, while NBC News, CNBC or MSNBC hosted four.

The networks do not need the permission of the RNC to host such debates, but the resolution approved Friday likely will prompt state party officials and other conservative organizations to not sponsor, sanction or attend any debates hosted by NBC or CNN and thus keep candidates from attending.

In an early sign of the resistance the two networks might face in early primary states, officials with the New Hampshire Republican Party said the RNC “was right to raise concerns” and that it agreed with plans not to partner with CNN or NBC.
Party officials approved the resolution Friday morning in Boston at the RNC’s annual summer meeting.

You see this is cover for the front runners……they can refuse to debate saying the party has forbid it….a cowards way out but it will be effective…..just another attempt to keep dumb asses from putting their foot in their mouths on national TV….

This is all so much theater…..just another way of avoiding dealing with problems and offering solutions….all this just helps them lose yet another election….

The Poka In Boca–Prez Debate #3

The Mass-Debaters met in Boca Raton to debate for the third and final time….mercifully putting us out of misery…..well, our debate misery….there is still much money to be spent in the battleground states and those poor people should be raving lunatics by election day with all that spin thrown at them….

I learned that Mitt has the same position as the prez for getting out of Afghanistan…..well, basically, he has most of the same positions as the Prez….the one surprise for me was the lack of a drumming on Benghazi, a good choice to not focus on it, but the echo chamber is still going on and on about Benghazi….Mitt and his boyz decided not to on about it……to me Romney look off balanced almost the whole time for the exception for the first 10 minutes or so, when he looked like he was going to be in it for the haul……especially when he gave Obama his props for taking out Osama…taking one of the Prez talking points out of the debate…..good ploy!  Romney seemed a bit mild mannered from the bolster that has been  present in the campaign stops…..

Obama was calm and collected…….but his most newsworthy quote for the next several days will be his comment on the number of horses and bayonets in the military…….Obama spent a good percentage of his answers pointing to the ever changing positions the Romney campaign has held on foreign policy…

All in all, the Prez won this debate, my opinion…..but I am sure that others will see it differently……..I was expecting no different……the Prez had an advantage in a foreign policy simply because of his office…..Romney once again, in the last two weeks, has tacked to the middle….but is it enough or did he wait a bit too long, two weeks before the election, to make this course change?

Since this is the last debate of 2012 I want to add a few notes……as I have always said….these debates were about optics not substance….they are too rehearsed!  They have not been real debates but rather a short TV program….there needs to be a serious look at the formats and the whole presidential debate system…it needs to be updated.

Once again, it was the optics that made your decision on who won……..and of course they, meaning the media, has assembled “undecideds”…..and once again it was all theater….if there are any “undecideds” at this point then them are just looking for some attention….but idf they are truly “undecided” then just make sure that they have a coin in their pocket on election……. and for God sake….Do NOT ask them if they prefer paper or plastic!

The Next Big Debate–2012

The Poke-A In Boca will be all about foreign policy….the battle between Obama and Romney will vie for the hearts and minds of the American voter…..we will hear all about Israel, Iran, Arab Spring, etc etc etc…

But the American people, will they be interested?  Here are a few things about foreign policy and the American voter….

  • 41 percent of Americans believe China is the world’s leading economic power, according to a 2012 Pew poll (the correct answer is the United States, which 40 percent of respondents in the Pew poll selected)
  • 73 percent of Americans could not identify communism as America’s main concern during the Cold War, according to Newsweek, which administered an official citizenship test in 2011 (admittedly, it’s not entirely clear what if any alternative answers — the Soviet Union? Nuclear weapons? — the magazine accepted)
  • 9 percent of Americans frequently worry about becoming a victim of terrorism, according to a 2011 AP-GfK poll (Reason magazine has calculated that the chances of being killed by a terrorist are roughly one in 20 million, and that “in the last five years you were four times more likely to be struck by lightning than killed by a terrorist”)
  • Nearly 25 percent of Americans don’t know that the United States declared its independence from Great Britain, according to a 2011 Marist poll
  • 71 percent of Americans believe Iran already has nuclear weapons, according to a 2010 CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll (Israel, the United States, and the International Atomic Energy Agency would beg to differ)
  • 33 percent of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was personally involved in 9/11 as late as 2007, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll (it’s worth noting that the number was down from 53 percent in 2003, and that more recent polls suggest the percentage has continued to decline since 2007)

As the survey shows, Americans are not that knowledgeable on foreign policy…. I do not look for the debate to break any records for viewership….we as a nation are not that interested in foreign policy……we do like winners and people will watch so that they can say they saw the winner work his magic…….who will win?  YOUR guy!  Whoever that may be.

God!  Will this torment ever end?

Things Not Spoken

We have had two debates and depending on your sway they were either good or bad….our two combatants spoke on many things……many attempted gotcha moments but personally, I heard nothing about the ideas to move this country forward…..lots of the other guy sucks!

There are some things that needed to be debated but for some reason they were not…..Michael O’Brien has given us a good idea of things not spoken…..

FISCAL CLIFF

Regardless of the outcome of next month’s election, Obama or Romney would almost assuredly encounter a potential fiscal crisis immediately upon being sworn into office.

While the topics of taxes, spending and entitlements were rampant during the first two debates, the so-called “fiscal cliff” looming at the beginning of 2013 presents a far more beguiling challenge for either candidate come January.

The fiscal cliff is a shorthand way of referencing the cocktail of automatic spending cuts and tax hikes set to take effect at the beginning of next year, the by-product of legislative gridlock which economists warn could do serious damage to the recovery.

This is something whoever wins this lame election will have to face very soon into the year……why was it eliminated?

HOUSING MARKET

A troubled housing market and financial crisis related to over-extended mortgages are the root cause of America’s current economic headache, but the topic received scant attention during the first two debates.

But neither candidate paid lip service to the full severity of the housing market except as an aside in a larger discussion about the regulations on lenders included in the 2010 Dodd-Frank regulatory reform law.

Viewers looking for more details about how Obama or Romney would handle Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac – the troubled mortgage-lending giants that were taken into government conservatorship in 2008 — also might have been disappointed in the first two debates. Neither candidate explained how they would move the troubled companies off the government’s books.

IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

The winding-down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan received more attention during the lone vice presidential debate than they did during the first two meetings between Romney and Obama.

American combat troops have been in Afghanistan since 2001 and in Iraq since 2003, and Obama has begun the process of ending the wars in each country — something of which he has been quick to remind voters during the debates.

Romney has sought to distinguish himself from Obama on both theaters, focusing his criticism on the pace at which Obama has withdrawn troops from both countries, and Obama’s decision to set timelines by which American combat troops would leave both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Personally, I think our troops and vets deserve a little more attention than being used as political prop.

EUROPE’S FISCAL CRISIS

The debt crises beguiling Greece, Spain, Italy and a host of other European nations have imperiled the health of the European Union and its currency, the Euro. Moreover, much of Europe has plunged into a double-dip recession, the effects of which have imperiled the American economic recovery.

But the still-serious situation in Europe has been little more than a punchline for the candidates through the first two presidential debates.

But the situation in Europe received no attention in the first two debates, even though the EU was just awarded the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize in part for its perseverance through a politically-trying period in its history.

If the economy is going to bite us in the butt again, then it will most likely start in Europe…..it needs a little more attention than it is getting now.

Just a few issues that both teams seem to be avoiding….why?  The housing market is NOT stable in the least….Europe is far from stable…….and then there is the fiscal cliff….it was all the are a few months ago but now NO one seems to give a crap…..why?

The next debate is suppose to be about foreign policy, if that holds true then Europe may be the only issue we shall hear about and we can go into the November election with NO idea how either one of these men will handle the important issues mentioned above…..Now take a few moments and explain why you would vote for either candidate and please try to be honest……

Presidential Debate #2

Last night our political warriors battled with each other at the Hofstra battlefield……..as usual it was all about the optics not the substance…….optics?

If you have made up your mind for whom to vote….then your candidate won the night.  Makes NO difference what points were made for or against…..your political choice won the night and we can all go about with the spin.

Personally, I do not think that the town hall is the best format for a debate…it is more just throwing platitudes out there for the people to devour.  If you went into the debate undecided then you came out of it with nothing but a headache.  Why?  You heard nothing that has not been said already in the campaigns.

I will say that Obama had a better night than in the past…..and that is not saying that he won the night……Romney looked like Romney…..neither person commanded anything on that stage…..neither man was angry……both were calm and presented their points calmly and coolly….almost to the point of indifference.

So all you Romney supporters should be pleased……likewise for all those Obama people……you heard a reiteration of points that are obscure and heard nothing that is new or was a clarification……

Maybe next time there is a town hall we could have the candidate break out into a tap routine after every point….at least then it would be entertaining….God knows these debates are anything but informative….if you cannot inform at least be entertaining..this night was neither.

Readers!  Your guy won!  Congrats!  The voter lost this debate….once again.  Let the spin….begin! (the poetry just follows from my fingers….LOL)

I will admit that I did learn one thing from this debate……I learned the this whole diatribe about the “undecideds” is hokum……the focus group of undecideds that was interviewed after the debate showed me that they had already made up their minds prior to the debate……..I have often thought that this issue was a made up issue by the media….nothing I saw or heard changes my mind on that issue……I still think that at this late point of the campaign if one is still undecided then they are the people that are confused by simple questions like “paper or plastic”.

On to the next edition of debate night in the US.