… and beware the obliterated glass shard fragments from all the windows that were smashed last night.
I’ve got class to prep for, but I don’t see how anyone with a brain could come away from last night’s performance feeling good about the world. Here are my tweets from the debate. Let all readers be reminded that among the most incredibly important issues of our day, the most important questions of “social justice” and both candidates were utterly silent. The problem of inner city education and urban poverty? Not really a word – and certainly nothing resembling a serious idea from either “candidate.” The deportation of massive amounts of immigrants? The possibility that global warming is the greatest threat mankind faces (they were debating, in the year 2012, about who could burn more oil and gas). Any discussion of the proper role of government at any level? No mention of spending. It was really quite appalling. But, my new feeling about all of this is that we get what we deserve.
An Appalling Salvo of Rhetorical Artillery! (ht to the indispensable Mencken)
“The free enterprise system is the greatest engine of prosperity ever known” … Who knew?
Ummm … we already have high-skill, high-wage, advanced manufacturing …
So, in closing we both are protectionists, anti-immigrant, pro-spending Tooth Fairies.
90 minutes and not a single word about the Great Fact that government at all levels spends nearly $6.5 trillion.
BTW small businesses destroy more jobs than big businesses … MITT knows nothing about trade
Carol … That is NOT a great question… The premise is wrong
Extra credit: how successful are job retraining programs?
How is it that undecided voters cheer when Romney has his lunch eaten?
I don’t want to power law enforcers to check papers … Hold on, … I’ve got a drone strike to conduct …
Has legal immigration actually become easier?
8hGarrett Quinn @GarrettQuinn
On immigration, President Obama is actually deporting 10,000 more immigrants a month than Bush. #debate
Retweeted by Wintercow
Debate summary, I don’t need to Tweet anymore: The Federal government can and will DO everything. What, exactly, are they debating?
YOU sir are the embodiment of opportunity costs!
No you didn’t! You saved 1,000 tire jobs … AT WHAT COST? Well over $70,000 per job “saved” … and don’t consumers matter? The poor?
Bring a case against yourself for unfair trade practices … Against American corps via tax rates
So less trade with china is good? More with Latin America good? That’s some fuzzy math.
Can the President provide me with government contraception?
“We do not tolerate discrimination!” Except against the rich and small government types.
Why is the middle class so special? The tragedy in America is what is happening in cities like my Rochester … The modern Forgotten Men
Female recent college grads actually earn … MORE than men
Well done Barack … I’d attack the math too
Energy independence … And then open up more trade??? YCHIBW!
Great … Will we also go back to Clinton Era spending?!!!
Will each Presidential stuffed shirt ask my state and town and school to cut my taxes?
Talking about tax rates is like lowering fuel consumption without altering your driving behavior
Obama good point on recession and energy
Global warming? That’s like … Sooooo passé
You can’t drill when YOU want
They’re gonna fight!
Energy idiot-dependence
Great point on federal land and production of oil/gas
Biofuels are NOT green … CAFE standards are costly … And what does Matt Damon think about our wonderful frack boom?
Great … Take executives from GM at their word on list jobs
He said it … Rebuild America … You mean our fourth world country?http://theunbrokenwindow.com/2012/10/16/they-said-it-were-a-fourth-world-nation/ …
Obama had a pretty predictable first answer … Wait it WAS Romney
Great … Tell a college kid we’ll have manufacturing for him in Long Island
Yes! Obama in Red and Romney in Blue!
WC is right about free trade. To be sure, the controversy is about whose rice bowl is being defiled, but it is too bad that economic pundits, who know better, have not exposed the fallacies that have been known since at least the days of Bastiat. You have to be an idiot…sorry, do not get me going.
To Romney’s credit, he spoke of North American energy independence, an important distinction, not beggaring Canada for selling us fossil fuels; they are not our mortal enemy. Meanwhile, Obama sounded like he was not just for electric cars, but for coal and anything carbon, contrary to everything he has done or attempted. Wintercow would categorize this as having it both ways, and I would call it a bald lie. We know where he stands, and some readers may find that appealing. But he wants gas to cost what the Europeans pay, and your heating bill higher.
We supply-siders and libertarians can easily quibble with Mitt Romney over free trade, taxation, and other subjects, especially emphasis on economic growth. Would we not like every Marriott hotel to put Economic Sophisms right next to the Book of Mormon and the Gideon Bible? If we, er, were king.
I can’t help but thinking about the poor souls who happened to visit WC’s house recently. Speedmaster commented on this earlier, about appalling fusillades. Holy smokes! They left with a To-Do list.
I share your sentiment, but there is a reason I don’t watch debates; candidates are not free to say what they want to say, unless it is a populist big-government point. Debates are aimed at the most ignorant among us; they are aimed at the undecided voters who are typically so astonishingly ignorant, that unless you tell them that you will do great things for them personally, they will not vote for you. Such an appeal is not easy to make for anyone arguing for cutting government, so I disregard anything Romney says in such settings. They are never what they really believe, they are just saying what they need to say to appeal to the lowest common denominator.
Of course, in the long run trend, this indicates that our collective minds have turned into such mush, that we are no longer capable of hearing a grown up tell us that NO, government isn’t going to do anything to help us. In the long run, this is not a winnable debate.
If the debate itself is meaningful, if the better debater should win the election, why not just have a national debate, maybe like “Dancing With The Stars”, with regional entries leading up to a grand championship with voting by Facebook. Let’s get with it, it’s century 21, I wanna vote with my Iphone app.
By the way, the Obama persona of the last 5 or 6 years keeps adding up to my original assessment: he’s a photocopy of a newscaster on a television station in a small, regional market, Wichita, Chattanooga or Flagstaff. Pleasant appearance, physically if not mentally fit, not particularly bright, good at reading a teleprompter, probably could handle public appearances at the opening of the new wing of the community hospital or introduce the new soprano at the local civic opera. He’s risen above his level competence, the Peter Principle in action.
Muchas gracias. ?Como puedo iniciar sesion?