US presidential debates: Obama v Romney

[busybeeburns]

 

US election: Obama and Romney clash in Denver

 

US President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney have clashed over their economic plans in the first of three televised debates.

 

In their Denver duel, the candidates contrasted their approach on taxes, the deficit and healthcare. Mr Obama said he would ensure Americans were "playing by the same rules". His rival said re-electing Mr Obama would continue a "middle-class squeeze".

 

The president has held a narrow lead in recent opinion polls.

 

He went into the debate ahead in national polls and in many surveys in the swing states that will decide the election.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19825263

[iccp]

hmm....this election looks like it's gonna be a tough one :\

[coldplaymom]

I don't think it will be a tough one. People have already started voting and the road to 270 electoral college votes for Romney is almost impossible. That said, he did himself lots of good last night. He appeared very presidential and cleaned Obama clock. The president was way too deferential.

[Batman]

Hopefully Obama wins

[NumbersGirl]

the road to 270 electoral college votes for Romney is almost impossible[/color]. That said, he did himself lots of good last night. He appeared very presidential and cleaned Obama clock. The president was way too deferential.

Yes, pretty much what you said.

 

 

And I have a feeling that Mr. Fieger* will pay ad money to have this air nationally shortly before election day. It already aired in the Detroit area a few months ago and my initial reaction was a combination of :stunned: and :sneaky: with a little bit of oh snap yeah he went there.

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-C29Lpqmhg]Mitt Romney Led "Gang of Bullies" - Presidential Elections 2012 - Fieger Law - YouTube[/ame]

 

 

* The guy who became know nation- (and world-?) wide for being Dr. Kevorkian's attorney.

[Guest howyousawtheworld]

I saw the debate early this morning at 2am! I was impressed by Romney's performance. He really got on the attack early against Obama and it was a very confident and assured performance. By contrast Obama really didn't have the best of evenings. He was ragged, didn't seem to get his message through and didn't attack Romney in any significant manner. He rambled too often and really didn't keep things succinct especially in that opening half hour answering on small business. If he performs like that in the remaining debates he will lose the confidence of the voters and it could be a disaster. Will sow some seeds of doubt into the minds of Democrats but I think complacency played a factor last night. Romney's had a pretty disastrous campaign so far and he had everything to gain and nothing to lose last night. A lot in Obama's corner probably thought he could just turn up and show Romney up. Will still have to take a remarkable turnaround if Romney were to win.

 

Are these debates widely watched in the USA? We had those sort of debates here in the UK for the first time during the 2010 general election featuring the leaders of the three largest parties Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg. They became more irrelevent after each one and at the end of the day didn't really make any impact on the way people would vote.

[NumbersGirl]

Triple Crown[/url] since 1967. WAY MORE IMPORTANT. I got all the debate scoop on the news this morning.

 

However, I'm not sure that the debate REALLY makes much of a difference in how people vote. Even the voters who aren't affiliated with either party and/or those who are to this point (technically) undecided might not be influenced greatly in either direction. Those people usually go the route of "do I want a change, or don't I want a change? And if I do prefer change, if the other person seems to be a total screwup, do I really want change that bad?" Plus, there's always the rosy realization that many of the important decisions that REALLY affect our lives aren't made by the President anyway, they are made by the Legislature. Sure, the vote is important, but frankly way too much emphasis is placed on the presidency, in my humble opinion.

 

I think Romney's persistent slip-ups, like the post above, the "not caring about those 47%" comments, insisting he likes Big Bird even though he plans to cut funding for PBS (perharps making Big Bird an endangered animal)... not helping himself very much.

 

 

On an intersting note, I learned that Obama and Romney only met each other in-person 3 times before last night

According to the campaign's tally, the last time they met was in 2008 after back-to-back Democratic and Republican presidential debates in New Hampshire. Prior to that, it was a brief handshake and a few pleasantries between the two men at a Labor Day parade, also in New Hampshire, in September, 2007.

 

Their first meeting? The 2004 Gridiron Dinner in Washington where then Senator-elect Obama took a jab at Romney, joking Massachusetts was a "great launching pad" for a presidential campaign.

[Karencorpse]

I don't like either one. I will vote for the any canidate who wants to fix the power grid to protect it from EMP (electromagnetic pulse) from the sun or atomic bomb. This can wipe out modern civilation. The House has voted on a bill for this and some foreign countries have done this. We have enough money for this. So who is going to do this. I will vote for you. I am third party person.

[coldplaymom]

Ronald Reagan lost 1st debate to Walter Mondale, G.W. lost 1st debate to John Kerry, but they both came back swinging in the 2nd one. Obama was too worried about remaining above the fray. Now he knows it was a miscalculation. Already today, he's gone on the offensive on his stump speech, countering Romney's points from last night. I bet he won't make that mistake the next time around.

[para-para-parrotdies]

Hopefully Obama wins

 

Hopefully he doesn't. :santa2:

[getithom]

I'm predicting that this race will be similar to the infamous Bush/Gore election night. Unlike McCain, Romney is following very closely behind Obama, and with Romney's strong(er) approach during the debate (as compared to Obama, who seemed rather tired and calm), I think it's going to send this election to be much more intense than 2008.

[Violet]

However, I'm not sure that the debate REALLY makes much of a difference in how people vote. Even the voters who aren't affiliated with either party and/or those who are to this point (technically) undecided might not be influenced greatly in either direction. Those people usually go the route of "do I want a change, or don't I want a change? And if I do prefer change, if the other person seems to be a total screwup, do I really want change that bad?" Plus, there's always the rosy realization that many of the important decisions that REALLY affect our lives aren't made by the President anyway, they are made by the Legislature. Sure, the vote is important, but frankly way too much emphasis is placed on the presidency, in my humble opinion.

 

Yeah, I agree. My parents had decided they were voting for Romney long before this debate even came on. The same was more than likely true of the many people on Facebook choosing sides last night.

 

Honestly, my opinion hasn't changed by watching this debate. Of course, I'm not a fan of politics at all, anyway, but all I saw last night was two men interrupting and insulting each other while repeating themselves, trying their hardest to tell us what we want to hear. I don't agree with either of them on certain things, and I can't say I feel comfortable voting for either of them. At the very least, I'll watch the other presidential debate and see what happens.

 

Speaking of debates, the vice-presidential debate comes on a week from today, in case anyone's interested.

 

(Also, as a side note, can someone please explain to me why the moderator was even there?)

[Batman]

Hopefully he doesn't. :santa2:

:lol:

[Jack Bauer]

That picture up there says it all. Romney staring straight at Obama and Obama looking away. Obama avoided eye contact with Romeny all night while Romeny did just the opposite.

[The Final Track]

Hopefully he doesn't. :santa2:

 

Why? I'm curious.

[NumbersGirl]

I find it amusing that the majority of the U.S. people in this thread so far (whether posting or "thanking") don't seem to want Obama, yet it appears that all the non-U.S. people do.

 

In the months before Romney won the Republican nomination, there were wide swings in which delegate was in the "lead". Cain, Perry, Santorum, Gingrich and Romney all had their 15 minutes of being at the top and at the bottom. Members of the Republican Party couldn't come to a clear agreement, and it just so happens that the spinning bottle happened to land on Romney at the end.

 

I can't imagine that a winner of spin-the-bottle would then somehow land up in the White House.

[an angel]

It's probably because the economy has gone to shit in the past four years and Americans are the ones who are suffering because of some really bad economic choices that Obama has made.

 

Romney's not the best alternative, but we need someone who understands economics and has experience with turning around dire economic situations. I'd rather give him a chance than keep someone in office who has added more to the debt than all presidents before him combined.

 

If anything is amusing it's the fact that a president whose sole campaign was "Change" is exactly like the president who came before him; more wars, more defense spending, renewal of the patriot act and signing of the NDAA and ACTA (after saying he would never sign it) which violate first amendment rights, corporate bailouts, etc.

[Batman]

German tv today showed me what an intelligent man Romney is:

 

He complained that he couldn't open a window in an airplane :lol:

 

I'd like Obama to continue being president, from what I know he gave the American people a health insurance after all.

[an angel]

In regards to the health insurance you are referring to:

 

“So let me get this straight. This is a long sentence.

We are going to be gifted with a health care plan that we are forced to purchase, and fined if we don’t, which reportedly covers 10 million more people without adding a single new doctor, but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chairman doesn’t understand it, passed by Congress that didn’t read it, but exempted themselves from it, and signed by a President who smokes, with funding administered by a Treasury Chief who didn’t pay his taxes, for which we will be taxed for four years before any benefits take effect, by a government which has bankrupted Social Security and Medicare, all to be overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese and financed by a country that is broke.

So what the blank could possibly go wrong?” - Dr. Barbara Bellar

[Alien Radio]

Hopefully he doesn't. :santa2:

 

Hopefully Romney doesn't. :santa:

[Violet]

In the months before Romney won the Republican nomination, there were wide swings in which delegate was in the "lead". Cain, Perry, Santorum, Gingrich and Romney all had their 15 minutes of being at the top and at the bottom. Members of the Republican Party couldn't come to a clear agreement, and it just so happens that the spinning bottle happened to land on Romney at the end.

 

I can't imagine that a winner of spin-the-bottle would then somehow land up in the White House.

 

Yeah, that's true.

 

Also, this is off-topic, but can I just say how happy I am Rick Perry DIDN'T get the nomination? I'm still mad about the budget cuts to education that he has made as my state's governor, despite the fact that Texas is 44th out of the 50 states in that regard (or was, according to the article that I read). As a person who has come from that education system and who has done work in various schools in my area, I can say that we're still highly lacking in this area.

 

If anything is amusing it's the fact that a president whose sole campaign was "Change" is exactly like the president who came before him; more wars, more defense spending, renewal of the patriot act and signing of the NDAA and ACTA (after saying he would never sign it) which violate first amendment rights, corporate bailouts, etc.

 

I remember how, when Obama first took office, he said all the troops would be out of Afghanistan by 2012. Well, it's 2012 now, and we're still there. So much for that.

 

In regards to the health insurance you are referring to:

 

“So let me get this straight. This is a long sentence.

We are going to be gifted with a health care plan that we are forced to purchase, and fined if we don’t, which reportedly covers 10 million more people without adding a single new doctor, but provides for 16,000 new IRS agents, written by a committee whose chairman doesn’t understand it, passed by Congress that didn’t read it, but exempted themselves from it, and signed by a President who smokes, with funding administered by a Treasury Chief who didn’t pay his taxes, for which we will be taxed for four years before any benefits take effect, by a government which has bankrupted Social Security and Medicare, all to be overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese and financed by a country that is broke.

So what the blank could possibly go wrong?” - Dr. Barbara Bellar

 

That's the part I'm really annoyed about when it comes to ObamaCare. My family doesn't have health insurance. We can't afford it. According to ObamaCare, we either have to get the insurance that we can't afford, or we're forced to pay money as punishment for being too poor to afford health insurance. As my mom often says, "you're damned if you do, and damned if you don't." That is just WRONG.

 

As far as the ecomony...I'm not very smart when it comes to economics. All I know is what I have personally experienced. Having said that, I do know that what Obama said about small businesses paying less in taxes is an outright lie. My dad runs a small business, and my dad's taxes have gone through the roof. He has his paperwork to confirm this. I also know that his claim about lowering tuition is preposterous because, in the 4 years that I went to college, my tuition was raised every year.

 

Having said all this stuff about Obama, I can't vote for Romney, either, and a lot of that has to do with his stance on certain social issues.

[getithom]

German tv today showed me what an intelligent man Romney is:

 

He complained that he couldn't open a window in an airplane :lol:

 

I'd like Obama to continue being president, from what I know he gave the American people a health insurance after all.

 

The health insurance he wants to put in place is a joke.

[NumbersGirl]

Where's Ron Paul when you need him?

[getithom]

Where's Ron Paul when you need him?

 

:nod:

[zzz]

The health insurance he wants to put in place is a joke.

 

I'm not sure I get why so many people seem to be against the Health insurance? I'm not an American citizen, so maybe I'm missing something? :confused:

 

Could someone perhaps elaborate on that?