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The American Politics Discussion Thread

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15
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The Obama Tumblr page has this posted today:

We had our first debate last night. And when I got onto the stage, I met this very spirited fellow who claimed to be Mitt Romney. 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.

The real Mitt Romney said we don't need any more teachers in our classrooms. But the fellow on stage last night, he loves teachers—can't get enough of them. The Mitt Romney we all know invested in companies that were called "pioneers" of outsourcing jobs to other countries. But the guy on stage last night, he said that he doesn't even know that there are such laws that encourage outsourcing—he's never heard of them. Never heard of them. Never heard of tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. He said that if it's true, he must need a new accountant.

Now, we know for sure it was not the real Mitt Romney, because he seems to be doing just fine with his current accountant. So you see, the man on stage last night, he does not want to be held accountable for the real Mitt Romney's decisions and what he's been saying for the last year. And that's because he knows full well that we don't want what he's been selling for the last year. So Governor Romney may dance around his positions, but if you want to be President, you owe the American people the truth.

- President Obama in Denver, CO today

Pretty much sums up what I saw last night.
 

TRIFORCE89

Guide of Darkness
8,123
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19
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The Obama Tumblr page has this posted today:



Pretty much sums up what I saw last night.
That is all very true. But, the opportunity to raise all that was yesterday instead of letting Romney walk all over him.

It was just bad yesterday. There were so many opportunities for Obama to respond and put him in his place and he just didn't do it. He phoned it in, he looked beaten. It was bad.
 
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What are your thoughts about Mitt Romney commenting on stopping funding of Public Television? He is constantly talking about liking Big Bird and Sesame Street and how he wants to end funding for PBS. He mentioned that in the debate last night.

I consider this an non-issue, but I do understand what he is getting at. But PBS is a service to the American public by providing the funding to help out some PBS stations stay on the air.
 

Riku

Who cares to know, eh Bubbles?
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I didn't feel as though Romney smashed Obama as everyone seems to be saying... To me, he was as unprofessional and twitchy as he was bold and feisty. The man was disrespectful to the moderator of the debate on almost every question, and every time that seemed to happen, it felt as though he was scrambling to try and bounce back. Sure, Obama was mild and mellow and not very defensive in the slightest, but... Romney wasn't exactly king cool himself.

Also, my thoughts on the PBS defunding? I think he's an idiot for trying to cut it. It is a very informative station and from what I can tell, a fairly large audience base that extends past kids to adults as well. And to bring up Big Bird like he did, I have to say that the way he worded that would potentially upset quite a few people as a loooot of voters out there now grew up with Sesame Street and the like.
 

TRIFORCE89

Guide of Darkness
8,123
Posts
19
Years
What are your thoughts about Mitt Romney commenting on stopping funding of Public Television? He is constantly talking about liking Big Bird and Sesame Street and how he wants to end funding for PBS. He mentioned that in the debate last night.

I consider this an non-issue, but I do understand what he is getting at. But PBS is a service to the American public by providing the funding to help out some PBS stations stay on the air.
The Republicans need to stop the public television card. It doesn't apply to America. In the United Kingdom with the BBC? In Canada with the CBC? Sure. They take a long of public funds even though they operate like a private channel.

I like the idea of public television. At the provincial level here in Ontario where I live, we have TVO. I love TVO. I watch it often. It is the opposite of CBC. It is very much like PBS.

PBS takes up less 0.03% of the budget and yet the benefit it brings is immense. The Republicans use it and NPR so that they can have that traditional go-to "public media is bad" stance that conservatives tend to do. But it just doesn't apply in America. The funding is essentially just facility coverage. Programming is done through donations. And the amount it costs is absolutely miniscule.

...

By the way, something I've been having fun with the last couple of days is "Budget Hero". http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/budget-hero Has anyone tried this out? I got the US budget balanced by 2015, with a $3 trillion surplus by 2022. Made America energy independent, gave it universal healthcare, increased funding in education, reformed social insurance and medicare/caid, reformed the tax code, cut military spending. This gig is easy. XD
 
9,468
Posts
15
Years
By the way, something I've been having fun with the last couple of days is "Budget Hero". http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/budget-hero Has anyone tried this out? I got the US budget balanced by 2015, with a $3 trillion surplus by 2022. Made America energy independent, gave it universal healthcare, increased funding in education, reformed social insurance and medicare/caid, reformed the tax code, cut military spending. This gig is easy. XD

I remember playing this game.

Turns out it's the Bush Tax Cuts that's really dragging things. But seriously there should be an option to just do the whole Medicare for all LOL.
 

TRIFORCE89

Guide of Darkness
8,123
Posts
19
Years
I remember playing this game.

Turns out it's the Bush Tax Cuts that's really dragging things. But seriously there should be an option to just do the whole Medicare for all LOL.
I played that one too before! I got to exactly 50% spending cuts and 50% tax "increases"

It is really. I really wanted to have the "Extend Bush Tax Cuts for all but the wealthy" card, but it just brought down everything. Could not invest in anything while that was in play XD I let it expire and still cut taxes elsewhere.
 
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TRIFORCE89

Guide of Darkness
8,123
Posts
19
Years
Missed most of it as I was in class, I caught the last 25 minutes.

I think both candidates did well. Either a tie or a slight edge to whoever you prefer by default. I loved that Biden kept calling Ryan out and did what Obama should have done last time.

Great moderator too
 

Taemin

[i][b]MOVE[/i][/b]
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  • Age 36
  • USA
  • Seen Dec 10, 2023
As far as the presidential debate went some days ago, I caught a chunk of it, and I just thought Romney was so fake. He was basically taking the things Obama said, and saying the exact same thing in his own words, and trying to one-up him the entire time. Obama just stood there like "83 I wanna punch dat sukah". Neither one of them are going to fix our country in this next term, that's gonna take the next four or five presidents in my opinion. However, I feel like Obama could be more helpful in achieving such, rather than Romney. I could also be bitter, because I disagree with a lot of Romney's ideals, and not every one does, but I think he'll lose by a good enough margin.

With the vice presidential debate, I actually haven't seen that yet since I was at work during the entire thing, and I heard no one talk about it.
 

Ivysaur

Grass dinosaur extraordinaire
21,082
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17
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From what I read, Biden won just by doing what was expected of him: being aggessive, rebutting Ryan's claims instead of just trying to explain his and having lots of jokes and key punches when he needed to. Pretty much what Obama needed to do.

This debate won't really change anything but will stop the Democratic losses and give some enthusiasm back to their supporters, so they'll be pretty much even coming into the third debate. I'm just going to say that, despite all this "Romney Comeback", Obama is still leading in the electoral college, 294 to 244 (RCP says).
 

Riku

Who cares to know, eh Bubbles?
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Biden wrecked Ryan, enough said. Yet, despite that, he is being deemed the loser by many people because he hasn't been acting very dignified and people are saying he was being obnoxious. Joe Biden was being Joe Biden. And he was doing exactly what people said Obama should have done and called out his opponent and challenged him when he knew the opposition was lying. However, he is now being criticized for it (and, if I may add, Romney was just as rude during the last debate, even going so far as to tell the moderator how to run the debate.) I will admit though that, while dancing around the questions and while being called out, Ryan did hold his own against Biden, if only for how he handled his opponent's criticism (which, again, I would like to point out reminded me a bit of how Obama acted last week, minus all the ahs and ums.)


I agree with Went: The one thing I think that it probably did was (hopefully) galvanize supporters. Not because of the policies, but because again: he stood up and criticized what he knew or believed wrong. People on the non-Conservative side (I'm including independents as well, not just liberals) haven't been doing that as much in this election cycle I don't think. It's going to be interesting to see how things play out from here. Things are probably about to get much messier.
 
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14
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Biden won this one. He had the passion and a response for every assertion that Ryan made. Ryan stayed cool, which is good for him, and he presented his points which will make Republicans happy, but he had no zingers, no defining moments, and fell apart on foreign policy. Funny how Ryan said, basically, that he pretty much agrees with the president on Syria, Iran, and Afghanistan, but then at the same time criticizes the president for his stance on Syria, Iran, and Afghanistan.

Also, glad that 47% got brought up and women's issues a.k.a. abortion. Fantastic job by Martha Raddatz in moderating this. She might be the real winner overall.
 

LividZephyr

Oxymoron, not a moron, thanks
445
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11
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I'm not watching any of the debates. I just don't want any more reasons to hate most of the people involved in this, because that's all this election is doing. Whatever happened to honesty being the best policy? Whatever happened to promoting oneself, as opposed to attacking the other guy? Why are we voting against someone instead of for someone?

I really am sick of the way this system is going... and I need a rock to crawl under.
 

Shdwj

Excuse me?
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Biden may have spoken for a longer time (a little more boldly) than Ryan, but let's face it: Joe Biden was outright rude last night. He showed absolutely no decency or respect except at the beginning and end of the debates. Ryan would bring up ideas that I believe would be of interest to the American people (ideas to promote and establish jobs, which are much needed in America today) and Biden would cut him off and keep him from fully explaining the policies he and Romney plan to establish. Hardcore liberals and democrats might praise him for such behavior, but I believe that Biden left a negative impression upon many who remain undecided this election.
 
14,092
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14
Years
Biden may have spoken for a longer time (a little more boldly) than Ryan, but let's face it: Joe Biden was outright rude last night. He showed absolutely no decency or respect except at the beginning and end of the debates. Ryan would bring up ideas that I believe would be of interest to the American people (ideas to promote and establish jobs, which are much needed in America today) and Biden would cut him off and keep him from fully explaining the policies he and Romney plan to establish. Hardcore liberals and democrats might praise him for such behavior, but I believe that Biden left a negative impression upon many who remain undecided this election.

Being rude to a two-faced liar kinda cancels out.
 
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