Thursday, October 4, 2012

Rope-A-Dope: The Romney Edition

The big debate today is about the big debate last night that matched up Mitt Romney, the GOP nominee, with President Obama, the incumbent. At first glance just minutes after the debate the media was on fire about how Romney had won this bout and that Obama was lacking in energy, charisma, you name it. Everyone was so disappointed in Obama's performance. Yadda, yadda, yadda.


I didn't see it that way. I watched as President Obama looked down and kind of smiled, almost chuckled, as Romney went on and on slathering on the lies. Yes lies. I don't think Obama could even believe what he was hearing...so he just let Mitt bury himself even deeper and deeper.

I found this article by Allen Clifton, over at Right Off A Cliff and I think it says it best:

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After the first Presidential debate right-wing voters are gushing all over themselves because Romney..

Looked strong? No, not really.

Because he really nailed Obama on key issues? No, didn’t do that either.

Because he laid out a clear vision for our country under his leadership? Nope, never gave specific details on much of anything.

You know why they’re gushing–because he managed to go 90 minutes on live television without looking like a complete moron. He didn’t say anything that made him seem like a competent leader with a clear vision for our country’s future.

But let’s prove this. Republicans–if he did such a great job please answer for me:
What tax deductions does he plan to close?
What plan will he use to replace the Affordable Care Act?
If Medicare is such a bad program, why does he want to keep it the same for current (or soon to be) retirees? If it’s such terrible health coverage why are those who currently receive these benefits strongly opposed to any changes to the program?

How does he plan to maintain tax revenue by just closing deductions? Especially when you look at the numbers that say even if you closed every single deduction we have for the wealthy it wouldn’t equal the amount of revenue we’d lose with his continuation of Bush’s policies. Only this time the tax breaks would be even larger than the Bush tax breaks…which added trillions to our national debt.
Oh..that’s right! His plan assumes 3% growth, every single year, just like George W. Bush’s plan. How many years did we see 3% growth under Bush? A whooping 2 of his 8 years. This plan promotes a hypothetical number that if we don’t hit 3% growth every single year it will mean we’ll either have to raise taxes or our national debt will continue to grow.

What government subsides, besides that deficit killer given to PBS, will he get rid of?
How does he plan to make America more energy independent when simply drilling more won’t do anything to lower the global price of oil? More domestic drilling just gives oil companies more to sell on the global market (to the highest bidder) just as they do now.
Unless of course Romney is calling for more domestic drilling with a simultaneous nationalization of our oil supply. I however doubt that’s what he’d do so in reality this pathetic “Drill Baby Drill!” bullshit is just that…complete bullshit. It’s fed to those who have no idea how oil is traded globally or how its price is set.

He said last night he likes regulation (except all he’s talked about, up until that moment, his entire campaign is how regulation kills job growth) and would repeal Dodd-Frank. So can you tell us which regulations he likes and would keep?

Can you, Republican voters, answer any of these? No? Oh that’s right…
Because he’s yet to offer a detailed explanation for any of these questions during his campaign and he sure as hell didn’t answer them last night.

But what did President Obama do? Well…not much. Only he actually did. He gave this debate to Romney. He let him spout off lie after lie, flip-flop after flip-flop. He let him play his hand early while sitting back allowing Romney to dig his own hole.

It’s called rope-a-dope. See Romney flip-flops on so many issues, seemingly at will, that it was impossible to really know publicly where Romney would make his final stand on key points. It’s hard to counter a man who’s anti-regulation one minute and pro-regulation the next. Who pushes a tax plan for 18 months only to say that if his plan were to call for an increase to our deficit, which almost every tax expert says it will, that he won’t pass it.

So President Obama let Romney fire away. He didn’t bring up the 47% comment, the ER health care comment, his tax returns, offshore accounts, his record of outsourcing jobs, his stance on letting Detroit go bankrupt, his blunders on foreign policy….he didn’t need to. He needed to know where Romney’s final stance on issues would be and he got just that.

See..in a fight it isn’t about who wins the first round. Often underdogs, or weaker opponents, come out initially strong–confident. They’re out there to show that they can win. The favorite, or stronger competitor, often just sits back…letting them burn themselves out. That’s exactly what Obama did. Romney came out swinging while Obama sat back and took the blows.

Now Romney’s dug himself into a hole. He played the best possible hand he could and even then it wasn’t that great. He just didn’t embarrass himself. That’s how pathetic he is. A victory for this man wasn’t landing a big blow, making a great point or obliterating his opponent…it was just not making a fool of himself on national television.
Hell, even towards the end you saw the wheels coming off when he said we’re a nation of people under one God. What the hell does that even mean? I’m a Christian and at no time have I read about the need to wear magical underpants or have I been told of some fake planet named Kolob. Then let’s not forget there are millions of non-Christian Americans of which he completely dismissed their personal beliefs with this comment.

Remember it isn’t who wins the first round, it’s who wins the last. If Romney gets crushed in the next 2 debates no one will remember a thing he said on October 3, 2012. President Obama knows this. He knew Romney would come out lying, flip-flopping and exaggerating on the issues. He knew the first debate would be the best Romney had to offer.


So now that Romney has made his stand (which fact checking groups have been shredding since the debate ended). He can no longer treat his campaign like an Etch A Sketch. He’s made his case and now it’s President Obama’s turn.

Come debate #2….just wait, President Obama is going to annihilate this flip-flopping clown.

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