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| photo found here |
PS said (paraphrased by me, since I don’t record phone
conversations), “Obama is to Romney what anti-Mormon preachers are to
Mormonism. They claim some wild beliefs, and when you say, ‘No, I don’t believe
that,’ they in-your-face say, ‘Yes you do; you believe what I say you do.’”
That is a good way to explain what I saw in the debate (also
in the first presidential debate). Obama tells the audience what Romney’s plan
is; Romney tells clearly what his plan really is; Obama reiterates what he says
Romney’s plan is. Then, afterward, the media claims this was a different Romney
than they’d seen before, even though he has been surprisingly consistent to
anyone actually paying attention.
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| From Mormon.org Facebook page |
If you really want to know what Mormons believe, go ask a
Mormon. Online, Mormon.org is a wealth of information. There’s an amazing
amount of detail as well in the LDS.org Newsroom, particularly under Topics and Background. Mormons send out
more than 50,000 missionaries worldwide to tell anyone who will listen what
Mormons believe. Sunday meetings are always open to visitors. Why would
you go to someone who is not only not Mormon, but someone who has a stake in
denigrating Mormonism to give you an accurate account of Mormon beliefs?
Likewise, there’s an official Romney campaign site out
there. He’s had his full 57-point plan out there since early in the primary season.
He has summarized that into the more succinct but less detailed 5-point plan
since well before the debate season. His speech transcripts and videos are all
over the internet. Now there are the debates, recorded and transcribed.
Yet Obama, who has a stake in denigrating Romney, wants you
to believe Romney’s plan is what he tells you it is and uses his debate time to
that end. I guess if you have a really bad record you need to deflect attention
from, this approach might make sense.
Here are a few examples.
The first audience question is about what can be done for
college graduates facing the prospect of no jobs. Romney answers first, with
two points: we need to work on getting costs down for college [which I and
others are predicting will be the next economic bubble to pop], and we need to
get the economy working so there are jobs.
Obama then answers, out of touch with the questioner’s
fears, “And what I want to do, is build on the five million jobs that we've
created over the last 30 months in the private sector alone.” And then, with
not much of a segue, attacks Romney’s position on the auto industry bailout
four years ago: “Romney said we should let Detroit go bankrupt.”
Romney of course clarified that:
And one thing that the president said, which I want to make
sure that we understand, he said that I said we should take Detroit bankrupt.
And that's right. My plan was to have the company go through bankruptcy like
7-Eleven did and Macy's and Continental Airlines and come out stronger.
And I know he keeps saying, you want to take Detroit
bankrupt. Well, the president took Detroit bankrupt. You took General Motors
bankrupt. You took Chrysler bankrupt. So when you say that I wanted to take the
auto industry bankrupt, you actually did.
And I think it's important to know that that was a process
that was necessary to get those companies back on their feet, so they could
start hiring more people. That was precisely what I recommended and ultimately
what happened.
Obama came back with: “What Governor Romney said just isn't
true. He wanted to take them into bankruptcy without providing them any way to
stay open. And we would have lost a million jobs.” Who do you want to believe:
someone who has a long record of bringing troubled businesses and organizations
through a process of recovery, or someone with an abysmal record over the last
four years and not much else in his life to show economic knowledge?
Then Obama goes on with the attempt to caricature Romney:
Governor Romney doesn't have a five-point plan. He has a
one-point plan. And that plan is to make sure that folks at the top play by a
different set of rules. That's been his philosophy in the private sector,
that's been his philosophy as governor, that's been his philosophy as a
presidential candidate.
Except that we keep hearing Romney enumerate his five-point
plan, and plutocracy has never been part of it. With the moderator’s aid, Obama
didn’t have to suffer a full Romney rebuttal at this point. Romney, over the
chaos of being talked over, was able to say, “That Detroit answer, and the rest
of the answer—way off the mark.”
The next question is energy related:
QUESTION: Your energy secretary, Steven Chu, has now been on
record three times stating it's not policy of his department to help lower gas
prices. Do you agree with Secretary Chu that this is not the job of the Energy
Department?
Obama answers first, not actually answering the question,
except by implication saying it is government’s duty to control energy. He
claims credit for increased oil production, coal production and coal
employment, and natural gas, and insists that investing in “green” energy is
the answer to energy and employment. All of this is provably false.
Then he tells us what Romney’s plan for energy is: “Now,
Governor Romney will say he's got an all-of-the-above plan, but basically his
plan is to let the oil companies write the energy policies.”
This may have worked in stump speeches, where the president
gets cheers for offering up sneers and derision toward his opponent. But this
is in person with the real Romney there. And he knows the facts:
·
Oil production is up, but none of it on public
lands.
o
Oil production on public lands down by 14%
o
Natural gas production on public lands down 9%
o
Permits for drilling cut in half
·
Increases have come from private lands, much
from the Bakken Range in North Dakota.
o
The administration has brought lawsuits against
drillers there based on reports of the deaths of a few birds.
·
The EPA has made building a coal plant virtually
impossible, because of regulations.
·
The administration blocked the building of the
pipeline from Canada.
·
The Romney plan is: “I'll get America and North
America energy independent. I'll do it by more drilling, more permits and licenses.”
The moderator tries to direct the rebuttal toward answering
the question about the cost of a gallon of gasoline. Obama doesn’t actually
answer that; he just doubles down on lying (and we must know the fact checkers
will follow up, so this is only going to sway someone not paying attention—probably
someone not watching).
After this comes one of the most spark-producing moments of
the debate. Romney takes on the lies, spells out the facts, again. And Obama
essentially says, “Nuh uh.” I’m including the entire chunk of this exchange,
because, even without seeing Obama clench his fist, turn his back, and walk
away, Romney is in such control of the argument:
ROMNEY: And production on private -- on government land --
OBAMA: Production is up.
ROMNEY: -- is down.
OBAMA: No, it isn't.
ROMNEY: Production on government land of oil is down 14
percent.
OBAMA: Governor --
ROMNEY: And production on gas --
(CROSSTALK)
OBAMA: It's just not true.
ROMNEY: It's absolutely true. Look, there's no question but
the people recognize that we have not produced more (inaudible) on federal
lands and in federal waters. And coal, coal production is not up; coal jobs are
not up.
I was just at a coal facility, where some 1,200 people lost
their jobs. The right course for America is to have a true all-of-the-above
policy. I don't think anyone really believes that you're a person who's going
to be pushing for oil and gas and coal. You'll get your chance in a moment. I'm
still speaking.
OBAMA: Well --
ROMNEY: And the answer is I don't believe people think that's
the case --
OBAMA: -- (inaudible).
ROMNEY: That wasn't the question.
OBAMA: OK.
ROMNEY: That was a statement. I don't think the American
people believe that. I will fight for oil, coal and natural gas. And the proof,
the proof of whether a strategy is working or not is what the price is that
you're paying at the pump. If you're paying less than you paid a year or two
ago, why, then, the strategy is working. But you're paying more. When the
president took office, the price of gasoline here in Nassau County was about
$1.86 a gallon. Now, it's $4.00 a gallon. The price of electricity is up.
If the president's energy policies are working, you're going
to see the cost of energy come down. I will fight to create more energy in this
country, to get America energy secure. And part of that is bringing in a
pipeline of oil from Canada, taking advantage of the oil and coal we have here,
drilling offshore in Alaska, drilling offshore in Virginia where the people
want it. Those things will get us the energy we need.
Obama then insists that low prices were a symptom of an
economy on the verge of collapse. That would only be true if they were suddenly
and singularly low, only at that point during Bush’s eight years. Since that’s
not true, there’s some other cost. Some based on worldwide oil prices, but a
significant amount from the inability of the dollar to buy as much as it used
to—because of printing money to deal with debt.
Back to Obama’s effort to define Romney. On the next question,
related to taxes, he says,
Now, Governor Romney has a different philosophy. He was on 60
Minutes just two weeks ago and he was asked: Is it fair for somebody like you,
making $20 million a year, to pay a lower tax rate than a nurse or a bus
driver, somebody making $50,000 year? And he said, "Yes, I think that's
fair." Not only that, he said, "I think that's what grows the
economy."
Romney responds with the classic backward-step-pivot-forward
move, and it’s one of the most devastating, unanswerable blows of the night:
You heard what I said about my tax plan. The top 5 percent
will continue to pay 60 percent, as they do today. I'm not looking to cut taxes
for wealthy people. I am looking to cut taxes for middle-income people.
And why do I want to bring rates down, and at the same time
lower exemptions and deductions, particularly for people at the high end?
Because if you bring rates down, it makes it easier for small business to keep
more of their capital and hire people.
And for me, this is about jobs. I want to get America's
economy going again. Fifty-four percent of America's workers work in businesses
that are taxed as individuals. So when you bring those rates down, those small
businesses are able to keep more money and hire more people.
For me, I look at what's happened in the last four years and
say this has been a disappointment. We can do better than this. We don't have
to settle for, how many months, 43 months with unemployment above 8 percent, 23
million Americans struggling to find a good job right now.
There are 3.5 million more women living in poverty today than
when the president took office.
We don't have to live like this. We can get this economy
going again. My five-point plan does it. Energy independence for North America
in five years. Opening up more trade, particularly in Latin America. Cracking
down on China when they cheat. Getting us to a balanced budget. Fixing our
training programs for our workers. And finally, championing small business.
I want to make small businesses grow and thrive. I know how
to make that happen. I spent my life in the private sector. I know why jobs
come and why they go. And they're going now because of the policies of this
administration.
We’re already long on this post, having included so much of
the transcript. We haven’t covered women’s issues, or Libya (worth a post by
itself); those will have to come up another day. And I want to mention how
amused I am that the president thinks the answer to the gun question is hiring
more teachers. But I want to end with the final question.
QUESTION: Hi, Governor. I think this is a tough question. To
each of you. What do you believe is the biggest misperception that the American
people have about you as a man and a candidate? Using specific examples, can
you take this opportunity to debunk that misperception and set us straight?
This is indeed an opportunity for Romney, who has been so
distorted by the Obama campaign. He is able to portray himself as caring,
understanding the plight of the regular Americans. I like this part of the
answer:
I understand that I can get this country on track again. We
don't have to settle for what we're going through. We don't have to settle for
gasoline at four bucks. We don't have to settle for unemployment at a
chronically high level. We don't have to settle for 47 million people on food
stamps. We don't have to settle for 50 percent of kids coming out of college
not able to get work. We don't have to settle for 23 million people struggling
to find a good job.
If I become president, I'll get America working again.
Obama doesn’t answer the question of what about him has been
a misperception. He couldn’t very well say, “I guess the biggest misperception
is that I’m a great orator.” So he took a last swipe at Romney, adding to the
very problem the questioner has pointed out and asked them to rectify.
I believe Governor Romney is a good man. Loves his family,
cares about his faith. But I also believe that when he said behind closed doors
that 47 percent of the country considered themselves victims who refuse
personal responsibility, think about who he was talking about.
The liberal side had insisted the
president use the “47%” thing this debate, knowing it was the strongest attack
they had. But Romney had already pointed out that he wants to help all 100% of
Americans, and has the capacity to act on that promise. The issue is a
non-issue for anyone who actually listened to the secret recording. Romney was
talking to donors at a campaign event. They wanted to know how their money was
being spent. He said that the campaign’s message of lower taxes wasn’t
resonating with the 47% who pay no taxes, so they weren’t going to keep
pressing that message on them. Hardly scandalous or shocking.
This is at a point in the debate where there will be no
rebuttal allowed. It’s like a playground taunter going “neener neener neener”
before running off to safety.
So, once again, the debate has done what we needed it to:
reveal who each candidate really is, so we have a clear choice.
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