What’s Left:The Incumbent Knows Best

 

 

The second presidential debate was in every single way better than the first. While I am not personally a fan of the town hall-style debate, I think this format afforded President Obama and Governor Romney the opportunity to really hammer each other on the issues. It also gave moderator Candy Crowley the ability to move onto new topics, as she constantly said, “I have too many people here that would be upset if they didn’t get to ask their question.” Still, the debate was full of lively conversation, and President Obama showed why he won in 2008, and how he is a much better candidate than Mitt Romney.

Romney was called out on his absolute lack of substance in the first presidential de-bate, and as a result, his debate performance in the second go-around was much shakier. His “binders full of women” com-ment was hilariously bad, but not nearly as bad as his Libya gaffe. He accused the President of not calling the attack on the American Embassy in Libya a terrorist attack, a statement so false that even the moderator called him out on it.

That was the course of the debate; Romney made an incred-ibly false statement, President Obama called him out on it. I especially liked lines such as, “Governor Romney doesn’t have a five-point plan, he has a one-point plan: that people at the top don’t have to play by the rules.” Later, when Romney asked Obama “Have you looked at your pension?” with regards to the Obama assertion that Romney invested his personal wealth overseas, Obama quipped, “I don’t look at my pension very often. It’s not as big as yours so it doesn’t take as long.” This was a shallow hack at the personal wealth of Mitt Romney, but that didn’t make it any less effective – Romney has a long way to go with his relationship with the middle class.

And at the end, Romney fell through in his last statement when it really counted. After President Obama called him out for his 47 percent comment – that 47 percent of the country who isn’t worth thinking about – Romney replied that he cared about 100 percent of Americans, but continued on to say, “My passion probably flows from the fact that I believe in God. And I believe we’re all children of the same God.” I just can’t understand why some Republians base their ideology on a belief in God, or at the very least had the notion that God supports a conservative agenda over a liberal one. Wasn’t it God who commanded “love thy neighbor,” not “love the elite?”

I’m not religious in any way, but if Romney is going to be, he should at least read the important parts of the Bible, or he should help get the Bible out of the GOP. Presi-dent Obama truly walloped Romney throughout the debate; even though at times it seemed like the debate was going to come to fists, both candidates kept their cool. And remember this above all else: when asked how he could keep AK-47s out of the hands of criminals and limit the availability of assault weapons, Romney replied, “Two parents in the home whenever possible.” The future President of the United States, heck, your future President of the United States, thinks that the answer to gun violence is stronger marriage.

Contact Andy Philipson at [email protected].