dagblog - Comments for "Live-Blogging the Debate! Gloves Off! Pants Off! OK, Pants Back On! Just the Gloves! "

I was also hoping climate

A Guy Called LULU — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 17:36:56 +0000

I was also hoping climate change would be questioned and discussed.

What, if anything, will you try to do about it, and believe should be done about it, if you win this election?"

I might alter that question slightly. I would probably rephrase it slightly and ask: What, if anything, will you try to do about it, and believe should be done about it if you are the next President, and, will you support such actions and urge others of your party to support them even if your opponent wins and it is his initiative rather than your own?

Of course it isn't

AmericanDreamer — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 17:01:23 +0000

In reply to No, Candy Crowley *proved* to

Of course it isn't significant in this election campaign because none of our politicians are making it so and the general electorate are not demanding that they do so.

The hypothetical Martian checking out the scene would be scratching its head on this one: "What, on earth, are these people thinking?"

I was hoping we would get something like this posed to the candidates during one of the debates: "Do you agree or disagree with the scientific consensus that the temperature of our planet is increasing due in significant part to human-produced carbon emissions? How dangerous and urgent do you see the current situation? What, if anything, will you try to do about it, and believe should be done about it, if you win this election?"

Correction: Candy Crowley did

A Guy Called LULU — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:33:09 +0000

In reply to No, Candy Crowley *proved* to

Correction: Candy Crowley did not make what was described as a "dismissive statement" on climate change during the debate moderation. She made the statement later while explaining how she chose which of the audience submitted questions to ask.

To change the subject somewhat, assuming each person in the audience submitted a question, the range would be large enough that in affect Crowley was asking the questions, not individuals from the audience of "undecideds".

What Happens After You Label

artappraiser — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:56:31 +0000

In reply to Except that it gives Obama a

What Happens After You Label a Country a Currency Manipulator?
You ask them to stop it.
BY JOSHUA E. KEATING, FP Explainer @ ForeignPolicy.com, October 17, 2012\

[....] There is widespread agreement in Washington that Chinese currency policies are harmful to the U.S. economy. Some economists have estimated that they could be costing the United States as many as one million jobs. But what would actually happen if Romney made such a declaration?

Technically, not a whole lot. Under legislation passed in 1988, the secretary of the Treasury is required to [....]

Huntsman Speaks

artappraiser — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:50:25 +0000

In reply to Except that it gives Obama a

Huntsman Speaks Out
Republican primary contender Jon Huntsman sounds off on the U.S. presidential race -- and the big issue the candidates aren't talking about.
INTERVIEW BY ISAAC STONE FISH, ForeignPolicy.com, October 17, 2012

[....] Foreign Policy: Put yourself in the shoes of the moderator at the upcoming foreign-policy debate on Oct. 22. What do you think he should ask about China? [....]

No, Candy Crowley proved to

A Guy Called LULU — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 01:50:37 +0000

In reply to Romney looked stunned when he

No, Candy Crowley *proved* to millions of viewers, there are such things as facts. And no matter how earnestly, how insistently, you may say something, Mitt Romney, no matter how much you may seek to score points by insisting on something that is provably false, that doesn't make it true.

I thought Crowley was ok and I am glad that she stung Romney a bit. Something I didn't notice and I haven't seen elsewhere is discussed in the following link. It is interesting even if not terribly significant in the current campaign. Of course it isn't significant in this election campaign because none of our politicians are making it so and the general electorate are not demanding that they do so.

Candy Crowley's weird dismissal of climate change.

http://grist.org/news/candy-crowleys-weird-dismissal-of-climate-change/

Considering that the next

CVille Dem — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 00:52:36 +0000

In reply to I didn't say that the Libya

Considering that the next debate is about foreign policy, don't you think that Romney will try again on this front? He has a week, and all kinds of people trying to turn this turd into a birthday cake. Obama needs to be ready for this, but I kinda think he will be.

I'm just saying that Romney hasn't learned his lesson on this. He is, after all, a big HONCHO, and it is up to him to put The President of The United States of America in his place. --or he apparently thinks so.

I have to admit that I do fantasize about Obama discussing Mittens' foreign policy credentials, which include insulting our staunchest ally (England: Note to Obama --> if Romney mentions your gaffe about Egypt not being an ally, just bring up Romney's gaffe about a secret? meeting with MI 5 and insulting the entire country of England).

Of course I'm happy that a

ocean-kat — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 23:24:48 +0000

In reply to I was moved that this

Of course I'm happy that a black person was elected president when just 60 years ago they were being lynched in the south, jim crow laws, segregation laws, etc.

I just don't get the passion shown during and for his speeches. Even his race speech was trivial to me. His back was up against the wall. He needed to pull his ass out of the fire. He gave a purely political speech to white people to keep them from abandoning him. Totally within their comfort zone. I don't think he said anything significant or challenging and he shouldn't have. He saved his ass, good job.

I think there are other better public speakers. I like the populist barn burner speeches like Kucinich gives. But you know, he doesn't make me cry and I've never had the impulse to shout out "I love you" to Kucinich. I just don't get the adoring crowds at Obama's speeches.

I was and still am very proud

artappraiser — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 22:11:56 +0000

In reply to I was moved that this

I was and still am very proud that my country elected a black president. That doesn't make him a charismatic sparkling personality. Like oceankat said, I didn't and still don't get the "I love you's" from the adoring crowds.

And I also feel discomfort with the flip side: knowing that some people voted for him mostly because of the color of his skin, without bothering to learn that he wasn't their kind of guy policy-wise. (Or even in willful denial that he was not their kind of guy policy-wise, because of the color of his skin..)

(Ironically, his policy prescriptions, overall, with particular exceptions, were agreeable to my own preferences. So were Hillary Clinton's. I thought they were nearly identical policy-wise, Hillary maybe a little teeny teeny bit more liberal on some issues. Though having more political skills, she had other downsides equivalent to his lacks, )

It's was like they wanted to create their own Camelot or something, after watching the myth overplayed in entertainment media their whole lives. I admit this made me suspect of the Obama team's use of references to the Kennedys, and the whole Ted and Caroline support thing, too, they willfully participated. People hoping for things that never existed in the first place, something about that I am real uncomfortable with.

P.S.. If you don't understand what I am saying here, please don't ask me to elaborate further. I'm no expert on the manipulation of mass emotions throughout history, just a student and watcher, What I said here is the best I can do, and just my opinion.

I was moved that this

AmericanDreamer — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 21:08:11 +0000

In reply to Yes, there's this absolutely

I was moved that this country, in light of our history, elected a person of color as our president. I would confess to struggling to understand why people who self-define as progressives, or who in any way have felt emotionally engaged or moved by the history of the struggle for civil and voting rights for people of color in this country, would not have any such feelings. I only have a hypothesis on that.

Apart from that, on the contents of most of Obama's speeches (with some notable exceptions, such as Cooper Union, his speech on race during the Reverend Wright firestorm--but not his 2004 Democratic convention speech, which everyone else I know went nuts about and I thought was fine but not remarkable on content) I wasn't hearing anything on substance that struck me as remarkable, that I hadn't heard in essence many times previously.