The third and thankfully last debate is over and yadda, yadda, yadda. I guess it is
impossible to come up with a new idea after such a long process although Mitt Romney proved again that he could come up with new ideas for himself - the ideas opposite the ones he's had on the campaign trail.
Romney's best answer was to the hypothetical question Bob Schieffer threw out as to what he would do if Israel said its airplanes were on the way to Iran. He said it is not necessary to even discuss that.
As for Romney's plan, whatever the president has done on foreign policies I agree with, but I can do them better. Trust me. Trust me. Trust me. My medicine cures all ailments.
If he was looking for Independents he may have gotten some at the expense of extreme right wingers.
Obama on the other hand probably strengthened his hand with progressives and people concerned about Israel.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Thursday, October 18, 2012
The Second Obama-Romney Debate
To hear the Pundits, the contributors, the paid hucksters, you would think that watching that debate was the epitome of brilliant oratory.
I wish to congratulate Candy Crowley for doing a remarkable job within the confines of the format. Each of them would give short shrift to an answer and then recite unrelated prepared speeches which we've all heard many times before. If you were looking for one new thought
you must have been sadly disappointed, as I was.
While Obama certainly won on substance he did not win on style because of the format.
I do not like the Town Hall format, because I do not know how the audience was chosen and how the questioners were chosen. Many years ago when I was President of the Riverdale Community Council we had a School Board election program. In order to make it fair
anyone could come to the meeting. The questioners were given a card and told to put their question on it. Then we put all the questions in a large drum. We had different people from the audience pick the questions out of the drum. This way the answerer never knew who was asking the question.
What happened to a real question on Medicare and Medicaid? What happened to a real question on reforming our education system?
I wish to congratulate Candy Crowley for doing a remarkable job within the confines of the format. Each of them would give short shrift to an answer and then recite unrelated prepared speeches which we've all heard many times before. If you were looking for one new thought
you must have been sadly disappointed, as I was.
While Obama certainly won on substance he did not win on style because of the format.
I do not like the Town Hall format, because I do not know how the audience was chosen and how the questioners were chosen. Many years ago when I was President of the Riverdale Community Council we had a School Board election program. In order to make it fair
anyone could come to the meeting. The questioners were given a card and told to put their question on it. Then we put all the questions in a large drum. We had different people from the audience pick the questions out of the drum. This way the answerer never knew who was asking the question.
What happened to a real question on Medicare and Medicaid? What happened to a real question on reforming our education system?
Saturday, October 6, 2012
The Debate Nobody Won
If I had to give points on Wednesday's presidential debate, I would say Obama 501/2 Romney 491/2.
In football terms Obama scored on a safety, got two points at the end of the first half and spent the rest of the game in prevent defense. He had a shot when Romney said he got the help of the Democrats in Massachusetts when they passed the Health Care law. Obama answered that if the Republican Congress had given him any help we would be
well on the way to recovery . He just threw that line out as if it did not matter.
Romney on the other hand could have made points if he just once explained how he could do what he said his plan was, with a Democratic Senate. What if the Republicans lost the House? This is a possibility.
Too much time was spent on the issue of the small business community and how they make jobs. Ever since I was a small kid, I have heard speeches as to how the small business community makes jobs, and how each and every president takes credit for it.
Actually they do almost nothing in that area. If Congress does not allocate funds for loans there is very little the government can do to help small businesses. When I was 24 I went into my first small business, and was a minimum success. I borrowed $10,000 dollars from the bank that my father guaranteed. When I went for more capital to the Small Business Administration, I was turned down. Many years later when I was president of the Record Dealers Association I wrote President Nixon about the small business problem and he said I should join SCORE or become an ACE counsellor. That was 42 years ago.
At that time the SBA was in the loan business and indeed we helped small business. Congress then decided to go out of the small business loan business, saying the banks could do a better job. As it turned out, the banks were interested in the mortgage business
and did not do a better job when it came to small business loans. The situation was further aggravated by states and cities taxing small businesses with taxes like the Gross
Receipts Tax. The cities and states do very little to help small businesses.
The president had one other good point when he said he would fight for tax relief for small businesses if the businesses keep the jobs in this country. Except no one really defines what a small business is. Some businesses would blackmail the government by claiming to take their entire business abroad unless the government gave them tax benefits. That is what big
corporations have done.
In football terms Obama scored on a safety, got two points at the end of the first half and spent the rest of the game in prevent defense. He had a shot when Romney said he got the help of the Democrats in Massachusetts when they passed the Health Care law. Obama answered that if the Republican Congress had given him any help we would be
well on the way to recovery . He just threw that line out as if it did not matter.
Romney on the other hand could have made points if he just once explained how he could do what he said his plan was, with a Democratic Senate. What if the Republicans lost the House? This is a possibility.
Too much time was spent on the issue of the small business community and how they make jobs. Ever since I was a small kid, I have heard speeches as to how the small business community makes jobs, and how each and every president takes credit for it.
Actually they do almost nothing in that area. If Congress does not allocate funds for loans there is very little the government can do to help small businesses. When I was 24 I went into my first small business, and was a minimum success. I borrowed $10,000 dollars from the bank that my father guaranteed. When I went for more capital to the Small Business Administration, I was turned down. Many years later when I was president of the Record Dealers Association I wrote President Nixon about the small business problem and he said I should join SCORE or become an ACE counsellor. That was 42 years ago.
At that time the SBA was in the loan business and indeed we helped small business. Congress then decided to go out of the small business loan business, saying the banks could do a better job. As it turned out, the banks were interested in the mortgage business
and did not do a better job when it came to small business loans. The situation was further aggravated by states and cities taxing small businesses with taxes like the Gross
Receipts Tax. The cities and states do very little to help small businesses.
The president had one other good point when he said he would fight for tax relief for small businesses if the businesses keep the jobs in this country. Except no one really defines what a small business is. Some businesses would blackmail the government by claiming to take their entire business abroad unless the government gave them tax benefits. That is what big
corporations have done.
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