Presidential Debate Sends Me to Bed 291


Am off to bed having seen 30 minutes of the first US Presidential debate. Anyone who wants to watch more of it should seek counselling. In terms of content it is impossible to distinguish what either of them is actually proposing on taxation policy. What comes over to me is the lack of any divergence from a neo-liberal economic model.

But in terms of style and presentation, which I presume this is about, rather to my surprise Romney is coming over the better. He is glib whereas Obama is stuttering a lot; they are both achingly dull, but Obama’s phrases seem curiously disconnected and there are gaps when you can see the gears meshing in his head. Neither of them shows any evidence whatsoever of charisma.

Four years ago Obama was talking with apparent belief about the need for change and inspiring people to follow him. He may even at the time have believed much of what he promised, but given the speed of abandonment of principle in office, I doubt it. Now Obama is just trying to present as a more managerially competent neo-con; a managerially competent neo-con competition is about the only one Romney can actually perform in.

I don’t really care who wins – debate or election.


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291 thoughts on “Presidential Debate Sends Me to Bed

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  • oddie

    i don’t care either, craig, except for the greater possibility of an attack on iran if romney wins:

    3 Oct: AFP: US court orders Iran, others to pay $6 billion for 9/11
    Although Iran denies any connection to 9/11, it was included in the list of alleged culprits by the US District Court in New York, along with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Afghanistan’s Taliban guerrillas and Al-Qaeda, which took credit for the massive terror attack.
    Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is also named…
    Last year, Judge George Daniels signed a judgment in favor of the plaintiffs. A magistrate then calculated the recommended compensation, which Daniels on Wednesday approved in his ruling…
    http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5ip3YDbCAMoE4tU8TGwAu8sLCGhlQ?docId=CNG.245855be310ef4cebe2557c879e81c71.371

    daniels is an african-american judge, appointed by bill clinton.

    9 Sept: Israel Hayom: Israeli delegation honors 9/11 victims at Ground Zero
    Edelstein: Attack was example of destructive capability of terrorists sponsored by Iran
    “The horrific attack was an example of the destructive capability of terrorist groups governed, motivated and supported by the terrorist capital of the world — Iran. Here, one can understand how dangerous a nuclear Iran would be to Israel and the entire world,” Edelstein said at the site…
    http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=5733

    you can’t get much lower than that, can you? Israel Hayom is owned by billionaire casino magnate, sheldon adelson, who is romney’s biggest donor.

    politics stinks.

  • anders7777

    Four years ago Obama was talking with apparent belief about the need for change and inspiring people to follow him. He may even at the time have believed much of what he promised, but given the speed of abandonment of principle in office, I doubt it.

    =====
    How on EARTH could an extremely clever, literate, and gift of the gab diplomat POSSIBLY for all this Hegelian left-right-cons-repub-demo-green-lib BULLSHIT!!!

    I am amazed.

    HOW?

    I know.

  • JonL

    “I don’t really care who wins – debate or election. ”
    It all seems rather pointless – you know whoever grabs the white house, it’ll be yet more of the same!
    By the rich, for the rich, to the people!

  • tony roma

    can feel the hopium no.
    smell the change not really
    smell the burning flesh from drone missile kill yes
    relish the words from the fake books
    the audacity of hope in the dreams of my fake father.
    revel in the er er er brain power of same old man puppet pres at sea without his teleprompt.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24vRyrjiD2Q

  • Adriana

    I wouldn’t care either, except for the point Oddie raises. Everywhere you look you can see Israel pushing for war and hardly anyone asking sensible questions of the array of pro-Israel politicians or pundits. After all the misery and expense of Iraq and Afghanistan (and others), they’re lining up to do it all again.

  • Kempe

    I didn’t bother watching it at all. Such debates are about presentation not policies and always have been. We should care who wins as one way or another it will impact us here as it will the rest of the world. Certainly Obama failed to live up to his promise but then what politician hasn’t. I would rather see him return to the White House than have Romney, at the very least he’s the lesser of two evils.

  • Jay

    I think a large amount of Ron Pauls campaign fund was from the millitary in the form of donations.

    These are just two examples of the media actions in surpressing any chances of Ron Paul reaching the Masses; (sheep)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tbNBnBe2SI

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TSxm2V8aVQ

    Ron Paul is a Doctor and has delivered many babies for all Americans and went to Vietnam and this would put up there in any media outlet.

    Sorry if this is old news , Ron Paul is working to find transparency in The Federal Reserve and have the books audited.

    The sad thing is, as with this country the we the masses can`t see much through our rose tinted spectacles.

    “Christ you know it ain`t easy!”….

  • craig Post author

    What might he do? Keep Guantanamo going, persecute whistleblowers, statrt a programme of drome assassination, cover up the CIA’s torturers, sell out to healthcare insurers? Oh look, Obama did that already.

  • AAMVN

    I still keep hoping Obama will win – out of a strong sense that Romney will be a nightmare.

    Obama seems like a smart, genuine guy – but then how do you square that with all the things Craig mentions above? You just can’t.

    You might apologise for him and say – he has no choice, if he gives an inch the hawks will take a mile….but I dunno.

    The ‘debates’ are the political equivalent of a beauty contest. Look nice and don’t mess up. The voters who can still be influenced will mostly not be influenced by logic or facts anyway.

  • JimmyGiro

    All candidate debates should be carried out with the participants connected to a lie detector, on simultaneous display to the audience; like a useful sign reader, for the hard of discerning.

  • jjb

    I do not think R would win. The powerful would rather have O, for a very simple reason: he de-activates a large part of the critics of the neo-liberal system by the simple fact that he is, by name, a “liberal”. With R in the power all the policies O has put in place (extended wars, extended powers of the executive, less transparency, accelerated transfer of wealth to the rich, etc) would be night to impossible to impose without a strong popular opposition.

  • Kempe

    The fact that Romney favours a return to light touch regulation of the financial industry should be enough to ring alarm bells.

  • Komodo

    What might he do? Keep Guantanamo going, persecute whistleblowers, start a programme of drome assassination, cover up the CIA’s torturers, sell out to healthcare insurers? Oh look, Obama did that already.
    1. “Get tough” on China. Trade war.
    2. Roll over, tail wagging, and do anything the religious Right wants. Effective theocracy.
    3. Zero taxes for his mates.
    Etc…

  • John Goss

    “In terms of content it is impossible to distinguish what either of them is actually proposing on taxation policy. What comes over to me is the lack of any divergence from a neo-liberal economic model.”

    President Rafael Correa said, when interviewed by Julian Assange, that there was more difference in his thoughts in the morning and afternoon than there is between Democrats and Republicans in the United States government. He could have included the Labour Party, Conservative Party and Lib-Dems in that bundle. All bought by the God Almighty shekel.

  • lwtc247

    “Obama is stuttering a lot; they are both achingly dull, but Obama’s phrases seem curiously disconnected and there are gaps.” – Obombers real-time autocue must have been suffering from ‘lag’

  • lwtc247

    “Four years ago Obama was talking with apparent belief about the need for change and inspiring people to follow him.” – It was so easy to lie with a ‘clean slate’ Now he has to try and lie with a legacy of fake and broken promises and volumes of political assassinations which need be avoided for fear of visible stepping on them.

    Who won? The one that most Zionist(neo-liberal) of course.

  • Brendan

    Apparently Troy McClue won this round. If by ‘won’ we mean had the best one-liners and stuck robotically to a pre-approved script without appearing uncomfortable. One wonders if sociopaths make the best public performers: nerveless and convincing, able to lie without batting an eye.

    What a bizarre ritual the US elections are. Some of the finest minds on the planet, and their electionm resembles something from a bad cable show. Weird.

  • Komodo

    One wonders if sociopaths make the best public performers: nerveless and convincing, able to lie without batting an eye.

    What’s to wonder? One word – Blair.

  • Komodo

    That’s bisexualposerist, Jimmy. In fact his Miranda persona is the sole evidence for his being anything other than a psychopath…

  • Vronsky

    The same people will be in charge no matter who becomes president. Perhaps there is a slight difference in that if Romney is returned, those in charge will take it as a nod to stepping things up in the ME.

  • John Goss

    Mary, I watched that video. Hilary Clinton is a scary person. I think the speech is slower than the video but appears to be what she and he are saying. If so, the woman is a madwoman. But then someone who can smile and cosy up to the dictator Karimov, is as dangerous as someone who can cosy up to Muammar Gaddafi. Miranda. Sorry, Tony.

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