"[T]here is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a
certain degree of circumspection and distrust." --James Madison
If you were among the 67 million Americans who tuned in to Wednesday night's presidential debate, you saw Barack Obama utterly outmatched by Mitt Romney in such dramatic fashion that Obama's Leftmedia sycophants could only wail and gnash their teeth. The irony is that the media had a hand in his defeat.
Wall Street Journal columnist James Taranto several years ago devised a theory that the Leftmedia so pamper leftist politicians that they are unable to defend themselves when presented with a strong conservative argument from a determined opponent. Certainly we saw the "Taranto Principle" in effect Wednesday, as Obama could do little to deflect Romney's rhetorical blows other than simply repeat his feeble demagoguery.
The debate began with the economy. Obama has a demonstrably abysmal record on this subject, so he had to start where he always starts -- by blaming Bush: "[F]our years ago we went through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression." Though he boasted about creating five million jobs over the last 30 months, he quickly skipped over his own term in office, saying, "[T]he question here tonight is not where we've been, but where we're going."
This left the perfect opening for one of Romney's best zinger's of the night. "I'm concerned," Romney said, "that the path that we're on has just been unsuccessful. The president has a view very similar to the view he had when he ran four years ago, that a bigger government, spending more, taxing more, regulating more -- if you will, trickle-down government -- would work." After answering Romney's charge by listing a few of the government programs he had or will set up -- trickle-down government -- Obama spent the rest of the evening smirking grimly and staring down at the podium, which was in stark contrast to Romney, who looked directly at Obama whether he was speaking or listening.
Moving to taxes, Obama accused Romney of planning a $5 trillion tax cut that we can't "pay for" and that only benefits the wealthy. We were pleased to see Romney thoroughly debunk such nonsense and explain why his plan to cut tax rates by a further 20 percent across the board would lead to economic growth and, therefore, more tax revenue "by more people working, getting higher pay, paying more taxes. That's how we get growth and how we balance the budget."
Romney also reminded voters that Obama's policies have squeezed the middle class, not helped them. Obama might call this "economic patriotism," but as Romney noted, "Middle-income Americans have seen their income come down by $4,300. This is a tax in and of itself." Meanwhile, prices for gasoline, electricity, food and health care costs are soaring. All told, as Joe Biden helpfully put it the other day, "[T]he middle class has been buried the last four years."
Cue Obama looking down at the podium.
During the argument over taxes, Obama left one major question unanswered. If, as he says, "we should go back to the rates that we had when Bill Clinton was president, when we created 23 million new jobs," why wasn't that his economic prescription four years ago, or two years ago, when he and other Democrats agreed to keep the Bush tax rates for fear of hurting the economy if they raised taxes? Not only that, but they passed the payroll tax cut. Obama didn't explain how raising taxes on small business owners now will help them create jobs when the economy is once again listing toward recession.
It was Romney who provided the answer. "[W]hy lower the rates?" he asked. "[B]ecause small business pays that individual rate; 54 percent of America's workers work in businesses that are taxed not at the corporate tax rate but at the individual tax rate. And if we lower that rate, they will be able to hire more people." Furthermore, regarding Obama's claim that "under my plan, 97 percent of small businesses would not see their income taxes go up," Romney replied, "[T]hose businesses that are in the [top] 3 percent of businesses happen to employ half of all the people who work in small business. Those are the businesses that employ one-quarter of all the workers in America. And [Obama's] plan is to take their tax rate from 35 percent to 40 percent."
Cue Obama looking down at the podium again, clearly hoping that a teleprompter would somehow appear among his notes.
On health care, Romney is perhaps ironically the perfect candidate to oppose Obama because as Massachusetts governor, he signed into law a plan that provided the template for ObamaCare. After naming a few of the differences, however, Romney eventually hit the key point: "The federal government taking over health care for the entire nation and whisking aside the Tenth Amendment, which gives states the rights for these kinds of things, is not the course for America to have a stronger, more vibrant economy." From a purely political standpoint, this makes it hard for Obama to reach voters in the middle with a message of Romney's supposed extremism.
In his closing remarks, Romney laid out the choice before voters: "This is an important election and ... I'm concerned about the direction America has been taking over the last four years. ... I know this is bigger than an election about the two of us as individuals. It's bigger than our respective parties. It's an election about the course of America. What kind of America do you want to have for yourself and for your children? There are two very different paths that we began speaking about this evening, and ... they lead in very different directions."
We hope that Wednesday's debate was an indication of which path will prevail.
This Week's 'Braying Jackass' Award
"Why wouldn't we eliminate tax breaks for corporate jets? My attitude is, if you got a corporate jet, you can probably afford to pay full freight, not get a special break for it." --Barack Obama
This from the guy who spends so much time at taxpayer expense on the most expensive jet in the world, Air Force One. A just-released book compared the Obama administration's record-breaking expenses to the British Royal Family, for which British taxpayers spent $57.8 million last year. Robert Keith Gray writes in "Presidential Perks Gone Royal" that, just last year, American taxpayers spent $1.4 billion on the Obama family.
'Yes We Can'
"You know the phrase they always use? 'Obama and Biden want to raise taxes by a trillion dollars.' Guess what? Yes, we do, in one regard: We want to let that trillion dollar tax cut expire so the middle class doesn't have to bear the burden of all that money going to the super wealthy. That's not a tax raiser. That's called fairness where I come from." --Joe Biden once again helping the cause
On Cross-Examination
"[Y]ou said you get a deduction for taking a plant overseas. Look, I've been in business for 25 years. I have no idea what you're talking about. I maybe need to get a new accountant." --Mitt Romney
"You put $90 billion ... into solar and wind, to Solyndra and Fisker and Tester and Ener1. I mean, I had a friend who said you don't just pick the winners and losers, you pick the losers." --Mitt Romney
Summing it Up
"Jim, I -- you may want to move on to another topic..." --Barack Obama
Quote of the Week
"They're still hosing down the stage, washing all the blood off of it. I don't know if you watched the debate [Wednesday] night, but it was horrific. For two hours, we watched a rich, privileged white man savagely beat and humiliate a black man as an audience of millions cheered on. It's hard even to contemplate. ... Who am I kidding... THAT WAS AWESOME!!! ... We've been waiting forever for someone to smack that little arrogant twerp Obama around. And who can we thank for that lovely massacre? The MSM, for keeping Obama so sheltered he had no idea how to defend his horrible record." --humorist Frank J. Fleming
Government and Politics
Univision Drops Fast and Furious Bombshell
The major Leftmedia outlets, with the notable exception of CBS, have largely ignored the Fast and Furious scandal at the Obama Justice Department. Spanish-language network Univision, however, launched a devastating report this week detailing even more horrific crimes committed with guns walked to Mexico in the operation. Univision reported that 57 previously unidentified guns -- not included in the 122 in Congress' recent report -- were found at crime scenes ranging from kidnappings to two massacres. In one incident a Mexican drug cartel opened fire on a gathering of 60 teenagers, killing 14 and wounding 12.
After the massacre, Mexican authorities apprehended a cartel boss who possessed numerous Fast and Furious weapons. Unfortunately, Jose Antonio Acosta Hernandez -- known as "El Diego" -- wasn't captured before he ordered the hit on that teenage birthday party. How could this happen if the intent was to track the weapons? Obviously, as we have noted, tracking was never part of the plan.
Despite the congressional report and the 14 DOJ and ATF officials scapegoated, neither Attorney General Eric Holder nor President Barack Obama have been held accountable. And they likely won't, because the two are still hiding behind executive privilege. Meanwhile, Kevin O'Reilly, who served on the White House National Security Staff and had regular communications about Fast and Furious with the responsible ATF agent, was transferred in July 2011 -- to Iraq. As the Univision reporter noted, "[T]he United States government has many things that they ought to make public." With an estimated 300 dead Mexicans, that's an understatement.
So what's Obama doing? His Department of Agriculture has met with the Mexican government 30 times to promote the use of food stamps among Mexican immigrants to the U.S.
Campaign Trail: Bad Sloganeering
The Obama campaign team is pushing the creative envelope heading to Election Day. The new "e-card" messaging posted on the Obama campaign website and around the Internet isn't providing a list of reasons why voters should re-elect Obama -- because there really aren't any. Instead, they're trying to scare voters about Republicans.
Two messages focusing on women play up the idea that Mitt Romney's proposed repeal of ObamaCare will mean an end to affordable birth control and an all-out assault on women's reproductive rights. Despite these ridiculous claims, however, women won't have to borrow $18,000 from mom, as one of Obama's e-cards suggests, to cover their birth control. This outlandish figure is Planned Parenthood's estimate of the lifetime cost of birth control, which leftists demand be covered by taxpayers. Birth control pills can be obtained for about $9 a month from any number of retail pharmacies, so $18,000 would cover several reproductive lifetimes.
The second message declared, "Vote like your lady parts depend on it." Evidently, even leftists saw that this degrading language went too far -- it was soon removed from the campaign's tumblr page.
Campaign messaging to target the youth vote is similarly misleading. One e-card tells young voters to support Obama because Romney will raise taxes on Social Security beneficiaries. This message overestimates young voters' concern for a program that, without serious reform, will be gone by the time they retire. It also misrepresents the true details of the Romney reform plan, which would not raise taxes on retirees. And it's light on the specifics of Obama's plan for reforming Social Security. Oh, that's right -- he doesn't have one, because as he said in the debate, it's "structurally sound." Who knew that $8.6 trillion in unfunded liabilities was "structurally sound"?
If these items won't sway voters to vote against Romney, then perhaps one of the latest Obama posters will do the trick. It features the caption "Forward," once a favorite with European communists, below a picture of the president, stern-faced and looking up into the distance. Looking at the image, it's obvious -- as we noted when he first adopted the slogan -- that the Obama campaign took its cue from old posters of Stalin, Lenin, Mao and other heroes of the communist cause.
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