Tuesday’s night debate was interesting for a number of reasons. From the beginning, Governor Romney was aggressive with President Obama. Some say he was rude; others say he got the job done by asking the President tough questions. What do you think?
One part where President Obama owned Governor Romney was when Romney tried to nail Obama on the fact that he did not actually say in the Rose Garden (where all important announcements are made at the White House) that what happened in Benghazi was an act of terror. Obama merely said, “Proceed, Governor,” and very effectively did not rise to the bait. Romney was flustered by that exchange, you could tell (although I believe he was right in the main point that Obama did not refer to it as an act of terror for some time after that). Perhaps this was Obama’s revenge for the beginning of the debate, where Romney asked a rhetorical question (a question that does not require an answer), Obama got up and started to answer it, and Romeny basically said, “Sit down! I wasn’t asking a question!” I thought it was kind of funny, but I can see how someone, especially an Obama supporter, would not be so amused.
There was one funny moment when neither candidate seemed to grasp the fact that a questioner’s name was Lorraine. And these two want to run the world, essentially?
One of the controversies engendered by the debate concerns the moderator, Candy Crowley. Was she biased? According to the blabocracy, she interrupted Romney far more than she interrupted Obama. Both men treated her with disrespect, in my opinion. If I were the moderator, I would have turned their mics off. In fact, I think that is an excellent solution. Jaclyn for moderator!
One of the parts where I disagreed with the candidates is that I do not believe that the government should waste time worrying about arresting every immigrant around. Worry about the drug dealers. If an illegal immigrant is a Biology student and is going to classes, I don’t think they’re worrying about committing crimes. Except perhaps violently beating their professor once the marks come out. But I think there are far more important criminals to worry about than someone who is just trying to make a better life for themselves.
I thought it was funny when Obama mentioned debt and how he was going to try to bring it down. That’s like Enron’s Kenneth Lay talking about how to have honesty in financial reporting.
All in all, the debate went by pretty fast. Maybe not as fast as Romney’s private jet, but pretty quick nonetheless. I wish, though, that people could agree to disagree, and still be civil about it. Things were not always quite civil at that debate. You have to be aggressive, I think, when you’re running for office. However, for every day people, I think that when we disagree politically on something, we should focus more on our similarities and revel in another human being’s perspective.
