I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Lost my post....blue, I think you are right.  Looking back on all the debates....we lost once and did just fine on the rest.  Very obvious now ( though it has been for a long time ) flip-floppy has barely a clue what to do with foreign policy and sorely lacks in diplomacy as well.  And more sanctions on Iran when it is only running at 20 per cent now.  Are you nuts???? Never mind.  Of course, you'd be the big, bad, Bain, bully.  Look how well that worked.

If his people wanted him to look "Presidental" that worked a little --- problem was he had to open his mouth and say something -- oops.  His whole plan now is Obama's plan......because it works.  How hard for him to sit and take a lesson about bayonets and submarines from Pres. Obama.  It's a wonder he didn't implode.  To me and I'm sure to many others, he looks like an ineffectual liar which is not real Presidential to me. Depends on what you want to see I guess.  

Jackie

Blue, we usually have our farm decorated for the public apple picking season.  No apples this year and, alas, very few decorations.  However, the trees have been the most glorious colours that I can ever remember.

One of my favourite lines from last night was when Obama tells Romney that they have been to his web site many times and the math still doesn't work.

Romney has used the exact same wording in all three debates.  I know so much of it now that I could probably give his arguments word for word.  I especially enjoyed when he recited his response to the Pakistan question before it was asked.  And then he just repeated it when that question was asked.

My American family is coming up for my son's wedding this weekend.  They are split.  My sister and dh are republican but their daughters and husbands are democrates.  Could be some intersting discussions.

Below are excerpts from a sampling of the recent newspaper endorsements of President Obama. We will provide excerpts from additional endorsements in our next post. In the meantime, please take action to help win this election by sharing these endorsements with anyone you know who is undecided, commenting on and sending letters to the editor supporting these endorsements, and volunteering with the Obama campaign to help get out the vote. And if your local newspaper has endorsed President Obama, please let us know in the comments section below.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch – Obama For President: A Second Term for a Serious Man

Four years ago, in endorsing Democrat Barack Obama for president, we noted his intellect, his temperament and equanimity under pressure. He was unproven, but we found him to be presidential, in all that word implies.

In that, we have not been disappointed. This is a serious man. And now he is a proven leader. He has earned a second term.

Winston-Salem (NC) Journal – Obama is Best Choice for President

Americans have a clear choice between two presidential candidates with starkly different ideas for spurring the economy, providing for the health of our people, defending our interests abroad, educating our children and protecting our environment. We believe that President Barack Obama’s progress on these issues merits him a second term in the White House.

Four years ago on this page, we endorsed Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona over Obama. We wrote that we were impressed with Obama, but McCain would “bring the Iraq war to a successful conclusion, work to end American dependence on foreign oil, reduce America’s output of climate-changing gases and begin the rebuilding of our economy.”

The Democratic president has done all those things and more. He is calm under pressure and courageous in standing up for the rights of all Americans, including the poor, veterans, the elderly, women, gays and immigrants. In contrast, we’ve sometimes found it hard in the last few weeks to tell just what Obama’s challenger, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, really stands for.

Lincoln (NE) Journal-Star – Obama Best for Middle Class

Months before the presidential election in 2008, the world’s financial system ground to a standstill — thanks to a system so devoid of regulations and enforcement that banks and financiers no longer trusted each other.

That’s the mess Barack Obama stepped into when he took office in 2008. Obama engineered a turnaround. In the hands of a president less pragmatic, less cool under pressure, it might not have happened.

After his first four years, Obama is a proven leader.

. . . . .

Republican nominee Mitt Romney at times makes us optimistic that he would do a creditable job as president. But he changes positions on issues so frequently we’re uncertain what he actually would do in office.

Obama has been tested and found equal to the task of being president. We think the country is in better shape than it was four years ago, and we think it will be in even better shape if he wins another term in office.

Cleveland Plain Dealer – On the Basis of Sound Leadership, Re-Elect Obama

Obama has shown that he favors engagement over bluster, and practical solutions over easy bromides. That’s what the country needs.

Consider a defining moment early in Obama’s first term — one with special resonance in Ohio: The outgoing Bush administration had used TARP funds to throw a lifeline to General Motors and Chrysler, but the two automakers were still at death’s door. They wanted more cash and offered vague promises to change their ways. Public opinion opposed another bailout. Romney urged the companies to file for traditional bankruptcy — at a time when private-sector credit was frozen even for healthy firms.

Obama told the companies to restructure using the Bankruptcy Court and set conditions for government financing: GM’s chairman had to go. Excess plants and dealerships had to close. Chrysler had to be bought out by Fiat. Contracts had to be renegotiated.

It was unpopular but gutsy. And it worked. Ohioans today are making cars in Lordstown and Toledo. They’re making parts and steel for Ford, Honda and other automakers. They’re back on the job.

That’s leadership that deserves a chance to finish the job. Re-elect President Obama.

Tampa Bay Times – Obama For President

Four years ago, Barack Obama offered an inspiring message of hope and change to an uneasy nation bogged down in two wars and facing economic collapse. The rosy idealism quickly gave way to the harsh realities of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The recovery has proven more difficult than anyone imagined. But conditions would be far worse without the president’s steady leadership. This is not the time to reverse course and return to the failed policies of the past. Without hesitation, the Tampa Bay Times recommends Barack Obama for re-election as president.

. . . . . .

Obama has capably steered the nation through an incredibly difficult period at home and abroad, often with little help from Congress. The next four years will not be easy for whoever occupies the Oval Office, but Obama has been tested by harsh circumstance and proven himself worthy of a second term.

Akron (OH) Beacon Journal – Obama For President

What matters are his real accomplishments and the direction he proposes for the years ahead.

On both those counts, he has succeeded far more than his critics contend. We recommend the re-election of Barack Obama on Nov. 6.

Asheville (NC) Citizen-Times – Allow Obama to Build on Progress

President Obama entered office with two wars raging and the economy in free fall. The U.S. auto industry was collapsing, and Osama bin Laden remained at large. The solutions to the first two issues were far from perfect, but show progress. The solutions to the latter two we’d say are a success.

Slow progress is better than no progress. We feel the pillars are in place for more, and hopefully quickened, progress in the days ahead.

We feel the best way to continue that progress to re-elect President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden on Nov. 6.

Santa Fe New Mexican – For President, Barack Obama

And it is that word — progress — that we urge voters to keep in mind when casting their ballots. Voters are not simply choosing between two men — President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney — they are selecting two philosophies of governing and of life.

In the world of Barack Obama, raised by a single mother and grandparents, propelled to the top through his own hard work, intelligence and drive, we all do better when we come together. He has never forgotten the struggles of his youth, understanding better than most the necessity of individual initiative. To Obama, government is not the enemy. It is not dispenser of all wisdom or wealth, either. Government is the safety net that catches the weak, the sick, the old and the very poor. It is also our collective will in action — building, defending and securing our nation. Obama will not privatize Social Security or reduce Medicare to a voucher system that costs too much while not guaranteeing treatment. He understands that Medicaid, which underwrites medical care for the very poor, must be protected from budget slashers who think nothing of leaving sick people at the emergency room door while asking for more tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

Mitt Romney’s world is very different, one of privilege and wealth, where in his view, 47 percent of all citizens are takers who won’t assume responsibility for their lives. He had the good fortune to be born in a two-parent home, and should be credited for taking his comfortable start and building a fortune with it. He is a model of a citizen, a good father, husband and church member, contributing to his greater community with both his time and treasure. However, his vision for the United States — with almost half the population moochers — will not lift the least of us up. Instead, it will continue to divide the country along class lines, further splitting us between the haves-a-lot and everyone else.

PiP, happy wedding weekend! Fingers crossed for good weather and not too many fireworks of the political kind!



WR, Robme has said it at least two other times of which I am aware. The first time I just brushed it off as overexcited misspeak. The second time, DH looked at me quizzically and said, "Uh ... Doesn't he know there are TWO other countries between Iran and the Med? And that Syria doesn't share a border with Iran?" This morning he said, "Apparently he doesn't pay his advisors enough to give him correct information."



Silly me. I happen to think that a basic understanding of geography, especially in world hotspots, should be one of the minimum requirements for President. Once might be a misspeak -- three times is ignorance. Maybe on his little planet Iran is landlocked and has a border with Syria, but not this one.



L

HL, unfortunately ignorance didn't stop us from getting Bush II, twice. Definitely hope lightning doesn't strike 3 times. 

Pip, have a wonderful time at the wedding! I just don't talk politics around certain members of the family. That is a little difficult, though, this close to a presidential election. We need this:

Just read something that made me think of Romney.

"The other day, my boss drove up in his new sports car and I complimented him on how awesome it was.  He said, "If you set goals, are determined, work really hard and put in long hours, I can get an even better one next year."

Sounds like the right idea:

There's just no quit in America and you're seeing that right now. Over five million new jobs, exports up forty one percent, home values rising, our auto industry back and our heroes are coming home.

We're not there yet. But we've made real progress and the last thing we should do is turn back now.

Here's my plan for the next four years: Making education and training a national priority; building on our manufacturing boom; boosting American-made energy; reducing the deficits responsibly by cutting where we can, and asking the wealthy to pay a little more. And ending the war in Afghanistan, so we can do some nation-building here at home. That's the right path.

So read my plan, compare it to Governor Romney's and decide which is better for you. It's an honor to be your President and I'm asking for your vote. So together we can keep moving America forward.

Pip, I love that joke!

Thinking about the debate last night, and the reactions to it this morning, it's really interesting that after demagoguing the Benghazi attack just last week, Romney completely dropped it last night.  I view that as an admission that even Romney recognizes there was nothing there -- no scandal, no attempt to downplay or mislead or cover up, no grand-but-vaguely defined conspiracy.   Maybe now Issa will do the same.  I do wish we had someone to play the Joseph Welch role to Issa's McCarthy, and ask the "have you no decency, sir?" question.  Unfortunately, a lot of damage has already been done, to good people in Libya who are now compromised by the documents Issa released, and to the grieving families of the four murdered men.

The other thing that's striking, to me, is the way conspiracy theories take on a life of their own.  Once you enter that funhouse world, it's hard to find your way out.  So every piece of evidence to the contrary, every one-time champion who backs away from your pet theory in embarrassment, just becomes more proof that the conspiracy is even darker and more far-reaching than you imagined.  Bizarre.   

Linda 

(edited to delete redundant redundancy)

In all honesty, Kam - and I know folks won't believe it, but I swear it's true! - I wasn't thinking of a thread title when I wrote that.  It was just the image that came to mind.  I'll go back and edit to take out the reference. 

Linda

ENJOYFUL - I rattled your cage...do I have to get on an airplane and rattle your cage in person??? Enjoyful...come in...come in Enjoyful...

I'm so grateful to Joe Biden for reviving the word "malarkey."  Though to give Romney his due, he's done his bit for "brickbat." 

Linda

Former GM exec Bob Lutz is an outspoken conservative, but he does come up with some good lines.  And one of his best is that in November 2008 (when Romney wrote his infamous "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" op ed), the only people more broke than the automakers were the banks.  

Romney has never explained where private debtor-in-possession financing for a managed bankruptcy would have come from.  Federa loan guarantees only come into play when someone has money to lend.

(Romney has also been very open about the fact that his preferred outcome would have been for hundreds of thousands of GM and Chrysler retirees to lose a chunk of their pensions and even more of their health care than they eventually did.  I don't think that's playing very well in Ohio.)

Linda