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Best Tweets of the Presidential Town Hall Debate

Best Tweets of the Presidential Town Hall Debate

Obama was much more animated, and I’m sure liberals on Twitter and elsewhere were happy much as during the Biden-Ryan debate. But I don’t think it helped Obama much. I’ll be interested to see the focus groups and polling.

Obama got in some one liners, but Romney completely nailed it on Obama’s record of broken promises. A 2 minute primer on the failure of the Obama administration. His line “you know better” may be the line of the night.

Obama did better on Libya than expected, mostly because Obama backed up by Crowley incorrectly said he called it terrorism the day after. But Romney nailed it on the issue of Obama going to fundraisers the next day.

All in all it was not the game changer Obama needed. Obama showed up, but not on the central issue of the election, Obama’s record and why we whould expect anything better in four more years.

Update: My column at USA Today, Obama needed debate blowout but didn’t get it.


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Comments

The Punk pulled an algore attack stalking the next president

I think Mitts did well although as a racist (white hetrosexual, Christan male) thats expected

Any chance Mitt might have mentioned that 0bama’s proposed budgets have received 0 votes, and Democrats in the Senate have refused to vote on a budget?

legalizehazing | October 16, 2012 at 10:48 pm

Candy nearly every time was in it for Obama. Softballs. Cutting off Romney.

But I think it went well for Romney. . . if only anyone knew what the undecided were actually thinking

    legalizehazing in reply to legalizehazing. | October 16, 2012 at 10:54 pm

    But a lot of great comments from Obama, “the free enterprise system is the greatest engine of growth in history” and then “don’t turn national security into a political issue”, “on defense I mean what I say”. So classic.

    I almost died when the girl asked the assault rifle question. I’d bet 75% of my next paycheck Obama soiled his pants.

    Wish Romney wouldn’t have made the tariff comment. That’s my only negative besides stuttering on that first “the buck stops” with him line.

    He nailed the ending especially talking about his faith.

Jack The Ripper | October 16, 2012 at 10:53 pm

Make that: “WE know better.”

And, on another topic:

If you cannot afford $9, $12, $20 per month for birth control, don’t have procreative sex or date someone who can help foot the bill. Its just as easy to fall in love with a rich person as it is a poor one. YOU should know better!!!

    That would take common sense, which liberals aren’t full of…. they’re full of the OTHER stuff.

    TrooperJohnSmith in reply to Jack The Ripper. | October 16, 2012 at 11:58 pm

    If you can afford a smart-phone with unlimited everything on it, you can damn sure afford birth control.

    In fact, some of the deadbeats out there need to be told, “I’m already paying for your damn cell phone, why do I need to buy your birth control, too? What next, an electric car on my dime?”

    I am, however, not averse to paying for some folks to have a vasectomy or a tubal ligation. Then, they can lay around watching porn on their Obama-phones, working themselves into a frenzy, and have sex all day, and I won’t have to raise their off-spring for the next 18-years.

    Okay… u’hm through.

Candy’s best defense on behalf of Champ wasn’t the Benghazi ‘terror’ question, it was on cutting off Romney on Fast and Furious, trying to pull it back to AK-47s. I wish Mitt had stuck that one a little better.

TrooperJohnSmith | October 16, 2012 at 10:58 pm

Why no comment about “no budget in three years”? Why no comment about Obama’s budgets being voted down unanimously in the Senate and by large bi-partisan majorities in the House?

If Mitt is a boxer, he needs to stop saving it for the final rounds. A KO is much better than a TKO or a decision!

Jack The Ripper | October 16, 2012 at 10:59 pm

Admittedly Off Topic:

New Headline:

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Chelsea Clinton is taking on the discomforting issue of diarrhea, throwing her family’s philanthropic heft behind a sweeping effort in Nigeria to prevent the deaths of 1 million mothers and children each year from preventable causes, including 100,000 deaths from diarrhea.

Would that it were that Ms. Chelsea Clinton could hop in a time machine and go back and cure both of her parents’s verbal diarrhea!!!

    ehh, the kid’s right, even if the topic is gross. All you have to do to prevent a LOT of deaths from, for example, cholera, is to teach people how to boil water and rehydrate children in particular. Honest to God, it’s a big, f’n deal.

    Iraq had an outbreak of cholera, and some of the expatriates went unzipped, until they were given instructions on what to do. And yes, the outbreak was contained.

      Jack The Ripper in reply to Valerie. | October 16, 2012 at 11:15 pm

      Valerie is correct.

      Unlike so many intractable problems in this world, dysentery (and pre-natal vitamins) are so easily and cheaply remedied.

      So is a big chunk of malaria.

      But, liberals rather fret about global warming, which is not fully proven and very expensive to rememdy and ban DDT.

      Don’t know about you, but if malarial mosquitos were a feature of my yard/environs, I would risk my family’s and my health with DDT. And, “the ecology” is not a trump card comeback.

        Jack The Ripper in reply to Jack The Ripper. | October 16, 2012 at 11:42 pm

        Replying to Valerie via Myself.

        So sorry, my earlier post below was supposed to include a citation/reference to Bjorn Lomborg. Check it out!

        And then, check out Pareto Optimization. Pareto Analysis. Pareto Optimal. Pareto Algorithm.

        My previous post was:

        Valerie is correct.

        Unlike so many intractable problems in this world, dysentery (and pre-natal vitamins) are so easily and cheaply remedied.

        So is a big chunk of malaria.

        But, liberals rather fret about global warming, which is not fully proven and very expensive to rememdy and ban DDT.

        Don’t know about you, but if malarial mosquitos were a feature of my yard/environs, I would risk my family’s and my health with DDT. And, “the ecology” is not a trump card comeback.

        TrooperJohnSmith in reply to Jack The Ripper. | October 16, 2012 at 11:43 pm

        How about if the oil wealth of Nigeria was used to help these kids instead of being stolen and hidden in banks all over the world? Or not being spent on Saville Row suits and French hookers for the aspiring despots-in-waiting of that country?

          Jack The Ripper in reply to TrooperJohnSmith. | October 17, 2012 at 12:45 am

          Trooper John Smith,

          I definitely agree. The kleptocracy in so many parts of Africa and the rest of the world is disgusting.

          The point I was making is that the money it would take to combat mosquitos, pre-natal malnutrition, and dysentery is a pittance compared to what Al Gore and his cohorts feel we should spend to combat a climate issue that may exist, but which 1) has not been proven to exist and 2) has not been proven to be fixable.

          Hence, the reference to Pareto.

          And, one cannot help but wonder, if only rhetorically: With all that oil money, why have not Arab and Non-Arab Oil Producing States (OPEC Members) cornered the market on cures for prostate cancer, breast cancer, AIDS treatments/cures, cosmetic surgery, etc.? Could it be that more money is not the issue in solving so many things? Could it be that money is the issue and these people are so short-sighted and venal that they are not willing to fork it over? If greed and short-sightedness amongst those rich in natural resources is the explanation, then what should we say to the person, like the retired librarian I met last week at a presentation by a U.S. Senator, who told me, after the Senator left, that she “just wishes there would be a return to integrity and caring, instead of tax loopholes?”

          I chatted with her a while, and then, in the nicest way, mused to her that “maybe [she] is looking for better bread than is made of wheat.”

          Karl Rove is talking on Fox and they have a small caption to the lower right with a woman giving ASL translation (American Sign Language translation). Reminds me of Garrett Morris on SNL back in the 1970s, before SNL entered its eight-year slide to 25 years of putrescence. [Garret Morris yelling, with his hands cupped around his mouth: “Our Top Story Tonight!”]

          Sorry. Susan Estrich is back on. Gotta go fantasize. About what, I don’t know. [Apologies to Rodney Dangerfield in Back to School. Here I come, Susan. Here I come. God, that raspy voice!].

I’ll be interested to see the focus groups and polling.

Intrade has a contract on the CNN poll about the debate. They’re predicting an Obama win.

    Sanddog in reply to gs. | October 16, 2012 at 11:26 pm

    I’d predict an Obama win from a CNN poll as well.

      So I take it that you’d have predicted an Obama win on the CNN poll after the first debate, i.e. the poll that Romney won 67% to 25%.

      Apparently you didn’t check how the Intrade contract evolved during the day. It gave Obama a 60% chance of winning until the debate started and rose steadily thereafter.

See how scared Candy and Obama were when Romney brought up arming the Drug Cartels? Abject terror, even Obama refused to say a word to defend himself! Romney needs to run adds on this NOW!!!!

    TrooperJohnSmith in reply to imfine. | October 16, 2012 at 11:47 pm

    Mention too, how the sitting Attorney General of Mexico wants to extradite those responsible for F&F and try them in Mexican courts.

    I can just see Holder sharing a cell with a tatted-up member of the Zeta Cartel. I’m thinking he’d need to shave closer…

Jack The Ripper | October 16, 2012 at 11:02 pm

“Merkel Urges Tax Cuts to Boost German Economy”

Oh, no!

Now the Germans are turning into “Facist Republicans!!!”

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theduchessofkitty | October 16, 2012 at 11:09 pm

Moral of the story here.

A “Town Hall-style” Presidential Debate in New York’s LONG ISLAND with “Undecided” voters… Don’t believe any of it for a minute.

First, it’s LONG ISLAND – NASSAU COUNTY, for cryin’ out loud! Do a Town Hall-Style Presidential Debate near Cincinnati with truly Undecided voters, and then we can talk.

These voters were “Undecided”… my foot. I lived in the NYC area for five long years. That place has pretty much exterminated every last Republican down to just a few places here and there, like an infestation of roaches is treated by pest control. A truly “undecided” voter would have to be someone who has spent twenty years in Mars before living in NY for the last five months.

Now, at Hofstra U. Two words: Political Correctness. Means: No Republicans/conservatives/Christians/etc. need apply. A PC campus is as close to North Korea as it gets.

This whole thing was STACKED through the roof against Romney from the get-go. It’s all about the realtor’s motto: “Location, location, location.”

Again: Town Hall Presidential Debate in OH, FL, NC, CO, PA… any swing state – perfectly acceptable.

New York?!?!?!?!?!? Never again. Not just no – Hell No!

    All is well. I just watched the first segment on the focus group for FOX. They flipped for Romney, including at least two former Obama voters. The first quick run-up on the issues showed that they caught Obama’s lies and were irritated by them, and they thought Romney was capable.

    I was dumfounded.

      Moonbeam in reply to Valerie. | October 17, 2012 at 1:03 am

      What I loved about that group is that they nailed the financial issues in a way that you don’t normally see a focus group do. The lady who supported Romney’s pledge to eliminate taxes on interest, dividends and capital gains, and the gentleman who warned of the inflation disaster headed our way as a consequence of Bernanke’s actions were both spot on.

    I particularly enjoyed the “undecided voter” who announced she didn’t like republicans.

    So what was she undecided about? Obama or the green party?

    This whole thing was STACKED through the roof against Romney from the get-go….Again: Town Hall Presidential Debate in OH, FL, NC, CO, PA… any swing state – perfectly acceptable.

    So the question arises why the Romney campaign agreed to the venue, moderator, and ground rules.

      gs in reply to gs. | October 17, 2012 at 12:20 am

      A possible answer to my own question is:

      If the Romney campaign wanted/needed the debates more than the Obama campaign did, the Romney people would have had to make concessions in the pre-debate negotiations.

        Spiny Norman in reply to gs. | October 17, 2012 at 1:20 am

        The GOP always agrees to the Democrats’ rules. The have no choice. You are absolutely correct that Romney needs the debates more than Obama does, because a live televised debate is the ONLY way he can get his message out without going through the Democrat/Media filter.

        CalMark in reply to gs. | October 17, 2012 at 1:58 am

        If the Republicans had spines, they could announce a debate on Fox News, submit a slate of REAL journalists to be chosen from, and tell the Democrat candidate: it’ll be broadcast with or without you.

        Then go through with it.

        We’re all tired of kowtowing to Democrats. That’s why there’s a Tea Party. We just don’t yet have enough influence “high up” to change entrenched things like this, or seriously-held idiotic beltway GOP ideas (which drive this kind of stuff) like, “Liberal Democrat is the baseline default for all U.S. political discourse.”

    TrooperJohnSmith in reply to theduchessofkitty. | October 16, 2012 at 11:50 pm

    Let’s have a Town Hall debate in Amarillo, Boise or Wichita. Oh, wait… that’s “fly-over” country. We don’t count for sh!t, do we?

    Yeah, good ol’ Lon’ Gisland.

    The proof is when the audience couldn’t help but erupt in applause when Crowley backed up Obama on the “terrorism” issue – which she has now admitted was a mistake.

    Undecided, indeed.

With Honey Boo Boo and Candy Crowley, it seems that Obama has strong support in a certain demographic. Is there a Twinkie mandate I haven’t heard about?

Jack The Ripper | October 16, 2012 at 11:34 pm

Cuba, Iran, North Korea, the UAW, and ObamaPhone recipients are better off now than they were four years ago.

Are you?

What a bunch of b.s.

Simply can’t get past the GOP agreeing to that corrupt beast Crowley ‘moderating’ the debate.

If Romney gets elected, hogs like Crowley are going to be the media norm.

If Romney doesn’t get elected, we should find whoever agreed to Crowley ‘moderating’ the debate and feed them to street crowds in Libya.

    Completely predictable performance. How long are we going to put up with it? It’s as if this is the necessary and immutable order of the universe. It isn’t. Figure it out, Republicans. Romney missed an opportunity for a Reagan moment. “We don’t need an interruptor, Ms. Crowley, just a moderator. The media needs to try a little humility once in a while.” Or something.

    He’ll have another chance next debate.

Jack The Ripper | October 16, 2012 at 11:38 pm

Romney has the balls to point out the investments in President Obama’s pension.

No one has the stones to follow up on my posts about Elizabeth Warren’s investments, via TIAA-CREF, which include “BIG OIL!”

Ditto CALPERS, New York, Illinois, unions, etc.

And, someone beside me please pull the IRS Form 990s on various “non-profits.” I don’t have the time, but there is liberal hypocrisy there like you would not believe.

Jack The Ripper | October 16, 2012 at 11:41 pm

So sorry, my earlier post below was supposed to include a citation/reference to Bjorn Lomborg. Check it out!

And then, check out Pareto Optimization. Pareto Analysis. Pareto Optimal. Pareto Algorithm.

My previous post was:

Valerie is correct.

Unlike so many intractable problems in this world, dysentery (and pre-natal vitamins) are so easily and cheaply remedied.

So is a big chunk of malaria.

But, liberals rather fret about global warming, which is not fully proven and very expensive to rememdy and ban DDT.

Don’t know about you, but if malarial mosquitos were a feature of my yard/environs, I would risk my family’s and my health with DDT. And, “the ecology” is not a trump card comeback.

This was not a town hall debate. It was a standard debate where liberal media questions were given to unknown people from Long Island to read on the air. Again, Romney got shorted on minutes. Again, a liberal moderator stepped in twice to help a vulnerable Obama, at other times cutting off Romney before an attack. The moderator even interrupted Romney to declare that the lie the president just told was true, implying any refutation by Romney was unnecessary, let’s move along, shall we?

Scored like a boxing match, call it a draw or slight Romney victory. But in the big picture, Obama did not help himself beyond demonstrating a return to his usual glib talking, nasty as needed self. Romney continued to demonstrate he is presidential material, articulate, informed and with plans in hand.

This won’t affect the polls much immediately, but Obama left one particularly bad answer dangling – his lie about calling LIbya a terrorist act the day after. The next debate on Monday is on foreign policy. Do we think Romney will be ready? The Libya will be on the news for days, a good thing for Romney. I expect we’ll see a continuance of slow, but steadily increasing support for Romney, while the Obama team will be forced to deal with Libya or hide even from accolytic media.

I smell blood.

Romney 52.5% / Obama 47.5% on November 6th.

    Jack The Ripper in reply to Henry Hawkins. | October 17, 2012 at 12:08 am

    Henry,

    I agree with you, but national averages are one thing, the electoral college is another.

    Fire up that spreadsheet and report back by 18:00.

    Dismissed.

    In the next debate, Romney should ask Obama why, if he called it terrorism the next day in the Rose Garden, why did he let “what’s her name” go on national TV talk shows 5 days later and claim it was because of the movie trailer and why he [Obama] went before the U[seless]N and claim it was the trailer.

    TrooperJohnSmith in reply to Henry Hawkins. | October 17, 2012 at 8:21 am

    Indeed, if this was a boxing match, the ref was dirty.

theduchessofkitty | October 16, 2012 at 11:53 pm

Romney didn’t need a knock-out punch. He just needed to win it. There was no knock-out punch. But he delivered what he needed.

The One absolutely needed to deliver a knockout punch. He couldn’t. He just had to make sure he didn’t get himself killed.

Jack The Ripper | October 17, 2012 at 12:06 am

Which is more accurate?

Obama Romney Debate # 2:

OBAMA: “Gov. Romney doesn’t have a five-point plan; he has a one-point plan. And that plan is to make sure that folks at the top play by a different set of rules.”

Or, the following hypothetical?

SCOTT BROWN: “’Professor’ Elizabeth Warren has a one-point plan; and that plan is to make sure that folks at the top play by a different set of rules, while you pay through the nose and get ‘lorded over’ by ‘folks at the top’ like her.”

Good piece in USA Today. I appreciate your sober and incisive analyses of these things.

PS — good call on referring to the “moderator.”

I thoroughly enjoyed when he described his grandmother hitting a glass ceiling. As the VP of a bank. In the 70’s. Should I wish that I had come out a woman?

Jack The Ripper | October 17, 2012 at 12:16 am

Probably the LAST ONE OF THE NIGHT:

I do not care who says what about “who won the debate,” there is no denying that President Obama offered up some sound bites that the Romney campaign should weave into TV advertisements, on pain of punishment for “criminal stupidity” if they do not put those sound bites on the air with captions, graphics, and interwoven with contrary sound bites, also by 2008 Candidate, 2008 Democratic Nominee, and 2012 Presieent Barack Obama.

Yikes! Even if Mr. Obama “won the debate,” he still teed up his own scalp. If Romney and his campaign cannot hit the hanging curve ball that Obama just threw, then Romeny needs to go to the dugout.

It was primarily an economic debate. Obama came off as more of the same , we need more time. Long on excuses. I suspect that take has become tiresome. Romney came off as what he is. Competent and knowlegable in his areas of experiance which far exceeds Obamas resume. Crowley came of as what she is. Needy ,in need of affirmation coming from an edge of doubt as are all of her msm collegues. I dont think she mattered as people see thru msm posturing.

Enjoyed the USA Today opinion piece, which was spot on – excellent and concise summary.

The moment where Crowley interrupted Romney when he was building his case reminded me of the scene in “The Verdict” when Paul Newman is cut short by the corrupt judge, who proceeds to bastardize Newman’s point so they can go to lunch. Newman watches, stunned. “If you’re going to argue my case for me, Judge,” Newman says, “try not to lose it.” Romney needed to say something like this. This sh*t can’t go on. It’s not just plainly wrong on every level, but it shows people that as a party Republicans don’t have any self respect. It sinks into the public consciousness.

Donald Douglas | October 17, 2012 at 12:50 am

Big post on up: ‘Candy Crowley Shills for Obama at Hofstra Debate!’

A disaster of presidential debates.

Romney had the issues while O’bammy had the flash. He musta drank every available cup of coffee to be found in the vicinity prior to the debate OR maybe even a little “blow.”

I call the debate a draw and that’s good because that’s all Romney had to do and he did in spite of a hostile moderator. She totally destroyed the concept of what a “town hall” format encompasses.

Next week’s debate will be the crucial test of Romney’s drive…

[…] I liked Democrat Kirsten Power’s tweet (via Legal Insurrection): […]

Jack The Ripper | October 17, 2012 at 1:11 am

Valerie,

Thanks for your reply.

My point is that even if global warming is proven to exist by a preponderance of the evidence, let alone clear and convincing evidence or beyond a reasonable doubt, is the exceedingly high price tag for combating global warming climate change the first thing that you or I or we should do with X number of dollars, when there are other things that are so more likely to produce concrete results for so many persons right here and now?

Hence the reference to Pareto.

Your car is really overdue for an oil change, but you have 250 more miles to your destination. Do you take your last $60 to get an oil change or to gas up?

Irish hunger strikers went 60 to 70 days without food. They could probably go 6 to 7 days without water. They might go 6 to 7 minutes without oxygen.

I don’t know about you, but I cannot look at someone suffering from a problem that can be fixed right here and now (that is not due to kleptocracy and other government failures that are enabled by more charity) and say that I rather spend much more money on a future problem that might be both real and fixable, when I know that with pretty good accuracy, genuine results can be achieved for the person who needs help (and at much lower cost).

I do, however, agree with you on so many things despite the fact that I was using the crappy topic of dysentery to make a joke about Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton “running off at the mouth” a.k.a. “verbal diarrhea” and mating it to the notion of a time machine being used by Chelsea Clinto to travel back in time to arrest such fonts of verbal bullshit.

Originally, I was just making a joke, ’cause that’s how my immature, sophormic, middle-aged, humor works. I laugh, therefore I am.

Good night, and God Bless. You donate your money your way, and I will donate my money my way.

Good grief. The lefties are going mental in the comments on your USA Today piece.

There is no sense in even trying to engage in a discussion with those idiots.

two.bit.score | October 17, 2012 at 1:29 am

When will we ever get some real moderators for the debates? Someone like Bill O’Reilley or Sean Hannity would be great.

An observation (yet another!) on polls:

In the MSM post-debate polls, Romney wins in many areas, and crushes Obama in more than a few others.

Yet Obama wins, overall!

In other words, “Outscored in all four quarters, but still won the game.”

Explain to me, how does that work?

Questions were more sensible than I expected.

Romney won.

Candy & Obama lost.

After the debate, Sean Hannity called in Frank Luntz and his focus group. One guy shouted out about Obama’s shit, literally. No 7 second delay on live TV. That should go into a Romney ad.

    jimzinsocal in reply to Towson Lawyer. | October 17, 2012 at 8:19 am

    I saw that cli. Callin Obama on his BS. Very funny and accurate.

    Generally anyone who thought Obama got a KO or even a TKO was seeing thngs thru blue lenses. There was no big win for either.
    I thought Obama came across as defensive and small.

    Who cares about flash polls. Lets keep an eye on Real Clear Politics and see if Obama managed to stop the momentum.
    I dont think he as or will.