Review of the Second Presidential Debate, Question 1 with rebuttals

So, trying something new here. I'm going to go through a transcript of the Presidential debate, and just give a sort of commentary on it. Not quite sure how it'll work, but hopefully something interesting will come of it. Let me know what you guys think.

CANDY CROWLEY, MODERATOR: Good evening from Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. I’m Candy Crowley from CNN’s “State of the Union.” We are here for the second presidential debate, a town hall, sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Well, right off the bat, still not a fan at all of the Commission on Presidential Debates. Anyone who doesn't actually know who they are, there's a great book called No Debate by George Farah put out much too long ago for this still not to be public knowledge. I'll have a write-up of that book done soon as well.

But, to briefly summarize, the CPD is a bipartisan organization started by former chairs of the Democratic and Republican national committees, formed to give the Democrats and Republicans absolute power in the debates after a disagreement with the League of Women Voters. There's a great overview at Opendebates.org.

CROWLEY: And because I am the optimistic sort, I’m sure the candidates will oblige by keeping their answers concise and on point.

Ha ha ha ha ha, we all know how well that worked out.

 QUESTION: Mr. President, Governor Romney, as a 20-year-old college student, all I hear from professors, neighbors and others is that when I graduate, I will have little chance to get employment. What can you say to reassure me, but more importantly my parents, that I will be able to sufficiently support myself after I graduate?

I don't really like this question. Good try though. It's an important topic, youth education, but it opened the floor for both Romney and Obama to go off on tangents talking about the exact same thing as always. Fuck reassurances, he should have asked what they specifically would do to create better opportunities for youth both in jobs and education.

ROMNEY: And also make sure that when they get out of college, there’s a job. When I was governor of Massachusetts, to get a high school degree, you had to pass an exam. If you graduated in the top quarter of your [class], we gave you a John and Abigail Adams scholarship, four years tuition free in the college of your choice in Massachusetts, it’s a public institution.

This is an amazing idea, and it is something that should be implemented nationally. Something that would actually encourage people to be educated, rather than piling student loan debt onto everyone. Of course, Romney just wanted to brag, because as soon as he starts talking about his national idea, this scholarship disappears.

ROMNEY: I want to make sure we keep our Pell grant program growing. We’re also going to have our loan program, so that people are able to afford school. But the key thing is to make sure you can get a job when you get out of school. And what’s happened over the last four years has been very, very hard for America’s young people. I want you to be able to get a job.

Kind of a let down. But at least Romney starts with an actually policy idea. Much better than last time. Sadly his policy idea won't actually change anything, other than putting another generation of students into debt. But I guess that's not all bad, because if they had just chosen better parents, they could have gotten loans from them. It's their own fault that they have to take out student loans. 

ROMNEY: ... I know what it takes to make sure that you have the kind of opportunity you deserve ... The middle-class has been crushed over the last four years, and jobs have been too scarce. I know what it takes to bring them back, and I’m going to do that

Well thanks guy, for not actually saying anything substantial and going back to your same little sound byte answers. Such a promising start ruined. I KNOW HOW TO MAKE JOBS BECAUSE PRIVATE SECTOR isn't a fucking point. It's just you blabbering out of your fucking mouth.

Not that Obama's answer was much better.

OBAMA: Jeremy, first of all, your future is bright. And the fact that you’re making an investment in higher education is critical. Not just to you, but to the entire nation. Now, the most important thing we can do is to make sure that we are creating jobs in this country. But not just jobs, good paying jobs. Ones that can support a family.

Good jobs! Good paying jobs! What a novel idea. Who would have thought we wanted good paying jobs. Too bad he doesn't have any good ideas on how to make new jobs. But you know, I totally support good jobs. Good jobs 2012. Too bad he died.

OBAMA: And what I want to do, is build on the five million jobs that we’ve created over the last 30 months in the private sector alone. And there are a bunch of things we can do to make sure your future is bright.

Number one, I want to build manufacturing jobs in this country again.

Sigh. Manufacturing jobs! That's exactly what we need. People in manufacturing jobs are so happy. Like, the least happy. But JERBS are too important to actually think about it for a few seconds. Who cares if people have shitty jobs, I just said good jobs, so a manufacturing job must be a good job! Right? RIGHT? Maybe if I speak loud enough no one will notice.

OBAMA: Number two, we’ve got to make sure that we have the best education system in the world. And the fact that you’re going to college is great, but I want everybody to get a great education and we’ve worked hard to make sure that student loans are available for folks like you, but I also want to make sure that community colleges are offering slots for workers to get retrained for the jobs that are out there right now and the jobs of the future.

Uh, this kind of strays away from the question, but yeah! Job retraining is a good thing. Community colleges should be seen as viable alternatives to universities. Agreed. Too bad you refuse to actually do anything to make us the best education system in the world. Like you know, decent primary and secondary school reform, and affordable tertiary education. It was way too hard though, with a majority and a super majority and control of the presidency to actually get anything done. You know?

 OBAMA: Number three, we’ve got to control our own energy. Now, not only oil and natural gas, which we’ve been investing in; but also, we’ve got to make sure we’re building the energy source of the future, not just thinking about next year, but ten years from now, 20 years from now. That’s why we’ve invested in solar and wind and biofuels, energy efficient cars.

We’ve got to reduce our deficit, but we’ve got to do it in a balanced way. Asking the wealthy to pay a little bit more along with cuts so that we can invest in education like yours.

And let’s take the money that we’ve been spending on war over the last decade to rebuild America, roads, bridges schools. We do those things, not only is your future going to be bright but America’s future is going to bright as well.

And he jumps off the deep end to make sure he gets to try to please everyone. Seriously, what the fuck does balancing the budget, energy independence and infrastructure repair have to do with getting him a job? Nothing at all. Politicians Blabbering Out Of Their Blabber Holes 2012.

CROWLEY: What about those long term unemployed who need a job right now?

Indeed, what about them, Mr. President and Mr. Governor?

ROMNEY: Well what you’re seeing in this country is 23 million people struggling to find a job. And a lot of them, as you say, Candy, have been out of work for a long, long, long time. The president’s policies have been exercised over the last four years and they haven’t put Americans back to work.

We have fewer people working today than we had when the president took office. If the — the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent when he took office, it’s 7.8 percent now. But if you calculated that unemployment rate, taking back the people who dropped out of the workforce, it would be 10.7 percent.

We have not made the progress we need to make to put people back to work. That’s why I put out a five-point plan that gets America 12 million new jobs in four years and rising take-home pay. It’s going to help Jeremy get a job when he comes out of school. It’s going to help people across the country that are unemployed right now.

And Romney's answer is to just SAY A BUNCH OF NUMBERS THAT ARE SCARY AND BIG instead of actually giving a real, policy driven response. This is a major theme of Louder Person Wins 2012. But, hey! Let's make 12 million jobs in the next four years. That's seems like an awesome idea. Too bad he likes to make numbers up.

ROMNEY: And one thing that the president said, which I want to make sure that we understand, he said that I said we should take Detroit bankrupt. And that’s right. My plan was to have the company go through bankruptcy like 7-Eleven did and Macy’s and Condell (ph) Airlines and come out stronger.

And I know he keeps saying, you want to take Detroit bankrupt. Well, the president took Detroit bankrupt. You took General Motors bankrupt. You took Chrysler bankrupt. So when you say that I wanted to take the auto industry bankrupt, you actually did.

And I think it’s important to know that that was a process that was necessary to get those companies back on their feet, so they could start hiring more people. That was precisely what I recommended and ultimately what happened. 

There's not much to say here, other than mentioning that the term "take ____ bankrupt" starts getting repeated way too many times. That loose collection of words makes my fucking head hurt. Please use words that make sense together.

OBAMA: Candy, what Governor Romney said just isn’t true. He wanted to take them into bankruptcy without providing them any way to stay open. And we would have lost a million jobs. ... And Governor Romney’s says he’s got a five-point plan? Governor 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. That’s been his philosophy in the private sector, that’s been his philosophy as governor, that’s been his philosophy as a presidential candidate.

Gosh, I hope Romney didn't think his numbers were big, because holy shit Obama's numbers are big too! ONE MILLION JOBS. ONE POINT PLAN.

Hey, I've got an idea. Let's play, completely ignore the moderators question and shit on my opponent? Sound good. Definitely sounds good.



To be continued, if I get less pissed off about the whole thing.