This post is about American politics, and I realize it may not be of interest to people from other countries. Then again, perhaps it will be. Our planet is so interconnected these days that what affects one affects all.
The 2nd presidential debate took place this evening at Hofstra University, Long Island, New York. It was a town hall meeting moderated by CNN’s Candy Crowley, that consisted of 82 individuals who claimed to be undecided voters. I have no idea how or why ANYONE would be undecided at this point, but hey, okay. Undecided. Fine. These undecided folks had some good questions.
Before we go into this, I noticed that Michelle O and Anne R wore the same color outfit – hot pink! Synchro? Or did their consultants coordinate??
The first question came from a 20-year-old college student who wanted to know what the candidates could do for his generation to obtain jobs once they graduated from college. Right off the bat, Romney started out with his lies. He sang the praises of Pell grants, a government program that enables low income students to attend college.
Truth? Romney’s plan would eliminate Pell grants.
And from this point onward, the Romney lies multiplied. I kept waiting for his nose to grow longer. I kept hoping that the story of Pinochio was a true story, that when you lie, your nose grows longer and everyone recognizes it and knows you’re a liar. Instead of the elongated nose, we saw Romney’s odd little puckered smile and lots of blinks.
On energy: Romney said that under the Obama administration, gas prices have risen. That’s true. But the bottom line here wasn’t addressed: the government does not control gas prices. The free market does that. As Obama pointed out, “The economy was on the verge of collapse, we were entering the worse recession since the Great Depression.”
On Libya: Romney blew it. Here’s why.
On foreign policy, Obama destroyed Mitt Romney. This was the Libya question, This point illustrates the difference between a commander in chief and a presidential hopeful.
On immigration: Romney? Self-deport. Obama? The dream act.
On women’s health: Romney will defund Planned Parenthood, an organization upon which millions of women depend for mammogram, health care, contraceptive care. Abortion, per se, wasn’t addressed. Romney’s administration would overturn Roe V Wade. Yet he denies that he would do this. Denies it in spite of the fact that Paul Ryan, his running mate, co-sponsored a bill with Todd Akin (the body of a raped woman has ways to prevent pregnancy) that would confer personhood on a fertilized egg – i.e., a woman who obtains an abortion wold be guilty of murder, even if that abortion was the result of incest or rape.
On the one hand, Romney mentions his healthcare reform for Massachusetts, on which the Obamacare plan was built. Then he turns around and says he will repeal Obamacare on day one. It’s the sort of doublespeak BS he stands for.
One of the best lines? Romney’s five-point economical plan. Obama pointed out that Romney has a “very sketchy deal. Folks at the top play by a different set of rules…”
Romney then defended the points of his tax plan with: “of course the numbers will add up. I was someone who ran businesses for 25 years and balanced the budget. I ran the Olympics and the numbers added up.”
Really? Romney ran the Olympics on government bailout money.
But the crowning moment was the last statement by Obama, where he addressed Romney’s remarks to behind-the-doors donors about the 47 % of moochers in the U.S. who don’t pay taxes – people like, well, you know, the poor, the sick, the disenfranchised, seniors on Social Security.
Candy Crowley deserves a raise. She kept Romney the bully within his pen, despite his attempts to break out, and shut him up when he tried to bully his way into further discourse and more lies.
Let’s be clear about this. Tonight, Mitt Romney, a zillionaire who has been running for president for at least 20 years, can’t connect with ordinary people. Despite his pathetic attempts at anecdotes about people he has met throughout his campaign, he just doesn’t make the connection on pay equity for women, on education, on the tax plan, on foreign policy, on health care, on anything to do with women, people, or even dogs.
In the past few days, before tonight’s debate, the polls have shown that Romney has shown a ten percent rise among women voters. I find this hard to believe. What woman in her right mind would vote for a man who doesn’t believe in equal pay for women? Who believes the government should control your reproductive rights, your body? Or, as a friend said to me today, “What woman would support any guy who seeks to control your vagina?”
Forget Ohio, the state everyone says you have to win to win the presidency. This isn’t’ about Ohio. The majority of voters are women. Alienate them, and you lose the election. Romney and the Republicans must be damning the day that women won the right to vote.
The last question was interesting: How do you and your policies differ from those of George W Bush? Well, vouchers for health care, for starters. This is where the government sends you a voucher to cover some of your health care costs and then sends you off into the insurance free market to buy your own insurance. Right. Like a 75-year-old man or woman on Medicare will be able to find affordable insurance.
So, you get the idea here. What’s at stake in this election is both simple and complex. Simple in the sense that the choices are clear between the Republicans and the Democrats. Complex in the sense that we are three weeks away from the election and less than eight weeks away from the Mayan end date of December 21. The closer we get to the election, the more convinced I am that the Mayan end times – or whatever it proves to be – is about a paradigm shift, not the end of the world, not disclosure, not about anything radical. It’s about a radical shift in beliefs. We’re in the midst of it now.
This point was driven home today when I was on my way out of our local grocery store and a well-dressed elderly woman sitting by the door said, “Excuse me, can you give me a ride home? I live just three blocks from here.”
“Sure.”
“Oh my God, thank you so much.”
I loaded her groceries into my cart and then into my car. Phyllis, who will be 90 in November, always walks the three blocks to Publix, then waits for someone “kind, who will give her a ride home.” She has a teacher daughter who lives locally, a son in New York. “I used to work for Dior in New York,” she says. “I loved it. Then I taught fashion. I loved it. Now I’m here and I love that, too.”
I carried Phyllis’s groceries into her townhouse, a pristine environment where everything had its place. She invited me to stay for coffee, but I had an appointment with a deadline and demurred. But as I backed out her driveway, I knew I had just seen myself in thirty years.
If we can’t help each other, if we can’t solidify humane policies, if we can’t lend a hand to those in need, then as a country, a nation, a people, we have failed. But I’m an optimist, and I think people like Phyllis lead the way.
“My daughter is appalled that I ask strangers for rides,” Phyllis says. “She tells me, Suppose they try to rob you, mom?” Phyllis laughs at her own statement. “But what do I have to rob?”
I failed in that I should have gotten Phyllis’s number so I could drop by when she needed a ride to and from the grocery store. But I suspect our paths will cross again. Maybe that’s part of life after 12/21/12.
Synchronicity. Hey, remember me?
I am thinking about Lee Atwater and his legacy of lies and disinformation. Everything we do sets up a chain of events. Our citizens have been fed so much sensational disinformation that they have trouble following truth and logic. I love your juxtaposition with Phyllis, who is also creating a chain of events, by allowing people to assist her. It creates a chain of giving that is just as beneficial to the recipient as to t he giver. May we all learn to accept the generosity of others as well as offer to those in need.
Peace
Lee Atwater, blast from the past. Great to hear fro you, Jeri!
I enjoyed your summary!
When people talk about “2012” (which is now), I always think of Arthur Clarke’s “Childhood’s End”. Not that I think a benevolent alien race will come down and ease us into our evolution (wouldn’t that be great), but we are at the turning point now.
I think of the same book!
The issues regarding women really concern me.
I absolutely love your story of helping that lady. It’s so wonderful that there are people who trust and people who will say, sure!
You could see Romney’s disregard for women in the way he treated Candy Crowley.
I tend to think these women who are voting for Romney are the women who are Catholic and also who are members of any and all groups, whether religious or otherwise, which denigrate women to the nose-bleed section of the stadium, keep them barefoot and pregnant, and teach them and treat them as second-class citizens….or less than that…..slaves to men. These women are so brainwashed that they haven’t a single thought in their minds that isn’t censored by a man or put there by a man. Therefore, Romney, being the “strong male controlling figure” to these women, is the one they revere and for whom they cast their vote. (If they are allowed by the men in their lives to vote!) They are also the pathetic women who are dominated and abused by husbands who get off on mis-treating and beating them into submission. Yes, I understand that my comments are incendiary, but be that as it may, in my counseling years I had many female clients who fell into this group, and whom I would refer to the “safe houses”, only to be informed later that they had returned to the abusing husbands. I don’t look down on any of these women, but I do feel sympathy that for whatever individual reasons, they have been prevented from becoming independent of male dominance in their lives. I’m appalled by the Catholic women in my acquaintance who allow the Church and the Pope to demand that they live their lives in complete servitude to their spouses, including having multiple children regardless, often, of danger to their own lives from forced prenancies, such as young women who have Type 1 diabetes and for whom pregnancy often holds great risks. Romney is a carry-over from the Dark Ages when women were mere chattel. Shame on him. Jerk. There are things about Obama’s platform with which I disagree, but I certainly am eager to give him another four years to do his best to get this country into better shape. In my opinion there’s no choice here. It’s too apparent
that Obama is the ONLY man with at least the right ideas, if he will have the guts this time to keep his nose to the grindstone and do the work required by the Office of the President of the United States. Play-time is over. Now let’s get it done!!
great post on the debate, you two – and yay! obama is back!
and what a wonderful story of phyllis!
Not much in the early press here in the UK but the lunch time television news seems to agree that Obama won this debate.
I’ve been reading a bit about Romney. Is it true he has the nickname Mr Flip-Flop or is that a UK invention? If what I have read is right though, he does seem to be a bit of a chameleon altering his views when necessary. Some mentioned include:
He was pro-choice with abortion but is now pro-life. On guns he outlawed assault weapons but now seems to think they are okay. He’s changed his mind about stem-cell research . He brought in a Health Insurance scheme but criticised Obama when he wanted to do the same as it was a ‘terrible idea’ and so on.
I fear this is similar to what I find with many UK politicians, they say what they think will get them elected as opposed to what they really believe and might be best for the country.
If there was an election tomorrow in the UK, for the first time, I’d be an ‘undecided.’ I really don’t know who I would vote for. The party leaders are out of touch with the general public, no matter what they claim.
Mr Flip-Flop describes him perfectly, Mike. It’s definitely not a UK press invention!
I think I forgot to check the I AM HUMAN box a few minutes ago. Just a quickie comment, and if it appears twice I apologize. The PINK clothes are being worn because this is BREAST CANCER AWARENESS month. Most of the male anchors everywhere are wearing pink ties, and the women are wearing pink clothing or accesories such as scarves, etc., and the pink ribbons are virtually everywhere one goes. It’s to bring attention to breast cancer. There are lots of “runs” being done this month for breast cancer. Pink is the color of Love, btw, as I’m sure most folks already know! 🙂
Good post, but I’m not fully awake yet so am only going to make a single comment that has nothing to do with the debate per se. The wives wore PINK because this month is BREAST CANCER AWARENESS month. That’s why almost all the male anchors and hosts on all channels everywhere are wearing pink ties with their suits, and why almost all the women anchors and hosts are wearing pink scarves, dresses, on and on. This is the month for PINK, to raise awareness of breast cancer. Just wanted to respod to that! And, a good morning to all in the Synchrosecrets neighborhood! 🙂
I was so pleased about the debate last night. Obama really did connect with ME at least, but then he always has. 🙂
I thought Romney was a total bully last night….and it really bothered me that he was disrespectful to the president. At one point cutting him off with total disregard to the fact that he is the president. He might have stopped big O by saying saying “excuse me Mr. President”…..and so on…..but he just treated him with the same lack of respect I suspect he would treat the general public if Romney were to become the next president. I was disgusted by not only his answers (lies) to many questions, but the how he delivered the answers in a way that seemed to talk down to the person that asked the question. I hope you’re right about the 2012 thing….we certainly need a shift.
All I can say is – great GREAT post. Thank you Trish and Rob for being here.
X O X
Obama was definitely present for this debate and did a great job refuting Romney’s lies. There’s a photo of Romney who looks very mad during the debate. I watched his facial reactions while Obama was speaking. He was not pleased, which was surprising, since he should be riding high after the first debate.
This debate reinforced the view that Democrats have portrayed of Romney all summer long, and of the Republican party. Romney actually pointed out that as Governor, he sought qualified female candidates and was given “binders of women” to look through, like in a catalog (or more cynically, the FLDS Church which split off from the LDS church over the polygamy issue so that they could continue the practice, actually do have binders full of girls who are ready to be married to middle aged men). Instead of “equal pay”, Romney said that he believes in flex time so that a woman who can’t stay at work late like the guys can go home to cook dinner. He just says things without a clue on how it comes across to people. It is clear who he is without his ever telling us: he is a typical entitled white male in a church where the leadership is full of entitled white males and it angers him that he is being questioned and challenged by the female moderator and the black president. This simply does not happen in Mittworld.
Well, you know how I feel about paradigm shifts and 12/21/12. As for the debate – Obama finally had me out of my chair. Yes! He called Romney on all of his bs. Did you see Romney’s face when his wife came on the stage? One of those moments that tells you exactly how he thought he did in this debate. On the other hand Michelle was beaming. This was a resounding win for Obama and hopefully he will do well in the next gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Three weeks left and I can start answering my phone again – those robo calls are so annoying – and they have ALL been from the polls or the Republican Party.