Steve Sailer: iSteve: Presidential debate open thread

October 3, 2012

Presidential debate open thread

You watch it for me and tell me what I missed.

60 comments:

Marlowe said...: The President and The Candidate came out on stage wearing top hats and tails and performed a fantastic version of 'Putting on the Ritz'. Obama can tap dance like his feet are on fire. The follow up number - 'Brother can you spare a dime?' was excellent as well.; 10/3/12, 3:25 PM
Anonymous said...: I never watch debates. As a means of understanding the people in question, it's petty worthless.; 10/3/12, 3:28 PM
Anonymous said...: Every four years the GOP goes along meekly as their candidate gets grilled in debates by a partisan Democratic party operative moonlighting as a moderator.

Tonight the moderator will be Jim Lehrer of PBS. It's a forgone conclusion that everything will be slanted from a leftist perspective.; 10/3/12, 3:48 PM
Anonymous said...: Virgil Goode won the debate.; 10/3/12, 3:49 PM
Anonymous said...: What, you are not going to watch the debate? What is more important?; 10/3/12, 3:52 PM
Anonymous said...: Regardless of what is uttered publicly by the Republican nominee, he will adhere faithfully to the unspoken oath that's been in place for nearly a century. It goes something like this: For you, my exclusive source of votes, I will do nothing.

It's been broken only twice. First by Goldwater, who was immediately abandoned by his party's power people, then by Reagan whose administration was immediately hamstrung by his party's power people.

Vote local.

cipher; 10/3/12, 4:25 PM
Anonymous said...: Obama went crazy, spoke in tongues, praised the 9-11 attacks and swore to naturalize the population of Mexico.

Afterwards the consensus opinion was that the debate was a draw, but would have no effect on the polls.; 10/3/12, 4:43 PM
Semi-Employed White Guy said...: Romney just said how romantic it was that Obama was celebrating his wedding anniversary with him instead of Michelle. Gay.; 10/3/12, 6:09 PM
Zazooba said...: Please God, make it stop!; 10/3/12, 6:11 PM
Zazooba said...: Energy independence!! Run! Run! He's an ignoramus.; 10/3/12, 6:12 PM
Zazooba said...: Gotta love R's hand gestures. Like he's trying to pull himself up to look over a wall.; 10/3/12, 6:13 PM
Jason Sylvester said...: I laid in a bottle of Crown Royal Black for tonight's debate, vowing to take a shot every time I heard the words "investment" from Obama or "tax cuts" from Romney or anything about "improving education/schools/etc." from either.

At this rate, I may not make it to the halfway mark before collapsing into an inebriated stupor.

Thus far you're not missing much other than campaign boilerplate about jobs, economy, and so on, plus some pre-debate gushing about the Obama's wedding anniversary from both candidates.

Romney just said "tax cuts" three different times in rapid succession, so if you don't hear from again tonight, you'll know why...; 10/3/12, 6:15 PM
Zazooba said...: Middle class, middle class, middle class, ZZZzzzzzzz.

Just strings of buzz words.; 10/3/12, 6:15 PM
Harry Baldwin said...: 9:15 Romney has been working his hands up and down so much he looks like he's kneading bread dough. Did someone advise him to do this?; 10/3/12, 6:16 PM
Zazooba said...: Where did R get that dopey smile?

I feel like I should apologize to O for keeping him from wherever it is he wants to be. He sure doesn't seem very interested in doing what he is doing.; 10/3/12, 6:18 PM
Zazooba said...: Brain-dead tax silliness.

Is this all R has?; 10/3/12, 6:20 PM
Jason Sylvester said...: Romney: "I love Big Bird," but still going to get rid of PBS. Loves Jim Lehrer, too. You literally saw the lightbulb go off in his head: "forgot this guy works for PBS".

*Groan*

At least he's stopped repeating "tax cut" over and over.; 10/3/12, 6:30 PM
Harry Baldwin said...: Zazooba said... Like he's trying to pull himself up to look over a wall.

I like that better than my kneading bread. Also, R's creepy smile is not working for him. Didn't anyone ee tell him during the primaries? More BS about putting more money into the education system until it succeeds in making silk purses from sows' ears. Jim Lehrer is 78--looks like 108. I like it that R told him he's going to cut the PBS subsidy.; 10/3/12, 6:33 PM
Zazooba said...: O sounds so phony whenever he switches to a personal anecdote. Now its his grandmother.

Hope R pastes him on this.

R actually has facts, or sounds like it.; 10/3/12, 6:41 PM
Anonymous said...: I would rather watch Real Housewives of Atlanta than this "debate".

Hence, I will go back to reading Augustine's City of God tonight.

MDR; 10/3/12, 6:42 PM
Enoch Powell said...: It's difficult for Obama to do well in a debate because he is a stuttering, affirmative-action parasite who is also an emotionally-fragile, overgrown adolescent twit. On top this Obama is also a guy with a towering sense of self-esteem who has never accomplished anything at all. Everything he has has been given to him by White people. Only White cowards and fools are able to call Obama eloquent with a straight face when his delivery is such a weird combination of stuttering, smacking and a sort of stilted pseudo-intellectual ebonics. Obama sounds like a half-educated 12-year-old who has learned how to sound in order to impress adults.

The problem is that Romney won't attack Obama because Obama is Black and Romney is a cowardly White. Obama is an actual criminal, but Romney will be as cowardly as that inbecile McCain.; 10/3/12, 6:43 PM
Seth said...: Yeah this is crazy boring.; 10/3/12, 6:43 PM
rightsaidfred said...: Not watching. Listening to snatches.

Romney seems too anxious, but he is clearly better on the details (his strength), but I'm not sure details will woo the electorate. Obama's bored bemusement won't win anyone, but it won't lose anyone, either.

Obama's details are rehearsed. Obvious when he strays off the script. "Quick, someone think for me."; 10/3/12, 6:45 PM
Harry Baldwin said...: Romney draws blood talking about unemployment and economic stagnation; talking about the $90 billion Obama devoted to green energy while complaining about the $2.8 billion oil tax credit; and talking about the $700 billion Obama took out of Medicare for Obamacare. On that last one, O had a tense smile on his face while R was talking.; 10/3/12, 6:49 PM
Anonymous said...: They've got so much makeup on Obama that he practically looks like a white guy - and he's sporting some sort of a lip gloss [like the Fox News chicks wear] so as to cover up his purple lips.

I guess they're trying to shine him up so that he doesn't scare the Single White Womynz.; 10/3/12, 6:57 PM
Jason Sylvester said...: Obama to Lerher: "I think I had five seconds till you interrupted me."

That mask slipped a bit: Obama truly thinks he's a Philospher-King in a room full of idiots, and it shows.; 10/3/12, 7:02 PM
Luke Lea said...: My first impression of Romney's performance was that it was nerdy, wonkish. It went over in Massachusetts, apparently, but may not in Red State America.; 10/3/12, 7:04 PM
Anonymous said...: Luke Lea, anyone that is a real Red State American ain't votin' for Obama no matter what. And WILL vote for whoever is against him. Just like blacks aint' votin' for R no matter what. Hence your comment is a bit empty chamberish.

MDR; 10/3/12, 7:14 PM
Anonymous said...: Obama has the knack of making me feel like I'm being lectured to by a know-it-all teacher.

Romney's hand gestures look like some new form of Chinese martial arts.; 10/3/12, 7:14 PM
Jason Sylvester said...: Obama just invoked Abraham Lincoln: sign of a politician in trouble, as I think JFK (?) said - I can't remember who exactly.

He's kinda stumbling over his words right now, which tells you a lot about how necessary that teleprompter is for him as a general rule. Here, his electronic crutch is gone.; 10/3/12, 7:16 PM
Semi-Employed White Guy said...: So sick of pandering to the AARP Medicare crowd. Would love to see either Romney or Obama turn to the camera and say, "Hey geezers, pay for your own god-damned Viagra! And if you weren't destroying your bodies by popping so many f'ing pills maybe you wouldn't need so much f'ing healthcare!".; 10/3/12, 7:16 PM
Anonymous said...: Why does President Romney have to parry with this slick dude?; 10/3/12, 7:17 PM
Jason Sylvester said...: Lehrer now shifting the talk to "specifics" about helping education, for both candidates. This one may put me down for the count.; 10/3/12, 7:20 PM
Anonymous said...: Here is a Visual summary of the debate.; 10/3/12, 7:22 PM
Anonymous said...: Obama looks sallow, waxen. I think he is rotting from the inside.; 10/3/12, 7:27 PM
Semi-Employed White Guy said...: They've got so much makeup on Obama that he practically looks like a white guy

Very pale. Thought it was just my TV.

- and he's sporting some sort of a lip gloss [like the Fox News chicks wear] so as to cover up his purple lips.

That's to help him fellate Jim Lehrer after the show.; 10/3/12, 7:28 PM
Anonymous said...: R did his impression of joaquin phoenix the rapper. O played bass. R looked at O & said "what you talkin' 'bout willis?" the crowd roared. R juggled 3 balls in the air. O set them ablaze. both drank from the same flask & said to the audience "your economy is not OUR economy! hope you enjoyed the minstrel show!" then they kissed like Al & Tipper Gore.; 10/3/12, 7:30 PM
Anonymous said...: Romney won. Terrible debate.; 10/3/12, 7:32 PM
Truth said...: "Y'all two buddies yukked it up for 5 minutes after the debate.; 10/3/12, 7:35 PM
Auntie Analogue said...: In telegenic terms - about 70% visual 30% aural - Romney just wiped the floor with Obama. In short, the debate telecast showed the stark contrast between a strong suit who leads from the front and an empty suit who expects to be allowed continue to get away with leading from behind.; 10/3/12, 7:40 PM
Anonymous said...: During the post-debate handshakes, I am reasonably sure I saw Obama say to Romney: "You won". (There was no audio, so it is based on lip-reading). Romney laughed, and walked off to embrace his large family.; 10/3/12, 7:40 PM
Harry Baldwin said...: What happened to Jim Lehrer's pupils? They look like the opening of the Holland tunnel.; 10/3/12, 7:42 PM
chucho said...: Steve is right: Obama is bored stiff. He was probably thinking about his NFL picks half the time.; 10/3/12, 7:43 PM
beowulf said...: Romney: "I love Big Bird," but still going to get rid of PBS. Loves Jim Lehrer, too. You literally saw the lightbulb go off in his head: "forgot this guy works for PBS".

Yeah, that was hilarious. It was an odd talking point, do people really think PBS funding has much of anything to do with our trillion dollar deficit? In 2010, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was appropriated $420 million. That's what we what we spend in Afghanistan every single day.; 10/3/12, 7:51 PM
Anonymous said...: I can't believe nobody mentioned the early Romney jab where he looked straight at Obama and said "I have 5 boys, so I'm used to having someone lie to me and keep up the lie to make me believe it" or something.

Right there, he was calling the black guy a 'boy'. It seemed to totally piss baby Barack off and throw him off his game.

Media Matters, Rachel Maddow etc. will probably have an extended freakout over the 'boy' comment.

It's sooo racist, don't you know...

-E. Henry Thripshaw; 10/3/12, 8:00 PM
Beefy Levinson said...: The only way that could have been a more lopsided ass kicking would be if Mitt was a one legged man. Either Obama washed down some Ambien with Henny before he walked onstage, or the pundits like Steve who say that Obama's heart isn't really in the presidency have been right all along. I haven't seen Chris Matthews this apoplectic since the Clinton impeachment.; 10/3/12, 8:18 PM
Anonymous said...: Climate change is off the agenda.; 10/3/12, 8:18 PM
DaveinHackensack said...: Consensus is Romney crushed it. Even Obama fans like Bill Maher and Andrew Sullivan have acknowledged that already. Network instapolls showing the same thing, and Obama contracts dropped 8.4% on InTrade during the debate.; 10/3/12, 8:19 PM
beowulf said...: ‏@billmaher
i can't believe i'm saying this, but Obama looks like he DOES need a teleprompter
https://twitter.com/billmaher/statuses/253680489850892289

Bill Maher FTW; 10/3/12, 8:20 PM
Anonymous said...: "It was an odd talking point, do people really think PBS funding has much of anything to do with our trillion dollar deficit?"

PBS has a lot to do with something that's at least as important.

When I was an impressionable teenager in a household without cable in the early 1990s, I watched PBS more than any other channel. Why? Because it had the smartest shows. One problem: PBS is unbelievably lefty. In those years I got a very strong impression, a subconscious feeling that high culture, intelligence and an adult (as opposed to a childish) outlook on life were inextricably linked to leftist politics. I now know that this is a lie. I will always hate PBS for having lied to me about this.; 10/3/12, 8:22 PM
Anonymous said...: I watched roughly the first 40 minutes. It was very boring. I didn't think either one was winning. While they were arguing about taxes I had the feeling that they were probably both misrepresenting their their own and each other's proposals. They looked like two guys from rival cable companies making their sales pitches, throwing out meaningless numbers, one as untrustworthy as the other. Romney looks better, but everyone has always known this, and he's been trailing in the polls anyway. Now as I check Web coverage, everyone seems to be saying that Romney won. Perhaps this is because the media needs a story. Drama: the race tightens.; 10/3/12, 8:47 PM
Anonymous said...: Romney said he never said things he said. "I have no plans to lower taxes on the rich. They're doing fine - they can pay high taxes." "The only objection I have to Obamacare is that it wasn't passed in a bipartisan manner, and it takes some money from other programs." (paraphrasing) He isn't going to send those DREAMers back, he isn't going to touch Social Security, he likes green energy, etc.

He simply Me Too'ed in a vigorous, energetic, glib manner with a lot of Reaganisms sprinkled in ("free enterprise," etc... which hasn't existed in America since ~1780).

It was basically a personality contest. Intelligent white suit, peppy and eagerly interrupting, looking good and lying his ass off - vs. a faded cigar-store Indian who can only come alive when hollering Ebonics in Rev. Wright's church.

I'm tellin' ya, on Nov. 6 I'm staying home and compacting my garbage.

I am noticing, however, that certain media outlets (e.g. The LA Times) are not saying Obama won, as one might expect these media to do no matter what. Instead, they are lavishing praise on the Rom-bot.

My prediction (repeated): the media will flip. Not for Romney, but against Obama, who went wrong on Israel. Obama lost the election when he didn't meet with Bibi.

The media will not run interference for Obama now. You are going to see a media flip-flop that makes Rom's backflips look like the quintessence of constancy. Mitt will win in a landslide to universal media acclaim or at least acquiescence.; 10/3/12, 8:47 PM
Anonymous said...: I slept through the debate, but to see Chris Matthews detumescent must mean something.

<a href="http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/10/03/chris_matthews_freaks_out_at_obama_after_debate_romney_was_winning.html>http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/10/03/chris_matthews_freaks_out_at_obama_after_debate_romney_was_winning.html</a>; 10/3/12, 8:48 PM
Anonymous said...: The sort of people who were set to vote for Obama in spite of $4/gallon gas, the worst economy in decades, trillion dollar deficits, and so on are probably not going to change their minds based on some debate.; 10/3/12, 9:18 PM
Cail Corishev said...: "The sort of people who were set to vote for Obama [....] are probably not going to change their minds based on some debate."

I can't imagine why they'd watch it. I didn't watch it, because I've known since 10 minutes into his first campaign that I'd never vote for Obama, and everything he's done since then has reinforced that. Why would I need to watch one of his fans from government-supported TV try to toss him softballs? By the same token, if you still see Obama as a racial healer, or as one of your own who will get you a bigger share of the pie, why would you bother to watch him debate some evil conservative white guy?

No, the media is not going to flip-flop. Let's not get carried away. Yes, they may be upset with Obama, thanks to the cognitive dissonance they're experiencing after watching their genius-hero get schooled by a guy they've been taught to think of as a drone who lives off the ingenuity and productivity of his workers. It'll take them a couple days to frame this within their worldview: Obama's huge brain just wasn't challenged enough to bother giving it his best; he's concentrating on important matters like whom to bomb next; Romney/Lehrer was mean/unfair. Once they've come up with an excuse that makes their world make sense again, they'll start predicting a better result next time. Unless Romney really wipes the floor with him next time, they'll declare Obama the winner, or at least a draw, no matter what happens, and say he's back on track to victory.; 10/4/12, 4:25 AM
TontoBubbaGoldstein said...: *
Yeah, that was hilarious. It was an odd talking point, do people really think PBS funding has much of anything to do with our trillion dollar deficit? In 2010, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was appropriated $420 million. That's what we what we spend in Afghanistan every single day.

Point taken.

But, you must realise, those of us who wish for a (much) smaller government, get a tingle up our leg when any politician talks of actually cutting anything...no matter how irrelevant.; 10/4/12, 11:24 AM
Maya said...: "MDR"

Mode de rire?; 10/4/12, 4:11 PM
Maya said...: "Obama has the knack of making me feel like I'm being lectured to by a know-it-all teacher."

The teacher that sounds annoying, boring, but insanely smart when you have him for freshman social studies, but by the time you take AP Euro History with him in a couple of years, all you can see is an annoying, boring pseudo-intellectual who is full of shit regarding half of the topics he addresses? I flash back to that guy each time I listen to Obama talk.

I can't believe I got lured into watching this again. There was nothing new to be learned...again.; 10/4/12, 4:24 PM
Cail Corishev said...: "But, you must realise, those of us who wish for a (much) smaller government, get a tingle up our leg when any politician talks of actually cutting anything...no matter how irrelevant."

Exactly. It's like when the Gingrich Congress repealed the 55mph federal speed limit. Was it really that important? No. Didn't most of the states just replace it with their own? Sure.

But it was a specific reduction, however small, in federal intrusion into our daily lives. One of the first such reductions in my lifetime, which made it pretty exciting. It almost felt like a real revolution there for a day or two.

Defunding PBS would be the same way. It wouldn't hurt it economically, because what it gets from the government is a small part of its budget, and a few Hollywood friends could make up the difference with what they spend on blow. PBS would continue, and might be even more leftist without the need to pretend to be fair. Defunding it would be awesome anyway, because it would be the government no longer doing something it used to do. That's all.

And if you can't cut an item like 5% of PBS's budget, is there any hope that you'll be able to cut anything else at all? You have to start somewhere.; 10/4/12, 4:51 PM
Anonymous said...: the right is owned by the left. what arguments or even thoughts are allowed all are decided by the left.; 10/6/12, 2:51 PM

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October 3, 2012

Presidential debate open thread

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Steve Sailer: iSteve

October 3, 2012

Presidential debate open thread

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