After 45 years of marriage, my wife will sit down and watch her very first presidential debate with me, from start to end. She watched a little of the 2008 debates, but tonight she told me that she would watch the entire 90 minutes because she's tired of hearing of what others think. She's behind Obama 100% but, she’s relying on what she will see tonight, instead of what the pundits will say tomorrow.
The pre-debate hype is as high as I've ever seen it, and I guess that's due to 24/7 media coverage of what to expect. Yesterday, Matt Drudge and Tucker Carlson tried to influence the media by digging up yet another exclusive Obama bombshell. Fox News picked up a tease and advertised it as breaking news tonight on Sean Hannity. As usual, it was nothing more than a 2007 Obama speech where he gave a shout-out to his Pastor Jeremiah Wright. Sean Hannity said he sounded blacker than usual. The people who are behind this must think that their viewers are pretty gullible because this video has already been hashed out by Tucker Carlson when he was a host on MSNBC.
Yesterday, I read an article by George Will, which puzzled me because I think the conservative columnist is a pretty smart man. I don't usually agree with him, but I like to hear or read his viewpoint. He said that although the economic figures are dismal, and our foreign policy is in shambles; President Obama shouldn't even be close to being reelected. I don't agree with that analysis, but I can understand why someone would see it that way. It's the reason he gave for the president being reelected that left me puzzled. He said that President Obama would get a second chance because voters are reluctant to throw out the first black president. He went onto say that Frank Robinson stayed on as the Cleveland Indian manager because the owner didn't want the fire the first black manager in major league baseball. George Will knew that he would be criticized and would be called a racist for having those views. I wouldn't say that he was a racist, but I know there's not a measurement of how many people who would vote that way. This is just my opinion, but I don't think there's that many people who think that way.
This morning the panel on “Morning Joe” were discussing the most-recent polls where it showed that the race is tightening prior to tonight's debate. Joe Scarborough started the discussion by mentioning what he thought was a gaffe by Joe Biden that was similar to Mitt Romney's 47% comment. Joe Scarborough went into a laughing fit mocking Joe Biden for saying, “This is deadly earnest, man. This is deadly earnest. How can they justify raising taxes on the middle class that’s been buried the last four years? How in the Lord’s name can they justify raising their taxes with these tax cuts?” Joe Scarborough said it was an indictment on the president's policies because they were in office. I guess you could see it that way, but I've been saying that the middle class has been suffering for over 10 years. It's no question that they suffered the most because their companies have either laid them off, cut back their hours and benefits, and many have lost their homes. Joe Biden's comment will get some blowback because people act on sound bites and how they are portrayed.
I don't think you can compare Joe Biden's remarks to the 47% comment that was reinforced by Paul Ryan's words in November when he told a conservative crowd that 30% of the people don't share the American dream. Those two comments are accurate depictions of what the Republican Party really thinks. It hasn't changed much throughout the years. I saw a clip of the 1976 debate between James L. Buckley and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, where Buckley constantly accused his opponent of supporting a welfare state. The GOP is proud of their “takers and makers" mentality. For example, the other day a Paul Ryan supporter asked the Congressman if there was a way to make sure everyone paid something “have some skin in the game." Paul Ryan had a chance for redemption, but he made it worse by saying, " we want to make those people taxpayers by making jobs available to move them into the middle class." A lot of the 47% are seniors, returning veterans, students working part time while attending college, so making more jobs attainable will not get them out of the 47%.
Joe Scarborough hates to be corrected, but he doesn't realize that non conservatives don't think that Ronald Reagan was perfect. Joe was saying that if Mitt Romney could have Reaganesque results if he uses the same tactics that the late president did against Jimmy Carter. He got angry when someone pointed out that Ronald Reagan never had a plan on how to release the hostages in Iran, he famously said, “we only have one commander in chief at a time" but he did give a great optimistic closing speech backed by an economy that was showing no sign of improvement. Mark McKinnon, political strategists for President George W. Bush tried to say that the debates won the election for his candidate. He showed a little anger when someone pointed out that Al Gore won the popular vote by 600,000 votes, and it was left up to the Supreme Court. It's funny how those little facts play into the picture.
The Romney camp is saying the people will finally get to know the real Mitt Romney. I thinks that's just spin like the one saying that people are just now starting to get interested in the election. I disagree because the 2012 GOP primaries were viewed by many and many people are requesting early voting ballots.
I'm eagerly awaiting the debate tonight, and I don't expect get much sleep because I'll have to watch the post-debate analysis. About 45 million people viewed Sarah Palin and Barack Obama's acceptance speech and that many will probably view tonight's debate.