Chicago Now ^ | 10/12/12 | Jeff Berkowitz
Not only did the below statements and actions help bring independents to Romney-Ryan, but they helped set or reinforce the foundation for Romney’s arguments in the second Presidential debate, scheduled for this coming Tuesday night.
- We just had an ambassador and three other Americans killed in Libya. That doesn’t happen everyday. And, Joe Biden lied about it in the debate. He said “Nobody asked us for more protection.” But, evidence indicates that is not true. It is clear from documents and testimony in recent hearings that our ambassador was asking for more protection. Worse, the Obama administration’s ambassador to the U.N., Susan Rice, told everybody well after the incident that the murder of our ambassador was due to spontaneous protests about the production of a U. S. film offensive to Muslims. We now know that was clearly a false statement and Ms. Rice either did and should have known that. Biden blamed last night that error on incorrect intelligence information. That won’t hold up. This was not a good way to win independent votes.
- Biden spent the evening smirking, smiling, sneering, interrupting, overtalking and being sarcastic when his opponent, Cong. Paul Ryan (R-Janesville) was speaking. Due to a split screen, everyone watching this on TV could see it. It suggests that Biden is an immature, insensitive, quirky person who is too unstable to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. Also, you have to wonder about the kind of debate preparation Biden had and does this show disarray among Obama’s staff. Shouldn’ they exercise some control over Biden. This could be dispositive against Obama for independents and undecided voters.
- Iran is racing toward a nuclear weapon and nothing that Biden said should have been reassuring to voters. Obama spent several years trying to be nice to Iran, in hopes they would accept the peace offerings. They didn’t and nothing said by Biden last night should have been persuasive to independent and undecided voters that Obama’s approach to Iran is a good one.
- As Ryan said last night, the current state of the U. S. economy is not what a recovery looks like: 1.4 % annualized rate of GDP growth, 7.8% current unemployment, 8% to 10% unemployment for most of Obama’s tenure and 23 million Americans struggling with some sort of unemployment or underemployment. A 800 billion dollar stimulus program that did little. Why should anybody think that four more years of this approach will make the situation markedly better. This won’t attract independent voters.
- Ryan articulated a Romney-Ryan plan to reform and save medicare, while not changing it for those over the age of 54. Biden said nothing other than he was against any reform of Medicare. Even the moderator, left of center Martha Raddatz, seemed annoyed when she asked Biden, “Why not raise the age for medicare eligibily just one year sometime in the future.” Biden had no answer. Independents are unlikely to be attracted to Biden’s unwillingness to take any steps to fix Medicare.
- Biden argued that Obama-Biden would not raise taxes at all for middle class families, but that clearly taxes should be increased for the top 2%. Ryan argued that such tax increases would hurt job creation, as the top 3% include many small businessmen who would engage in less saving and investment and thus create fewer jobs, if their taxes were increased. Independents would like to see true, expanded efforts to create jobs, especially in the private sector.
- Biden is very proud of the fact that our combat troops are essentially out of Iraq and we will be out of Afghanistan by 2014. While Romney-Ryan do not differ markedly on this item with Obama-Biden, Ryan did argue that Obama didn’t have to make the time line so certain and public. A little doubt as to our intentions might have slowed down the return of the Taliban. This should be an attractive argument to independents who might want to diminish the power of people who killed 3000 Americans.
- Biden thought he would try to scare women into thinking Romney-Ryan had on their agenda legislation to make abortion completely illegal. But Ryan said simply that he believes life begins at conception, referring to the fetus his wife and he saw via an ultrasound. He said the Romney-Ryan policy is one of opposing abortion except in cases of rape, incest or where the life of the mother is at stake. Moreover, Ryan doesn’t seem to want to appoint judges who would try to ban abortion. Rather, Ryan thinks abortion policy should be set by the elected representatives of the people, not judges. Further, Ryan alluded to the values of Biden when Ryan pointed out that Biden said he would not second guess China’s policy of forced abortion and sterilization to enforce the Chinese one child policy. Over-all, it appears that the Romney -Ryan position on abortion might be closer to that of independents than that of Obama-Biden.
- The abortion discussion took place near the end of the debate. So, Biden smirked, smiled, sneered, laughed and was very sarcastic throughout the entire debate, except for the abortion discussion, when he seemed to be quite serious. This might give independents the impression that Biden was not that concerned about taxes, unemployment, spending, Iran and U. S. ambassadors being killed. Yes, his only serious concern was a woman’s unlimited right to have an abortion anywhere, anytime and under any circumstances. That might not be an attractive position to independents.
- To close, Biden said he just wanted to level the playing field and give everyone a fair shot. For Ryan, it was all about the economy and jobs. Ryan said Romney-Ryan would accept the responsibility to bring about a real recovery. Again, advantage Ryan, in terms of winning over independent and undecided voters.
