Taka Yamaguchi: Liveblogging the Presidential Smackdown Part 1
I hope y’all enjoyed following along my liveblog. My gut reaction: Romney did pretty damn well. He didn’t come out swinging, but he did impress at the end.
The momentum started shifting towards the tail end towards the governor, he came out with some pretty substantial arguments for education and the role of government. Romney bounced back and did a good job presenting himself as flexible, on his feet, and most importantly, a centrist, with his Massachusetts experience to back it up. This is one of his biggest assets.
Obama was tending towards pretty empty assurances of: we’re on the mend, we just need to keep going. He seemed uncharacteristically unsure and hesitant, and his body language was all wrong.
9:32 Romney finishes up by stressing the importance of military and getting the middle class back to work. Good job, you two. See you soon.
9:30 Romney: I’m concerned about America. There are two paths to take…but he doesn’t say what they are.
9:29 Wrapping up. Obama: I love America because everyone does their fair share. Vote for me!
9:27 Finally. Hey America, Bin Laden is
done-zo. Love, the Prez.
9:27 Obama: well your policies doesn’t exactly look like compromise.
9:25 Romney: I will reach out across the aisle if I am elected, as I did in Massachusetts. He’s trying to say he doesn’t care about partisan politics.
9:23 3 minutes left. Obama’s consistently been speaking longer than Romney.
9:21 Obama hits one of previous Romney campaign gaffes-we can’t all ask our parents for money to pay increasing univeristy tuition. Romney looks like an elitist, as usual.
9:18 …and there it is. Romney pulls the religion card. Somehow “endowed by the creator” in the decleration of independence is related to religious freedom.
9:17 As a product of them, gotta respect that Romney made a shout out to Massachusetts public schools. Woop woop.
9:15 What is the role of government? Obama says government inherently enhances freedom, not limits.
9:12 Romey throws down the gauntlet. Obamacare breach of 10th amendment-first constitution reference of the night. I was waiting for that.
9:11 Obama: Board is not making decisions. Obamacare is not government takeover of healthcare, but expansion of private insurance. Romney is saying he’s going to overturn and replace APA etc., what is his strategy? He has no plan.
9:08 CST Romney: private market and individualism are always best. Scare tactic-mysterious board will make decisions for you.
9:06 CST Obama points to Cleveland Clinic as an ideal health care management system. +1 from me for backing up his argument with private-market policies.
9:02 CST Romey in a weird position, defending his Massachusetts health care reform. It’s not the same as obamacare because it was a state decision, consensus between democrats and republicans.
8:53 CST Romney looks a little frazzled and on the defensive, after his shaky performance on the healthcare bit. Government regulation is the name of the game now. Romney holds that regulation is necessary. Obama is accusing him of not understanding that lack of wall st regulation led to recession. Rom.ey didn’t really say that.
8:47 CST Looks like Obama’s arguments that Romney’s voucher system would collapse Medicare is resounding well with women in the Colorado ticker. Now Romney’s argument for bringing competiton into health care world is appealing to men.
8: 41 CST Social security is the topic. Obama relates importance of SS to grandmother. “entitlements” implies negative dependency.
8:39 CST Romney: I’m a buisnessman, yo. I know what I’m talking about. “State is the laboratory for democracy” don’t have the
8:37 CST Obama has hit on need for education reform and funding for education several times already. Romney hasn’t mentioned it at all. Romney accuses Obama of unfairly making cuts to alternative energy at the expense of fossil fuels: won’t get America energy independant.
8:34 CST Romney: move on over Barry O you’ve had 4 years to fix this economy. Obama constantly attacking Romney as protecting corporate interests. Obama finally mentions a personal anecdote, Romney’s already mentioned several–trying to make himself more relateable.
8:28 CST Romney: Big bird is a communist Chinese conspiracy. Just kidding, but something like that. He tries to present the cuts to PBS, for ex., as an example of sacrifices we have to make in hard times.
8:26 CST Romney says what he’s done has never been done before. Makes sense to say if Obama is accusing him that it’s just old Bush era policies. Both are accusing each other of maintaining status quo.
8:22 CST Obama: Military spending boost is unnecessary and unwise. Clinton era fiscal policy works, and we have the data to prove it: debt to surplus.
8:19 CST Obama: it’s math. Romney’s plan is illogical–impossible to lower taxes, raise military spending, and cut deficit. Obama shout out to Bill Clinton and his fiscal policies.
8:17 CST Both guys love the middle class family and the small business owner, as expected.
8: 14 CST Romney doesn’t understand what a question is. He hits back at Obama by charging that his accusation of a 5 trillion dollar tax cuts by closing loopholes and tightening down wasteful spending.
8: 12 CST Obama appeals to the green energy crowd by stating alternative energy solutions by name.
8:08 CST Romney going the usual American fiscal conservative tack, anecdote about some “average joe” who’s burdened by the economic future. Then he goes into the positives of “trickle down” economics.
8:05 CST Obama scores major brownie points for his mention of his wife and their anniversary with the soft and sympathetic crowd, judging by how the Tisch Commons peanut gallery reacted.
7:59 CST And we’re off, with a loving embrace between the two rivals.