Town Hall Debate! It’s on. Liveblogging by Taka
We’re off on this second round of Prez. vs. Gov’ner. Barack Obama has a lot to live up to after the first drumming by Mitt Romney. Many pundits suggest that facing down one-on-one challenges is not Obama’s forte. Neither is it Romney’s. Either way, it’s going to be good.
I gotta say it was close, but Obama wrapped it up pretty well. If he fared poorly tonight there would have been serious questions about his campaign. He countered Romney’s attacks with good points, and was reasonably personable, which was a concern. Romney might have seemed scattered at times, but he backed up his claims with economics and didn’t shy away from attacking Obama. Looking forward to the Final Showdown next week. Tune in to my live blog then!
9:38 CST Obama says that he doesn’t believe in crazy socialism and trusts the free-market system. Romney really cares about his family, his faith, and the American people.
9:37 CST A self-proclaimed tough question. What’s a misconception about yourself you want to challenge.
9:33 CST Obama: encourage high wage, high skill jobs. We don’t want the crappy sweatshop jobs for Americans. So, invest in advanced jobs! So, education. So, technology investment.
9:27 CST How do we make the US attractive to jobs? How do we retain them? Romney: we have to appeal to entrepreneur. China is manipulating their currency to artificially lower their prices. We have to take them on, impose tariffs (more regulations? hmmm…?).
9:21 CST Assault weapons have no place in civilian hands. Obviously. But Obama emphasizes that we have to stop violence from happening in the first place. Love it! Romney suddenly decides to insert the importance of marriage as an institution and family values as a way to reduce violence. What? So being raised by a single parent makes you violent? Then something about Mexican drug lords. Where is Romney going? I think he’s kinda unraveling.
9:16 CST Obama: The buck stops with me. I’m ultimately responsible. It’s offensive that Romney would suggest I’d use the embassy attack for political means.
9:13 CST Romney: Obama doesn’t care enough. He’s an apologist.
9:08 CST Libya. Chris Stevens. Why wasn’t the State Dept. ready for the attack? Obama’s automatically on the defensive. He’s suggesting that he immediately responded to the embassy attack, beefed up security, and would hunt down the people responsible. But Obama hasn’t answered the question…if Romney’s smart about this he’ll exploit it.
9:06 CST This is getting heated. Saliva and passionate words flying. The moderator just got pwnd.
9:03 CST Obama’s talking about criminal immigrant gangbangers. Is this family friendly?
8:57 CST The first, FIRST! not-super white person asks Romney about immigration. Romney: I come from a family of immigrants. But I’m not budging one bit on extending social benefits. Obama hasn’t done anything to advance immigration legislation, even when the Democrats had a majority. Illegal immigration is still a problem.
8:54 CST Romney’s got the smug barely concealed hatred grimace down.
8:50 CST Obama: Romney is more extreme than Bush on social issues. Shiiiiiit. You don’t want to be worse than Mr. Mission Accomplished. Them’s fightin’ words.
8:48 CST An audience member asks why Romney is different than Bush. The Texan’s legacy has always dogged Romney’s economic campaign, and it’s definitely not going away now. Bush had a very different path for a different time–he was all about big business. I’m about small business…cuz I have experience there etc. etc. etc.
8:43 CST Obama getting to the good stuff…access to reproductive and female healthcare. Child care. Not just women issues, but family issues. Economic issues. Woop woop.
8:38 CST A young lady asks Obama about how to address gender inequalities in salary. He starts off with an anecdote about his grandma, but actually…we’ve actually heard the exact story before in the first debate…getting to the point–it’s everyone’s problem. We have to address this issue from multiple perspectives. Access to higher education is key for women’s advancement. Romney doesn’t really address the issue head on–we’ll build a strong economy which will get qualified women employed.
8:32 CST Romney: I spent my life in the private sector. I know what’s up, lady. Obama’s reaction suggests otherwise. Obama hits the a very commonly heard claim: Romney can’t give you any specifics about his proposed deductions.
8:29 CST Obama: we differ in theory. Both guys are butting heads as they usually do, with the usual trickle-down vs. middle class relief arguments. But Obama’s a helluva lot more convincing.
8:26 CST A thickly accentented lady asks Romney the questions that would bound to be asked: what happens to the middle class with your tax plans?
8:20 CST Romney keeps on hitting Obama with claims that coal, oil, gas production is down on private land. Obama: “that’s not true.”