Takeaways From Last Night's Presidential Debate

A surreal moment from last night's Presidential debate was the point when Hillary Clinton started giving a lecture about how she would improve America's cyber security. The same Hillary Clinton whose cavalier mishandling of classified information would have landed anyone who isn't named Clinton in jail. It was like getting a lesson in how to slim down and look sexy from Lena Dunham.

The bar was unusually low for both candidates' path to success, but for Trump, it was a hurdle that a Chihuahua could leap. All the real estate developer needed to do was to demonstrate that he wasn't insane and could behave reasonably. To accomplish that, he showed uncharacteristic restraint, disappointing the expectations of those who wanted fireworks, but for the most part, it was pulled off successfully.

Hillary's bar was something most people could manage, but for her, is something she's never been able to surmount for the last quarter-century of her public life. She had to convince people she is likable and not a pathological lair. Her smug smile and reminders about her email scandal, and her testimony to Congress after her lies about the Bengazi massacre, did nothing to convince anyone that the Hillary Clinton Americans saw last night isn't the same Hillary Clinton they've seen since Bill Clinton first ran for the presidency.

Everything Hillary said had a subliminal boomerang effect that made it come back and hurt her if anyone bothered to think about it. She criticized Trump for, while as a private citizen, expressing equivocal support for the Iraq War that she voted in favor of when she was a serving US Senator. She criticized Trump's insults of women while she was an enabler to a husband who is subject to rape accusations that are beginning to rival in numbers those of Bill Cosby.  Anyone who watched the Republican primary debates and heard what he said about his male rivals knows that Trump can at least lay claim to being an equal opportunity insulter.

With regard to insults, though Trump has a reputation as being rude and bombastic, it was Clinton who threw vicious insults at Trump, calling him a racist and sexist. Clinton claimed that Trump's 'birther' questioning of President Obama's birthplace was racist. That only makes Clinton look more dishonest, unless she's suggesting that Trump's almost identical challenge of his Republican primary rival Ted Cruz means he's racist against Canadians. And as Trump reminded viewers, it was Hillary Clinton's campaign that started much of the 'birther' controversy by sending out a picture of Obama in traditional Muslim garb and questioning his 'American roots' during the 2008 Democratic primaries.

Clinton, on the other hand, will pander to every special interest laying claim to victimhood. Or she will during the election campaign. Once it's over, were she to win, she'd forget them the same way that Democrats have forgotten dilapidated Chicago neighborhoods they represent that are beset with gun violence despite being subject to some of the strictest gun control laws in the US.

Trump made some missteps during the debate, such as when he took the bait to respond in excessive detail when Clinton suggested his net worth was less than he claimed. But on the whole Trump was the more human, the more genuine, and the more commanding of the two.

Partisans on both sides are claiming victory, but what's interesting to note is that partisans on both sides are also complaining about how their candidate lost. For the most part, the consensus is that Trump and Clinton essentially tied, or if one outperformed the other, it was by a slim margin.

However this was the first of three debates, and that bodes badly for Hillary Clinton. In twenty five years of public life, she has shown little in the way of a learning curve. Trump's ability to change through the Republican primaries, the presidential campaign, and now the first debate shows that he has a strong ability to adapt when necessary.  Trump is also a showman, and in show business, you know that you need to open well, but what's most important is to end the act with a strong closing scene.

With two debates to come, Trump is more likely than Clinton to provide the big debate finish that will end the political career of his opponent.

Olivia Chow's awful debate performance makes it clear she's the candidate of Toronto's civic unions and not the taxpayers

In the days leading up to Olivia Chow declaring her candidacy for mayor, I'd had a few conversations in which I warned some of her supporters, "...you know, I bet 99% of the people who think Olivia Chow would be such a great candidate have never met her or heard her speak in public."

Now Chow also shows that when it comes to running a civic economy, she's completely in over her head. 

I'd say I hate to say "I told ya so," but I don't hate to say it at all...




The funniest part of this was that Chow's scripted "We're not on the gold course, I don't need to take any lessons from you" she threw at John Tory, which was supposed to be her big zinger, was delivered at such an inappropriate moment, it backfired on her and she was booed.

UPDATE: As will come as a surprise to no one, The Toronto Star has already gone into meltdown mode.  I'm willing to place bets right now that before the end of October, The Star tries to push for all candidates except Tory to drop from the race to try to prevent a Ford re-election.

The real presidential debate: Romney vs Obama Epic Rap Battle

Foreign policy debate shows a smug, glib Obama is willing to weaken America

The notable moment when Republican Presidential nominee's charge of  Barack Obama weakening the US Navy by allowing the number of vessels to diminish to its lowest levels since the First World War was answered by the president, "Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets..we have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them, we have these things that go under water, nuclear submarines.."

What may have escaped President Obama's military planning genius is that America's adversaries also have those technologies. Obama's unsurpassed arrogance doesn't seem to have allowed for the notion that his desire to reduce the massive trillion dollar debt he racked up by diminishing America's security capabilities is short sighted, both financially and by risking American lives.

As former US Ambassador to the United Nations put it last week, "it's American weakness, not strength, that America's enemies find provocative."

Obama is making the United States weaker than it has been at any time since Jimmy Carter was president. Carter's weak, inept handling of Iran in 1979 didn't save any American lives, it only deferred death which came back to haunt the United States with interest. Carter's weakness emboldened Iran, through its ally  Hezbollah, to murder 241 Marines in Beirut in 1983, to support the insurgency in Iraq and the Taliban in  Afghanistan. Together, these Iranian-sponsored acts have cost the lives of thousands of American military personnel and which would not have happened if Carter had effectively managed Iran.

There is a reason the Iranian mullahs want Obama to defeat Mitt Romney in the election next month. They see weakness in Obama.

Obama desperately wants America to be likes, but more damaging, he does not see the United States as a force for good in the world, which is why is keeps impairing its global power and influence. His promise conveyed to Vladimir Putin to be more flexible after his presumed reelection was a concession to Russian demands that America not have an effective missile defense.

Among the many foreign policy concerns Obama evidently doesn't understand is the difference between a geo-political adversary, which Romney correctly identifies and a terrorist threat, which Obama apparently thinks is the same thing.

When Obama said to Romney last night, "the 1980's are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back" he should have taken his own advice. American missile defense is not aimed at Russia but at smaller rogue states. Russia, like Obama still thinks in terms of 1980's era mutually assured destruction scenarios.  But warfare and strategy have moved past the dilettante who currently occupies the Oval Office.

At his Toronto talk last week, Ambassador Bolton joked that whenever they want to cheer themselves up at the Kremlin, they play the Obama "flexible" tape over and over to remind themselves what a weak adversary they have in the White House. It's no wonder that Vladimir Putin has endorsed Obama's reelection hoping to meet opposite a spineless American leadership for the next four years.

But with Iran rapidly moving towards nuclear weapons capability, the Muslim Middle East in turmoil, Russia looking to reassert itself by giving diplomatic cover to North Korea, Syria and Iran at the expense of American influence and China building up its military, a second Obama term is something both America and the free world can ill afford

After the Romney Obama debate

A much more spirited performance out of Barack Obama in tonight's debate may have given him a slight edge in terms of delivery. Romney highlighted that we in Canada have a 20% lower corporate tax rate, which is one of the reasons our economy is better than that of the USA. But Mitt Romney's hammering Obama about his economic stewardship made an important factor very clear. It's not Romney who is Obama's most formidable foe. What should sink the president's hope for re-election is Obama's own dismal record.

Be it energy policy, unemployment, immigration reform, national security, foreign policy, the economic recovery and the deficit, Barack Obama has been incompetent his role as president of the United States.

If Obama's record of failure is rewarded with another term, there is no reason to think he will do any better. There are, however, plenty of reasons to think America's divisive, inept Chief Executive will make things even worse.

Live Debate Coverage - Obama vs Romney Foreign Policy Debate

The debate begins at 9 PM Eastern time

Live coverage can be seen here

Last night's Vice Presidential Debate on Video

Biden may not have been sipping Kool-Aid on stage, but it was clear by his smug, smiling, smirky, and snearing delivery that he was trying to sell it to the American people. They drank it four years ago, Joe, but this time Americans are taking the water much more seriously.    

Biden's a decent guy but Thursday he was thrown into the quarterback's role which Obama abandoned in the Romney debate. While he moved the ball downfield at times, Biden relied on the same, status-quo playcalling --blaming everyone else for the poor performance of the team in the field. Almost on cue, Biden's finger-pointing offense sputtered. And when he should have walked off the field, he rudely tried to hog the ball. Maybe he thought the replacement refs were running the show. Whatever, Cranky Biden took too many snaps, and fumbled away a chance to make it heroically across the goal line.

..Biden interrupted Congressman Ryan 82 times in 90 minutes. The rudeness reaffirmed how the Obama administration has talked down to the American people since 2008 in a very partisan and divisive manner. It was evident in Biden's high-strung defense of Obamacare which, as Ryan countered, is not a bipartisan law, imposes 12 of 18 new taxes on the middle class, and robs Medicare recipients of $720 billion in services. Biden laughed it off. Independent voters watching at home probably didn't.

Bonus - Eye of the Sparrow - a bad lip reading of the Presidential debate

New poll shows Romney has 4 point lead over Obama among likely voters

From Pew Research:

Fully 66% of registered voters say Romney did the better job in last Wednesday’s debate, compared with just 20% who say Obama did better. A majority (64%) of voters who watched the debate describe it as mostly informative; just 26% say it was mostly confusing.

In turn, Romney has drawn even with Obama in the presidential race among registered voters (46% to 46%) after trailing by nine points (42% to 51%) in September. Among likely voters, Romney holds a slight 49% to 45% edge over Obama. 

Dead Heat! Post election poll shows debate winner Romney tied with Obama

PRINCETON, NJ -- Registered voters' preferences for president are evenly split in the first three days of Gallup tracking since last Wednesday's presidential debate. In the three days prior to the debate, Barack Obama had a five-percentage-point edge among registered voters.

Debate Ratings Show Obama Picked the Wrong Night to Flop

...though debates are often muddled affairs with no clear winners or losers, some are fairly clear-cut in their impact. Wednesday night’s set-to between President Obama and Mitt Romney was one such encounter. The left-wing talkers on MSNBC, the establishment types chattering on CNN and the conservatives on Fox News all agreed Romney won hands down. But the post-debate pushback from Democrats has centered not only on disingenuous “fact checking” but on the idea that the debate either didn’t matter much or that the Republican’s superiority was a superficial effect that dissipates on closer inspection. But in this case the liberal spinners have a problem: the audience. 

It turns out ratings for this debate went through the roof. The Nielson ratings agency reports that 67.2 million Americans watched the debate on television at home. That’s the second highest audience for such a debate in history (number one was the first debate between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter in 1980). And that doesn’t count those who either watched it in airports, hotels, bars or other venues or the many millions who watched it on their computers, tablets or phones. In other words, the president picked the wrong night to mail in his performance.   

Romney scores big in first presidential debate

The consensus from last night's presidential debate is that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney scored a resounding victory over President Barack Obama. Romney exceeded expectations in a measured yet forceful performance. The one major advantage the Republican challenger had was that the US economy is in troubling shape, with the president seeming ineffectual in his handling of the high unemployment and  massive deficit that has characterized the whole of his term in office.

A high placed source and confidant of the President told me a few months ago that the economy would be the deciding factor in November, and if unemployment remained at 8%, where it currently is and has been for some time, then the president would likely not be reelected.. 

The New York Times had the following:

The immediate reaction to Wednesday night’s presidential debate was a torrent of criticism directed at President Obama, with Republicans, and as well as many Democrats, accusing Mr. Obama of delivering a flat, uninspired and defensive performance. 
Republicans seemed genuinely surprised that his opponent, Mitt Romney, was energetic, aggressive and presidential during his first-ever general election debate.

“In a thoroughly dominating performance, Romney bested Barack Obama in both tone and substance,” Stephen F. Hayes of the conservative Weekly Standard magazine wrote after the debate. “Obama often found himself at the end of a verbal cul-de-sac, seemingly unaware of how he’d ended up there.”

On Twitter, some of Mr. Obama’s Democratic allies expressed anger and disappointment that the president did not make better use of the “47 percent” speech by Mr. Romney and other missteps that the Democratic campaign has spent months honing into attack ads and stump speeches.

Andrew Sullivan, a blogger and strong supporter of Mr. Obama, echoed Peggy Noonan, a former Republican speechwriter, on Twitter, saying that “this is a rolling calamity for Obama.” Mr. Sullivan added: “He’s boring, abstract, and less human-seeming than Romney!” 

After last night's debate, it looks like Gingrich is a shoe-in

Last night's Republican debate in Iowa left Newt Gingrich looking stronger than ever, while his most serious rivals, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, both shot themselves in the foot.

Romney has remained frozen in the polls, with any possible contender leapfrogging over him. A number of pundits have speculated the reason for Republican rejection of Romney being doubts about his conservative credentials. The actual reason is a lot simpler. Romney is arrogant and unlikeable. That came across loud and clear when Texas governor Rick Perry falsely accused Romney of having written that he wanted a national health care plan like the one he instituted in Massachusetts, which, for some Republicans, bears too strong a resemblance to Obamacare. Rather than just using the occasion to show that Perry was wrong, Romney decided to rub it it by offering to make a $10,000 bet on it. Now the bet and Romney's wealth and arrogance are getting more attention than his health care proposals.

But Perry was not able to diminish the perception of having a lack of command of basic facts, something that has haunted him from the beginning of the campaign.

Ron Paul was...Ron Paul; intelligent and sincere, but though his poll numbers place him around third, his isolationist and libertarian extremism will render him unable to win his party's nomination.

After the collapse of Herman Cain's campaign, the unlikely front runner and virtual certainty for  the nomination remains former Speaker of the House Gingrich.

He proved himself even more presidential last night by standing by his words and being able to take his opponents' attacks and turn them around to show his strength.

Romney tried to attack Gingrich over comments where during a recent interview, the front-runner declared the Palestinians to be an "invented people." Rather than backtracking, Gingrich stood by his comments and added, “Somebody ought to have the courage to tell the truth. These people are terrorists." After criticizing President Obama's handling of middle east foreign policy, he continued,  "It’s fundamentally time for somebody to have the guts to stand up and say, ‘Enough lying about the Middle East.’” Gingrich's remarks on that earned him the loudest, most sustained cheers that any candidate received last night.

When Romney accused him of being a "career politician," Gingrich's pointed comeback highlighted Romney's shortcomings when he replied, "Let's be candid, the only reason you didn't become a career politician is because you lost to Teddy Kennedy in '94."

There is plenty of time for anything to happen in the Republican primaries, but given the current slate of candidates and the abilities they've shown, barring a meltdown, Gingrich looks to be a lock for the nomination.

Were he to win the general election, the US would take a very different direction than under Barack Obama. Gingrich has said that he would make John Bolton, the former US Ambassador to the United Nations, whose hawkish conservatism makes him a lightning rod to the far left, as his Secretary of State.

With a declining economy and rising unemployment in America, and the perception that the current president is inept, weak, arrogant, and unable to manage the nation, President Newt Gingrich, a prospect that would have been unimaginable when he had reached the pinnacle of his career in Congress, may be a reality in 2013.