First Presidential debate - Live

[rrhill]

Are you a democrat, republican, independent, or other, and why?

This is the first debate is about healthcare and the economy.

Yes I live in the Netherlands, but this debate is live on TV here at 03:00am. You Americans in the swing states decide... who will be the leader of the US the next four years.

This presidential debate differs from from past debates, with moderator Jim Lehrer trying to create discussion and not just sound bytes.

Under which President you will be better off four years from now? With polls narrowing, President Obama and Mitt Romney square off tonight in the most highly anticipated campaign event to date. Give your lively output...

 

[rrhill]

President Obama looked down most of the time. Did not seem to be too inspired.

Mitt Romney expressed himself well. Good energy, on the attack, well mannered and friendly.

 

[cumrag27]

A second dose of GW Bush

President Obama looked down most of the time. Did not seem to be too inspired.

Mitt Romney expressed himself well. Good energy, on the attack, well mannered and friendly.

Dear Robert,

That fake "Shit-eating grin" pasted on Romney's face during the debate was proof that he wants to win at any cost, but mostly at the cost to our middle class being destroyed. For a man that has none of the "common touch", he did his best to do an impression of Ronald Reagan. There is nothing about Romney that can't be bought and paid for, he has no principles in his life. He is simply a "political whore" trying his utmost to turn the US into a third or fourth world country without the benefit of investing in tha working class to maintain a true middle class and only where billionaires such as he runs the country. Romney has an attitude of entitlement which precludes anyone else of being worthy of the same privileged treatment. He is the ultiimate elitist and someone I have no patience for. He would guarantee the Depression that GW almost brought to our front door with his unendiing military spending in two unnecessary wars where money was no object.


Sincerely,



Stimpy

 

[DrabBoiz]

President Obama looked down most of the time. Did not seem to be too inspired.
Mitt Romney expressed himself well. Good energy, on the attack, well mannered and friendly.

Yeabut, everything out of Romney's mouth was a lie. So much for honest credibility. President Obama didn't challenge him much either. Hoping a better debate in two weeks.

 

[angelone]

How much you bet that Obama took the "high road" with Romney instead of attacking him and plaster his hide on the wall. I believe that you can't go soft with Republicans, you got to hit them and hit them hard where it hurts the most. Don't give them a chance to rebound because their going to come back with all they have or all that they will make-up in their minds. I think Obama took the scholastic approach - just staying with the facts - which is a fatal mistake when dealing with someone like Romney because the guy lies! This is the frustrating thing about Obama: that he's soft on Republicans when he should go for their throats and tear them a new asshole. When is Obama going to learn?

 

[joninliverton]

I cannot vote for obvious reasons, but if I was a US citizen I would vote Obama. What I fear is that a lot of Americans will be taken in by Romney's stage show and this, coupled with the hard times the economy has been going through during Obama's reign (not his fault as it's a world economy), will probably see Romney through. I sincerely hope not but there are too many impressionable people out there who vote like sheep.

 

[Huh?]

Dear God, can we not even be free of politics here? Is there no place on the planet where we can get away from politics?

 

[joninliverton]

Dear God, can we not even be free of politics here? Is there no place on the planet where we can get away from politics?

Dude, this side of the site is for members to discuss anything that is not site associated. You can see music threads, prejudice threads and now political threads. If you don't want to get involved then don't post.

 

[joninliverton]

Here is the MSN news article - Looks as if Obama didn't want to be there - he may live to regret that stance.

Last night's first presidential debate was divided up into six 15-minute segments.
Throughout that, Mitt Romney landed a few punches but failed to land a knock-out blow on Barack Obama. However, few dispute that Republican cruised to victory by a substantial margin.

At the end of the debate, Democratic strategist James Carville claimed that the main difference between the two candidates was that Obama simply didn't want to be there. Romney was said to have prepared for this moment tirelessly and it showed. His answers were succinct and he batted away Obama's attacks with ease.
[h=5]"All of a sudden Romney appeared like the one fighting for the little guy."[/h]Preparation clearly goes a long way. The reliable Democratic attack lines on "oil subsidies" and "tax cuts for the wealthy" must have been expected because they fell considerably fell short.

Romney responded by citing the failure of Obama's green energy policies and his alleged willingness to hike taxes on small business. All of a sudden Romney appeared like the one fighting for the little guy.

In response to one accusation from the president, Romney responded: "Mr President, you're entitled your own house, your own plane but you don't get your own facts." This wasn't Ronald Reagan. But the former governor from Massachusetts was clearly in control.

The president on the other hand appeared at times like he was giving a stump speech at a Democratic rally. Unfortunately rather than an adoring crowd waving homemade signs, the president was met by an opponent who had clearly waited months to debunk his partisan polemics. And didn't he just.
[h=5]"Romney may have lacked specifics, but he was armed to the teeth with numbers and lucid arguments."[/h]Although the debate was noted for its absence of "zingers", it had a few moments of note.

Having struggled to issue a robust riposte to Romney's questions over the economy, Obama suggested to the debate moderator Jim Leher that both candidates move on to another subject. The president was right; that part of the debate had dragged on and was slowly sapping time for other matters.

But to viewers it looked like he didn't want to discuss the most pressing issue at hand: their economic well-being. After only being minutes in, the president was already waving the white flag.

The president did, however, expend a great amount of time on attacking Romney for his alleged lack of specificity. There is some truth to this and even some Republicans have criticised Romney for failing to add more meat to the bones. But given that he was prepping for the debate with former presidential candidate John Kerry, Obama should have been well-prepared for going after Romney on inconsistencies and lacking substance.

However, when the attacks came, it was all too easy. Romney may have lacked specifics, but he was armed to the teeth with numbers and lucid arguments. He was in-the-know, calm, had a grip of the facts. In short, he was presidential.

Whether this debate Romney flips any voters in key states such as Ohio is questionable, but few will contest that this was arguably Romney’s finest moment of this presidential campaign.

The question for the Republican now is whether people switched on after he turned up.

• Ewan Watt is a Scottish-born, Washington, DC-based public affairs consultant. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia. You can find him on Twitter @EwanCWatt

 

[cumrag27]

I cannot vote for obvious reasons, but if I was a US citizen I would vote Obama. What I fear is that a lot of Americans will be taken in by Romney's stage show and this, coupled with the hard times the economy has been going through during Obama's reign (not his fault as it's a world economy), will probably see Romney through. I sincerely hope not but there are too many impressionable people out there who vote like sheep.

Dear jon,

Right you are to think of too many in the American voting public as sheep. They don't want to bother themselves by getting involved or even listening. They want everything to go away and fix itself without their involvement. Isn't it a sad state of affairs that we have the privilege and duty to vote, that many other nations don't. Yet, we as a country routinely squander away this most important right when it gets a little inconvenient or messy.

"Sacrifice", no matter how incremental is not spoken here any longer in the US. That is the result of too many citizens not earning enough money to make a go of things and too down-trodden to care anymore. Also, with the Republicans attempting to disenfranchise as many American voters as possible by making it more difficult to vote, we indeed have our hands full.


Sincerely disappointed by the above and the President's performance last night,



Stimpy

 

[rrhill]

Somehow I think we will get to see a very different Obama in the next debate.

 

[rrhill]

the Real Mitt Romney

 

[rrhill]

Bye big bird

 

[Huh?]

Dude, this side of the site is for members to discuss anything that is not site associated. You can see music threads, prejudice threads and now political threads. If you don't want to get involved then don't post.

Very well then, you want "involvement" here it is:

American politics is BEYOND STUPID. I'm tired of being told that it is my "civic duty" to make a choice when no acceptable choice has actually been presented to me. I'm tired of having to walk into a voting booth and select among candidates I don't want. I'm tired of throwing potentially decent people into this den of iniquity only to be turned into monsters keeping the fires of hell stoked. I should be able to vote "None of the above," and have that count as a vote which MEANS SOMETHING other than "this person couldn't be bothered to make a choice." The fact that I can't do that makes this whole thing a farce.

Problems do not get solved by having the the extremists at either end of an issue yelling at each other. The solutions are in the middle, in the land of compromise, discussion, listening, and hearing. We Americans are ABSOLUTE IDIOTS for perpetuating this nonsense. We are lazy cretins who buy this lame argument that just casting a vote has some great meaning and purpose. Every election we do this crap of ping-ponging back and forth between "the two parties," thinking we are changing something and getting the system to work, and in the last 20 years, the rancor has become so vile that the government has been brought to a virtual standstill as these fucking peacocks strut around trying to make themselves look important. And the American public just eats this shit up as if it were manna from heaven. Then they turn around and complain about jobs going overseas, the wealthy not paying their fair share, corporations run amok, welfare hadnouts, entitlements, blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada.

I'd like someone to explain to me what difference it should make how someone looked during a debate? What is the probative value of having these two people stand up and blather at each other when we can't even hold them to any truth? What is the point? Why should I make a decision about who should run the country based upon theater? It's insulting! This country has been going to shit for the last 20 years because the political system is a complete joke. The will of the people isn't being done because the people have the collective attention span of a gnat, and about as much intelligence! These freaks in Washington can pretty much do and say what they damn well please...as long as it provides entertainment, we are all for it.

So, yeah, you go right ahead and discuss politics all you want. I hope you don't think that it will actually amount to anything but idle talk. Continue feeding this hell-beast we've created. Why should any of us give a damn...the damage is pretty much set in stone now.

 

[joninliverton]

Very well then, you want "involvement" here it is:

American politics is BEYOND STUPID. I'm tired of being told that it is my "civic duty" to make a choice when no acceptable choice has actually been presented to me. I'm tired of having to walk into a voting booth and select among candidates I don't want. I'm tired of throwing potentially decent people into this den of iniquity only to be turned into monsters keeping the fires of hell stoked. I should be able to vote "None of the above," and have that count as a vote which MEANS SOMETHING other than "this person couldn't be bothered to make a choice." The fact that I can't do that makes this whole thing a farce.

Problems do not get solved by having the the extremists at either end of an issue yelling at each other. The solutions are in the middle, in the land of compromise, discussion, listening, and hearing. We Americans are ABSOLUTE IDIOTS for perpetuating this nonsense. We are lazy cretins who buy this lame argument that just casting a vote has some great meaning and purpose. Every election we do this crap of ping-ponging back and forth between "the two parties," thinking we are changing something and getting the system to work, and in the last 20 years, the rancor has become so vile that the government has been brought to a virtual standstill as these fucking peacocks strut around trying to make themselves look important. And the American public just eats this shit up as if it were manna from heaven. Then they turn around and complain about jobs going overseas, the wealthy not paying their fair share, corporations run amok, welfare hadnouts, entitlements, blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada.

I'd like someone to explain to me what difference it should make how someone looked during a debate? What is the probative value of having these two people stand up and blather at each other when we can't even hold them to any truth? What is the point? Why should I make a decision about who should run the country based upon theater? It's insulting! This country has been going to shit for the last 20 years because the political system is a complete joke. The will of the people isn't being done because the people have the collective attention span of a gnat, and about as much intelligence! These freaks in Washington can pretty much do and say what they damn well please...as long as it provides entertainment, we are all for it.

So, yeah, you go right ahead and discuss politics all you want. I hope you don't think that it will actually amount to anything but idle talk. Continue feeding this hell-beast we've created. Why should any of us give a damn...the damage is pretty much set in stone now.

See my man, it wasn't too difficult to post was it ? Furthermore I liked your post too but America is not alone in having such a 2 party system who, during election time, just bite at each other and call each other names. Here in the UK we have the same but we do have alternatives to vote for but they will never get in because of the dumb nut public will vote either left or right because their parents and their parents did it.

We currently have a coalition govt in the uk and that's crap too. The govt is hiding behind the success of the olympics and the queens jubilee but in the background the economy is in a mess and they have fucked up the railways big style.

The only country that seems to have come out of this doing well is Germany. Jeez here is a country that had to rebuild itself after WW2, then rebuild half of it again after the wall came down, and they're still doing better than the rest of us. The difference between Germany and the rest of us is that they are of the moment. They don't have much history to gloat on, so they think about whats now and by focusing on this and not the bickering, they do the job well. Anyway that's my rant for the day lol.

 

[rrhill]

The second debate airs tonight, and I plan to watch it.

As a European I'm not all that familiar with American politics, and how real Americans think about all this. It's a great opportunity to share some thoughts with you Americans. Hope some of you will watch the second Presidential debate.

Right after the debate I'll be here...

 

[Phantom]

See my man, it wasn't too difficult to post was it ? Furthermore I liked your post too but America is not alone in having such a 2 party system who, during election time, just bite at each other and call each other names. Here in the UK we have the same but we do have alternatives to vote for but they will never get in because of the dumb nut public will vote either left or right because their parents and their parents did it.

We currently have a coalition govt in the uk and that's crap too. The govt is hiding behind the success of the olympics and the queens jubilee but in the background the economy is in a mess and they have fucked up the railways big style.

The only country that seems to have come out of this doing well is Germany. Jeez here is a country that had to rebuild itself after WW2, then rebuild half of it again after the wall came down, and they're still doing better than the rest of us. The difference between Germany and the rest of us is that they are of the moment. They don't have much history to gloat on, so they think about whats now and by focusing on this and not the bickering, they do the job well. Anyway that's my rant for the day lol.

I agree, with another point. It seems to me that the media has turned our political debates into a form of entertainment, a drama played out even past election day. I don't even watch the debates and I research each candidate my own way and choose the one I want based on who I think can do the better job. Sometimes, I vote against more than I vote for. My choices for this year's election are not up for discussion other than to say I will choose the candidates for different offices according to who I believe will do the better job.

 

[cumrag27]

Very well then, you want "involvement" here it is:

American politics is BEYOND STUPID. I'm tired of being told that it is my "civic duty" to make a choice when no acceptable choice has actually been presented to me. I'm tired of having to walk into a voting booth and select among candidates I don't want. I'm tired of throwing potentially decent people into this den of iniquity only to be turned into monsters keeping the fires of hell stoked. I should be able to vote "None of the above," and have that count as a vote which MEANS SOMETHING other than "this person couldn't be bothered to make a choice." The fact that I can't do that makes this whole thing a farce.

Problems do not get solved by having the the extremists at either end of an issue yelling at each other. The solutions are in the middle, in the land of compromise, discussion, listening, and hearing. We Americans are ABSOLUTE IDIOTS for perpetuating this nonsense. We are lazy cretins who buy this lame argument that just casting a vote has some great meaning and purpose. Every election we do this crap of ping-ponging back and forth between "the two parties," thinking we are changing something and getting the system to work, and in the last 20 years, the rancor has become so vile that the government has been brought to a virtual standstill as these fucking peacocks strut around trying to make themselves look important. And the American public just eats this shit up as if it were manna from heaven. Then they turn around and complain about jobs going overseas, the wealthy not paying their fair share, corporations run amok, welfare hadnouts, entitlements, blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada.

I'd like someone to explain to me what difference it should make how someone looked during a debate? What is the probative value of having these two people stand up and blather at each other when we can't even hold them to any truth? What is the point? Why should I make a decision about who should run the country based upon theater? It's insulting! This country has been going to shit for the last 20 years because the political system is a complete joke. The will of the people isn't being done because the people have the collective attention span of a gnat, and about as much intelligence! These freaks in Washington can pretty much do and say what they damn well please...as long as it provides entertainment, we are all for it.

So, yeah, you go right ahead and discuss politics all you want. I hope you don't think that it will actually amount to anything but idle talk. Continue feeding this hell-beast we've created. Why should any of us give a damn...the damage is pretty much set in stone now.

Dear Huh?,

If I hear you correctly, then it appears you have allowed yourself over the last 20 years to become defeated before you even cast your vote and, unfortunately, that is exactly what so much politics is all about today, essentially frustrating the hell out of the rank-and-file average citizens fundamentally disenfranchising you and others of like mind. I feel that these evil powers-that-be act like any badly behaving bully attempting to make a power grab. In theory this simply shouldn't be allowed to exist, much less be allowed to think they are succeeding in disillusioning the voting public with their purposes of allowing special interests including corporate interests to run away with the country as if they have bought and paid for it with their own cash.

When a Presidential candidate proudly admits he thinks corporations should be considered the same as "Citizens" with the same rights, something has really gotten off kilter politially to even admit to this expansion of citizenship while actively opposing immigrants, legal or otherwise. Likewise, when the "SUPREME COURT" goes on through their rulings to equating "unlimited contributions to political campaigns, regardless of where the sources are from as EQUAL to free speech", then our government is reduced to functioning as a profit-based business at the pleasure of the highest bidder, irrespective to what is actually good for the country's citizens or the operational effectiveness of the political system as a whole.

When the sole motivation of any political party is to "win at all cost", this should never be construed with "Free Enterprise". When Sen. Mitch McConnel goes on record publicly and wanting to dedicate the minority party to take actions that will guarantee Obama won't be re-elected starting as soon as Obama became President, this kind of "Obstructionistic Government" should be illegal and deemed as un-American. But, where was the protest from the people? The problem with all established systems is that they always want to self-promote to expand their sphere of influence regardless, whether they offer any relevance today or not. Democracy is always going to be MESSY, FRUSTRATING, and DEMANDING OF OUR TIME. Yet, year after year through our own passivity, we allow our governmental institutions to be less than responsive to the needs of the people. To say that I am 100% satisfied with Obama is missing the point. A much greater point I believe is protecting the American middle class. It is fundamentally the RIGHT THING to do and has for decades assumed the lion's share of national burdens in the form of military service and tax obligations. I support Obama mostly for his stance on supporting the middle class. Wiohtout a doubt, they truly deserve whatever break this country can allow them.

What I am saying is that government is exceedingly complex because we have allowed government to feed on "special interest demands" instead of truly being responsive to the real needs of the average citizen. We have to restore the proper focus of our government back to the people.

Just as there is curruption in law enforcement doesn't mean we should give up forever on fixing the problem. Look at any organization with corruption, you don't have to develop a defeatest attitude about them unless you deliberately decide to do so. If no one ever takes the first step to improve current conditions, then we all are doomed. I beg you to reconsider and realize any man-made organization will have its share of corruption. It is up to us to do our part by being more on task than a passive observer. Nothing will ever get better if we all give up on the institution of government! That's a promise!


Sincerely hope you will reconsider,



Stimpy

 

[mikeyank]

I woke up this morning, and am surprised that this topic has not been discussed after the debate. I love Presidential politics, and watched as much as I could, as well as some of the post debate coverage on both CNN & Fox News, as I always like to hear what both sides have to say. I look forward to reading the morning newspapers today for further coverage and opinions. I believe that President Obama did a great job, but usually we tend to think that "our" candidate did better than our opponent.

Apparently the current active membership of this forum is not as politically active or interested in discussing it here, as was the case in the past. But I appreciate that even here on a gay porn site, there are some folks who enjoy discussing so much more, and thanks to Robert for starting this thread, and for his interest in our countries dysfunctional but rather interesting political system.

 

[joninliverton]

I woke up this morning, and am surprised that this topic has not been discussed after the debate. I love Presidential politics, and watched as much as I could, as well as some of the post debate coverage on both CNN & Fox News, as I always like to hear what both sides have to say. I look forward to reading the morning newspapers today for further coverage and opinions. I believe that President Obama did a great job, but usually we tend to think that "our" candidate did better than our opponent.

Apparently the current active membership of this forum is not as politically active or interested in discussing it here, as was the case in the past. But I appreciate that even here on a gay porn site, there are some folks who enjoy discussing so much more, and thanks to Robert for starting this thread, and for his interest in our countries dysfunctional but rather interesting political system.

Oi bitch - I've always expressed an interest lol.. But you guys prefer to ignore the realities in life and kinda hide behind whats going on. For instance there has not been any reply to my post regarding the gun programme on bbc tv last monday. It drew big viewings across here and I've witnessed many conversations in pubs related to this.

Come on Yankies - speak out and stop hiding in your brown shopping bags.