DEBATE POST-ACTION REPORT
In last night’s slugfest between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, give Obama the win in a split decision. Not so much because he beat Romney, but because he was so much better than he was in the first debate when he stunk up the joint.
In the first debate, Romney stopped Obama’s momentum. In this debate, Obama maybe stopped Obama’s skid. Maybe not.
The biggest losers were sentient voters subjected to both a stupid debate format and a moderator, CNN’s Candy Crowley, who insisted on proving she wasn’t Jim Lehrer by repeatedly stopping the candidates from, you know, debating each other and, at one point, injecting herself as judge, jury and executioner.
Did the president call the attack on our Libyan embassy an act of terrorism in the Rose Garden the day after the attack? Read the transcript and watch the video. It’s, at the very least, arguable. He did use the words “no acts of terror,” but it seems this was more of a general statement relating to the 9-11 anniversary than to the Benghazi attack specifically.
But that didn’t stop Crowley from declaring that Obama was right and Romney was wrong. No, Crowley was wrong. She should have kept her mouth shut and let the candidates, the campaigns and the media determine who was correct and who wasn’t.
Back to the debate format: a “town hall.” This format champions people so ignorant of the issues and the two candidates - who are as different as night and day (didn’t want to say black and white, lest Steven Horsford accuse me of race-baiting!) - that they are purportedly “undecided.”
As such, the questions they supposedly wrote themselves were both general and generally stupid. The questions also generally came out of left field; as in Liberaland.
The whole exercise was embarrassing. With three weeks to go before Election Day, the two men who could end up being the leader of the free world for the next four years had to subject themselves to this?
Bring back Jim Lehrer!
THE CASE OF THE MISSING REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR
A day after I criticized Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval last week for how little he has done to help Nevada GOP candidates and build the Nevada Republican Party, the Las Vegas Sunpublished a story headlined “Sandoval to step up efforts to help elect fellow Republicans.”
In the story, Sandoval claims “he has been active this campaign season.” As proof, the moderate, tax-hiking, ObamaCare-enabling Republican governor noted that he spoke at the GOP national convention in Tampa over a month ago and wrote a column defending the mining industry for the Elko Daily Free Press last week.
Wow. Really? All of that? How has he ever found time to run the government with such a plate-filled schedule of GOP-assisting campaign activities?
Seriously, though…the fact is you’ve rarely, if ever, seen the Republican governor on the campaign trail for Republican candidates this election cycle…especially in Clark County.
He’s made no public arguments on why voters should elect more Republicans to the Legislature this year. Or provided any kind of legislative agenda he wants legislative candidates to support in next year’s session…other than to raise taxes again by $600 million.
Sandoval’s not raising money for either the Nevada Republican Party or directly for GOP legislative candidates…instead downplaying/hiding what support he may be lending by laundering it through the caucuses or outside interest groups, including GOP party organizations from other states!
I kid you not. Last week I received a mailer urging my “household” to vote Republican. The mailer included an absentee ballot application. Guess who the mailer came from?
The COLORADO Republican Party!
And just yesterday I received two mailers – one telling me that Barack Obama wants to grow government, and the other another absentee ballot application.
Both from the IDAHO Republican Party.
Look, if Gov. Sandoval doesn’t want to expend any effort or treasure to help the Nevada Republican Party or Nevada GOP legislative candidates for his own purposes, fine. But don’t tinkle down our legs and tell us it’s raining by falsely claiming to be “Mr. Republican” on a campaign trail he’s never set foot on.
I just hope Nevada Republican activists, volunteers and donors remember this when Gov. Sandoval comes to them two years from now asking for their support, time and money for his own re-election. What goes around…
THE HORSFORD FILES
Republican CD-4 candidate Danny Tarkanian has run for three public offices in Nevada and has lost all three times. It’s a fact that his Democrat affirmative-action opponent, Steven Horsford, has used in the campaign in an effort to portray Tarkanian as a “loser.” Two points:
1.) As political consultant Roger Stone pointed out in a blog post on Tuesday, the late Sen.Arlen Specter, who passed away on Sunday, “won his election to the US Senate in 1980 after losing races for Mayor of Philadelphia, District Attorney, Governor, and US Senator.”
2.) In a Politico story on the CD-4 race today, Danny responds to the “loser” attack: “I don’t think losing is an embarrassment. An embarrassment is when you quit, when you don’t try hard enough.”
Parents, you might want to copy that down and tape it to the outside of your kids’ schoolbooks!
MOUNT REAGAN PROJECT UPDATE
Please sign our online petition supporting the establishment of an official “Mount Reagan” in Nevada. Click here
DRIVE-BY MUTHINGS
* Of all that was said in last night’s debate between Obama and Romney, the one thing that really stood out for me was when the president said emphatically of Secretary of StateHillary Clinton, “She works for me.”
Knowing the Clintons, that had to seem like the “the man” was putting “the little woman” in her place. I cannot imagine that went over well with Bill & Hill, both of whom clearly believe the SoS should be the POTUS.
Want more Muthings? “Follow” me on Twitter: @chuckmuth
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“During a protracted exchange early on (in the second debate), Obama and Romney closed in on one another, interrupting, raising hands, trying to get words in edgewise. At times, it seemed perilously close to a fist fight.” – Maggie Haberman of Politico
"I love Christmas lights! They remind me of the people who voted for Obama. They all hang together; half of them don't work, and the ones that do, aren't all that bright!” – Author unknown
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