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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Cal Thomas
In form, President Obama came back strongly in Tuesday's debate with Mitt Romney, but substantively he continues to lag behind the Republican candidate. That's because the president has a record to defend and it isn't a good one.
Television being what it is, the president looked and sounded good, but the air seems to have gone out of his messianic balloon as voters focus more on facts and less on spin.
If promises mean anything -- and they don't to most politicians -- Romney hit the president where it hurts: on his failure to live up to most of his promises.
The president claimed his administration has "created" 5 million jobs. Romney countered that an equal number of jobs have been lost. He also noted correctly that government doesn't create jobs; the private sector does and because of the uncertainty over the effects of Obamacare and whether tax cuts will be allowed to expire and new ones imposed, businesses are reluctant to hire people.
Romney mentioned the promises candidate Obama made in 2008. They included cutting the deficit in half (it has doubled on his watch) and reducing health insurance premiums (Romney claims they have gone up
The president tried to replay his class warfare script, asking the wealthy to "pay a little bit more" in taxes, but even if all their wealth were seized, it wouldn't run the government for long. Spending is the problem and Romney missed an opportunity to focus on wasteful spending, as detailed in Republican Senator Tom Coburn's new "Waste Book," which relays in agonizing detail the waste of taxpayer dollars.
The president, clearly worried about recent polls showing an erosion of support among women, brought up the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which guarantees, according to the
The president said he called the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi "acts of terror" in Rose Garden remarks "the day after the attack," which is true. However,
After the debate, moderator Candy Crowley said on
When voters are considering whether to "fire" a president, they want to know if the one they might hire is up to the job. The first two debates show Romney is up to the job. The final debate on Oct. 22 is on foreign policy. It will give Romney an opportunity to close the sale with voters. The president's record on that subject is no better than his record on the economy.
Cal Thomas is a conservative American syndicated columnist and author syndicated in over 550 newspapers and is heard on over 300 radio stations
AMERICAN POLITICS
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The Second Presidential Debate | Politics
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