What’s on your mind?
Like this:
Like Loading...
This entry was posted on October 12, 2012 at 6:17 am and is filed under Free For All . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 12, 2012 at 8:16 am
Is there a bigger waste of time in television news than a straight news reporter hosting a panel on a presidential/VP debate? Richard Lui on MSNBC: “Hey, Republican person..who won?” “Ok, over to you, Democratic person. What say you?” “Great, we’re gonna have to leave it there.”
October 12, 2012 at 10:01 am
Biden stopped the Romney momentum, however small, and rallied the base. Sure, moderates may have been turned off by his demeanor but that was secondary to what he needed to do. Obama will have to win the undecides over in the next two debates.
Stopping the oppo mojo and rallying the troops: that’s enough in a VP debate: advantage Biden.
I guess.
October 12, 2012 at 10:54 am
Doesn’t matter who “won” the VP debate, Biden apparently (it’s early) stopped Obama’s poll bleeding.
“In the past week, Romney has succeeded in that battle [i.e., gaining on Obama], effectively turning an unequivocal debate victory into a steady march in the polls. The instant polls and market movement suggest Biden succeeded in diverting that narrative.”
Biden goal was stop that march. Ryan’s goal was to keep it going.
It looks like Joe won.
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/signal/won-vice-presidential-debate-doesn-t-matter-161718546.html
October 12, 2012 at 11:43 am
Free Republic. Ohio absentee ballots. Take it for what it’s worth.
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2943298/posts?page=6
October 12, 2012 at 11:59 am
Absentee ballots, military ballots, missing ballots….it’s going to be a long, long election eve.
We won’t know who the next president will be on election day, that’s for sure.
Or maybe election week.
That will be fun…..not.
October 12, 2012 at 12:01 pm
If Joe helped set Obama up for a halfway decent debate, then he accomplished something. I don’t see a “winner” though. The results of the next debate will be all that matters, and this VP debate will be vapor until it’s time to dredge it up in preparation for the next one four years from now.
October 12, 2012 at 12:05 pm
^Stopped the Romney momentum (it appears).
We’ll see what the polls show. Although the Romney mo may have slowed on its own regardless of this debate.
Independents may have been turned off by Biden but Obama will have to win them over anyway.
Seems to me that Biden succeeded in doing what he had to do more than Ryan did.
October 12, 2012 at 12:12 pm
Well, Biden had an easier job: Show up, show his experience and personality, and hit the points Obama missed. The only way Ryan could have topped the knockout his boss delivered last week was to wipe the floor with Biden. They’ve both faced each other on the Hill many times, and both knew that wasn’t gonna happen.
October 12, 2012 at 12:14 pm
I don’t think Biden stopped the bleeding… only perhaps slowed it.
Only Obama (or a major mistake by Romney) can stop it now.
October 12, 2012 at 12:25 pm
“I don’t think Biden stopped the bleeding… only perhaps slowed it.”
Yeah, but that’s good enough.
It was always going to come down to either Romney or Obama winning over that last 6-8% of undecideds. The VP’s weren’t going to do it. The top of the ticket was going to have to close that deal.
So, Biden has set up Obama to have an opportunity do just that. The base – which was demoralized last week – is back again. Romney’s march has slowed it not stopped.
The 47/47% split mostly returns. Now it’s up to Obama and Romney to win or lose.
October 12, 2012 at 12:30 pm
Best I can tell, last night’s debate ended up being pretty much a draw. Biden, apparently, did better than expected but so did Ryan, and Ryan was viewed more positively by a considerable number of women voters. A couple of polls showed Ryan made gains among independent voters, and I’m guessing because his answers were more detailed an thoughtful.
Biden likely practised interrupting because, going into the debate, Ryan already had very positive numbers for knowing the issues and explaining them. We’ll see in a few days if any bleeding has been stopped, although the Benghazi thing may still be heating up.
October 12, 2012 at 12:32 pm
-close race-
Not necessarily. There’s a chance this will be a blow-out.
October 12, 2012 at 12:34 pm
I personally have huge problems with “the Benghazi thing”, but I’m not convinced it’s going to have an effect on the election. This has a Watergate feel to it, where it comes back to haunt the incumbent if he’s re-elected.
October 12, 2012 at 12:44 pm
Watching clips without Biden smirking and Ryan slamming water is interesting. Biden’s mastery of topics (ignoring Libya for the moment) is impressive. Ryan, in contrast, looks like what he is: A guy desperately trying to spit out Romney answers so that they sound like his own…and failing.
October 12, 2012 at 1:23 pm
MSNBC is broadcasting the widescreen feed in their standard definition feed (similar to FOX and CNN) at least on Martin Bashir’s program. Never seen this before.
October 12, 2012 at 1:31 pm
Something smells about Benghazi but I think the right’s trying to make a bigger deal of it than it is. It’s actually appalling that there are multiple investigations still going on to figure out the truth and the right is using their political power in the House to start their own investigation in to the other investigation — all in a month.
It took three years to figure out what happened after 9/11/2001 and now the Republicans are demanding all the answers in a month. I think the fact that they jumped this quickly to politicize an international crisis proves this nation will never be united behind a president ever again.
October 12, 2012 at 1:57 pm
The days of fair-minded, even-handed Congressional hearings probably died with, what the Ervin Committee? Those days are long gone (ever read the “Roberts Commission” investigation of Pearl Harbor? Talk about politics!).
In any case, I don’t think the Republicans are the only party (small and capital “p”) playing politics here.
The interesting aspect to me is that it appears that the White House and State are at odds over this. Both seem to be telling different stories and pointing fingers at each other.
Obama + Biden versus Hillary + Bill?
Susan Powers appears to have gotten trapped in the middle of this. Why they sent here out to defend things that first week has always been an interesting matter. Where was Madame Secretary Clinton?
October 12, 2012 at 2:00 pm
http://www.examiner.com/article/u-s-consulate-india-attacked?cid=db_articles
October 12, 2012 at 3:33 pm
I personally have huge problems with “the Benghazi thing”, but I’m not convinced it’s going to have an effect on the election. This has a Watergate feel to it, where it comes back to haunt the incumbent if he’s re-elected.
Could have major repercussions when the old hag tries to run in 4 years.
October 12, 2012 at 3:48 pm
Within 24, certainly 48 hours of that attack the President and Vice President and his top national security team should have been all over these attacks.
Finding out what happened, who did it, what did we know, where are the people who did this….demanding answers. And getting them since apparently the intelligence agencies knew essentially what happened within two days.
So, what the hell happened?
October 12, 2012 at 3:53 pm
…the right is using their political power in the House to start their own investigation
…or you could say, ” Members of congress are fulfilling their duties by conducting oversight investigations in committees.”
October 12, 2012 at 3:56 pm
knew essentially what happened within two days.
And the foreign press had it right by the next morning.
October 12, 2012 at 4:01 pm
^The key point – for me – is the failure to convene a national security meeting to find out what we knew.
Get his team together, meet and discuss what happened.
From what I’ve read, they didn’t do any of this.
I’d raise the media issue and double standard again but why bother? Either you get it or you don’t.
CNN and a few others are NOW getting to this but it’s more than a month later.
October 12, 2012 at 4:24 pm
Please, both Fox and CNN have been on this story from the beginning. Both have broken stories and using the Eli Lake stories from the Daily Beast have expanded on what has been learned. You know that for sure Fox has pissed off the State Department when they were NOT invited to participate in a conference call just before the hearings in Congress.
Also, you know it’s a big deal when the ombudsman from the NY times wrote an article asking why the Libya story was on page three instead of page one and the publisher/editor said there were 6 more IMPORTANT stories than Libya.
Here’s a really good timeline of what happened in Libya and there is more added since this was originally done, but it’s a start for those who may not have kept up.
Timeline: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/09/28/special_report_gives_timeline_of_events_surrounding_attack_in_libya.html
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/special-report-bret-baier/videos#p/86927/v/1897529385001
October 12, 2012 at 4:36 pm
Pam, about 2-3 million people watch Fox News. Less than 1 million watch CNN. That’s in a country with 310 million people.
If the news – a steady drumbeat of it – isn’t coming from the major networks then few people know what is happening.
October 12, 2012 at 5:08 pm
If the news – a steady drumbeat of it – isn’t coming from the major networks then few people know what is happening.
I believe that sums up why CNN & FNC are not really part of the mainstream media.
October 12, 2012 at 5:22 pm
Richard Engel reported it on Morning Joe and Rachel Maddow two days later, too. I guess the administration should start watching MSNBC..
October 12, 2012 at 5:39 pm
^ZING!
October 12, 2012 at 6:37 pm
My wife has convinced me that this is nonsense. Well, I am nonsensical. Or full of nonsense. But she’s known that all the time.
Yeah, politics and all this. Life is too short and too sweet for me to continue with this.
So, the wife and I will be taking up Italian classes and reading to each other.
My last post. Chow.
“Celebrate we will for life is short but sweet for certain…..”
Erich
October 12, 2012 at 7:30 pm
YOU’LL BE BACK!
They all come back…
October 12, 2012 at 8:23 pm
Likely translation: Erich is in trouble for spending too much time on his puter and spousal unit believes he does not listen to her. Spousal unit wishes for them to do something together, and what better way to work on communication than by learning Italian together?
Erich si concentrerà sull’ascolto … fino a parlare correntemente la lingua, ovviamente, quando lui la ignora in Italiano, anche.
October 12, 2012 at 8:27 pm
^ That translates loosely into “Lucy, you got some splainin to do…”
October 12, 2012 at 8:48 pm
^ And don’t call me “loosely”.
October 13, 2012 at 12:06 am
The Five had another uncomfortable episode today.
Four Republicans bashing Biden and the one Democrat never gets to talk without Andrea or Eric telling him to stop talking.
I was waiting for Bob to walk off the set.
October 13, 2012 at 7:56 am
Within 24, certainly 48 hours of that attack the President and Vice President and his top national security team should have been all over these attacks. … So, what the hell happened?
Vegas was calling.
October 13, 2012 at 8:12 am
All this talk about press bias is just silly. It’s not like anyone reads the Times.
http://times247.com/articles/nyt-meningitis-armstrong-more-important-than-libya
October 13, 2012 at 9:49 am
I don’t think Hillary is going to put up with being thrown under the bus. Either she will leak some info to the press or Bill will stop campaigning for Obama.
October 13, 2012 at 12:13 pm
Erich’s wife is right..this is nonsense, and I have had enough. I’M OUTTA HERE! One more thing…
October 13, 2012 at 12:45 pm
“My last post. Chow.”
Erich, you will soon learn that it is CIAO, not chow. I hope you’re kidding about it being your last post.
October 13, 2012 at 2:38 pm
- Likely translation: Erich is in trouble for spending too much time on his puter and spousal unit believes he does not listen to her. Spousal unit wishes for them to do something together, and what better way to work on communication than by learning Italian together? -
Translation: Divorced guys picking on married guy for getting his arse off the computer and paying attention to his wife. Whaddya call a tough-guy telling a married person not to listen to their spouse? Lonely.
October 13, 2012 at 3:26 pm
^ Lighten up, idiot. I didn’t tell Erich not to listen to his wife. Doesn’t mean I can’t poke a little fun about a typical “guy” thing, eh? For all I know it was his idea, and not a thing wrong with it.
October 13, 2012 at 3:36 pm
YOU lighten up! I was just busting your chops. I forgot the
October 13, 2012 at 8:16 pm
Longest tweet in history.
Ben Domenech @bdomenech
One interesting aspect of Obama’s contraceptive mandate is how it alters the ability of parents to direct their children’s upbringing. HHS rule requires coverage of all “contraceptive methods, sterilization procedures… for all women with reproductive capacity.” This, of course, extends to minors. No copay charge, all FDA approved methods, mandatory coverage for all plans. So all minors with “reproductive capacity” are included under the contraceptive mandate’s coverage… basically, everyone’s daughter. By eliminating the copay, you essentially remove any last block for any woman of any age, and allow for no plan carveouts, exemptions. Since this extends to all employers, parents can’t opt out or have any role in this. They’re paying for it whether they like it or not. So you’ll have to pay into a plan which gives your own children coverage of “free” contraception, abortifacients, sterilization. No option. This isn’t in dispute, btw. Guttmacher says it’s a good thing! They said in a Sept briefing that “many minors will not avail themselves of important services if they are forced to involve their parents” FWIW, reportedly thirty-eight states prohibit minors from tattoo or piercing procedures without parental consent. But the tattoo is harder to get, of course. You have to save up your allowance for that. Not for an abortifacient. Interesting stuff you learn when reading HHS regs, eh? That interim final rule is here, just search for “capacity.” http://vlt.tc/ifz But don’t worry, “The reduction in the number of pregnancies compensates for the cost of contraception.” http://vlt.tc/ig1
October 14, 2012 at 11:58 am
Teen pregnancy is an epidemic which often leads to horrible lives for all involved. You’d have to be insane to object to access to contraception.
October 14, 2012 at 12:12 pm
Yeah, let’s just take the kids away and have them raised by the state, since you all know so much better how it’s done. Unbelievable.
October 14, 2012 at 12:36 pm
Access to contraception is good health care. You can have your “morality”..I’d rather have less horrible childhoods.
October 14, 2012 at 12:45 pm
The only ones imposing “morality”, or lack thereof, are liberals. The only ones dictating how others shall live their lives are liberals. And I’ll let you know if we lose our local hospital because of your precious ObamaCare.
October 14, 2012 at 12:51 pm
I’m thrilled that after all this time, you still think I’m crazy about ObamaCare. Throw all the for-profit health insurance companies out, then call me.
October 14, 2012 at 12:59 pm
Funny how those evil “profits” weren’t threatening to shut us down, or make it difficult to attract decent doctors. It took your President to do that,
October 14, 2012 at 6:53 pm
As of 2010, there were 5,754 AHA registered hospitals in the US with 4,985 of these being classified as “community” hospitals. More than half (2,904) of these are not-for-profit, non-governmental facilities. Roughly 3,000 community hospitals are located in urban areas and 2,000 rural.
For-profit, not-for-profit, and governmental hospitals within the same area often share many of the same physicians. My experience has been that the for-profit hospitals are often the proving ground for innovative procedures and treatments.
Teen pregnancy is an epidemic
Not true, teens have been having babies since forever and latest stats show it to be at an all-time low. Nor is pregnancy either a disease or injury. Many other crucial life lessons are learned at that stage in life and taking parents out of the equation will lead to many unintended consequences. Certainly some teens don’t have caring parents to turn to, but changing the relationship for all won’t stop their problems.
October 14, 2012 at 7:05 pm
I’d love to hear how access to contraception is anything but a good thing. Teens might have more sex? HA! When it comes to sex, teens will always do exactly what they want, when they want to. The only difference access to contraception makes is less unwanted, unprepared for pregnancies.
October 14, 2012 at 9:10 pm
teens will always do exactly what they want, when they want to
Not all by far. Some just need a reason not to, until they’re ready. Even before reliable contraception became available the vast majority of teenage girls did not get pregnant. By nature, teens challenge authority, are easily pushed by peer pressure, and their own mixed feelings make for a difficult time. “I don’t want to risk getting pregnant” doesn’t mean much when the reply to that is, “Just go down there and get The Pill – it’s easy and it’s free.” Even back when you were a teen, “No, I’m not ready for that” just wasn’t a statement all kids were comfortable making.
Some of my girls had prescription birth control before 16 and some didn’t. More than just sex, it’s about learning respect for others and oneself, about making tough decisions with consequences, and about dealing with the consequences of those decisions either as a thought exercise or, sometimes, in real life. For some people it’s about deep religious conviction. It isn’t for me, but who the hell are you to impose your moral standards between me and my children, anyway? Yes there are kids who don’t have a loving parent to guide them, but screwing with parenting that does work is not a good plan.
Teens already have access to prophylactic contraceptives with only the most minimal amount of effort required. They don’t have access to contraceptive and other types of medications without some adult oversight. Don’t be surprised to see a rise in STDs among teens with this implemented, and perhaps a marked increase in the untreatable variety.
Full disclosure, my first three children were born before I was 21. Children #1 and #4 were conceived despite proper use of prescription birth control. Thank God.