The Not-So-Great Debate...

The family gathered around the blue screen to watch last night's debate. What a disappointment for anyone in the Obama camp. Mitt Romney owned the podium, in my opinion. He was articulate, straight-forward, and easy to understand. He is a polished public speaker.  A born salesman. Obama hemmed, hawed, and reminded me of a car that keeps lurching and stalling because the gear-shift is disengaged.

Twice, Romney charged that Obama invested 90-billion in the green economy, and half of those investments have gone bust. Twice. Obama's response? Silence. Why didn't he retaliate by reminding the people watching that his investment in green technology created a million jobs? Or that only 10-percent (which is fairly standard) of thousands of companies have gone bankrupt?

And when Romney mentioned "clean coal" I nearly fell off my chair. Again, no reaction from Obama. He's a much smarter man than Romney - better read, better informed - and yet he came across as weak and ineffective. There was too much "we can" and "we should" and not enough "we did."

The Democrats have always been terrible at defending themselves and continually try to advocate for bi-partisanship; they seem unwilling to accept how much the Republicans hate them. So often, Democrats will acknowledge good ideas from the other side, but rarely is there any reciprocation.

Romney threw out statistics that are patently false - political fact checkers have discredited nearly every charge he made; even his own team had to clarify some of his errors. I hope the next round is better. I hope Obama can tap into some healthy outrage and show some passion for what he's saying.


*    *    *    *

Lorenzo left for Mayne Island tonight to install doors, finish up some odds & ends and meet with the painter. He's planning to come home Saturday. I sure hope she shows up!

I found a dead chickadee in my living room today. I can't imagine how it got into my house; it must have flown in when I had the back door open. I'm guessing that it hit its head on the window. Poor thing - they're my favourite birds. Lorenzo said, "You know what they say about a bird in the house." Where do these superstitions come from, I wonder...

A few people have mentioned that they've been unable to post comments on this blog. I have checked my setting several times, so I don't understand why this is happening. I was wondering why no one had anything to say...now I know.