– Both candidates took advantage of the economic distortions of the Great Recession to make unwarranted points. \u00a0In an disastrous economic downturn, and the recovery from the abyss, lots of numbers change — fuel consumption, oil imports, employment, deficits, corporate profits etc. \u00a0Treating the last five<\/i> years as "normal" in judging pretty much anything is at least a bit disingenuous.<\/p>\n
– Yes, Obama referred to the Benghazi killings as terror on Day 1 (or 2, depending on how you count). "No acts of terror<\/b> will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for. Today we mourn four more Americans who represent the very best of the United States of America." (http:\/\/mediamatters.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/16\/transcript-truthers-conservatives-deny-obama-ca\/190677<\/a>) Was he talking about a terrorist cell \/ Al-Qa'eda activity? Mmmmmm … my sense is not.<\/p>\n But should have have been making such an assertion immediately, or in a few days, or even a few weeks? No, if the only purpose was to be politically macho. Waiting for intelligence work to be concluded and conclusions drawn by the various analysts is the right thing to do, not a "cover-up".\u00a0<\/p>\n – Romney on coal power, back when he was a "very liberal" governor.\u00a0Romney in 2003: "I Will Not Create Jobs That Kill People"<\/a><\/p>\n – Romney on the Lilly Ledbetter law:\u00a0http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/election\/2012\/04\/16\/465470\/romney-refuses-to-say-whether-he-would-have-voted-for-lilly-ledbetter-pay-equity-law\/<\/a> … and he loves the SCOTUS justices who ruled in a way that provoked said law"\u00a0http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/justice\/2011\/11\/04\/361587\/romney-scotus-corporations-are-people\/<\/a><\/p>\n – Romney on protectionism vs. China"\u00a0http:\/\/www.tnr.com\/blog\/107685\/when-romney-was-anti-anti-china-not-so-long-ago#<\/a> . \u00a0Now, to be fair, I think that in a global economy (which we are in, like it or or not), commodity manufacturing will not be where the US can compete, no matter what candidate you listen to. But while both Romney and Obama understand that, Romney's the one saying "Hey, if we just stop China from cheating on IP and monetary value, the jobs will come back to the US." They will not, unless (a) tariffs are raised high enough to make higher US labor rates competitive, which I do not expect Romney to support, or (b) US labor rates drop down to China's Third World standards. Which solution do you think Romney's biggest supporters prefer?<\/p>\n – How is Romney different from Dubya? \u00a0Well, not in foreign policy:\u00a0http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/security\/2012\/07\/25\/576331\/romney-foreign-policy-advisers\/<\/a><\/p>\n – Romney claimed that he was certainly not in favor of employers blocking insurance coverage of contraception. Except …\u00a0http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/health\/2012\/03\/01\/435290\/romney-says-he-would-oppose-blunt-bill-if-it-prevented-people-from-getting-contraception\/<\/a><\/p>\n – Romney repeatedly asserted that the rich won't pay less than their current share of federal income tax<\/i> … and that just becomes an impossible target to dispute, aside from its implausibility.<\/p>\n – Romney's claim that Obama will raise taxes on the "middle class" by $4K is just goofy.\u00a0http:\/\/factcheck.org\/2012\/10\/romneys-4000-tax-tale\/<\/a><\/p>\n – Romney's magical illegal immigration policy, where Sci-Fi Fences and "Starship Troopers"-style service winnow out the Good Illegal Immigrants from the Bad Illegal Immigrants.\u00a0http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/2012-gop-presidential-candidates-views-on-immigration-issues\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n – Ooooh, evil and unnaturally (and uncompetitively) high corporate taxes …\u00a0http:\/\/www.ctj.org\/pdf\/oecd201106.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n – Oil companies and unused public land oil leases:\u00a0http:\/\/www.doi.gov\/news\/pressreleases\/upload\/Final-Report.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n – Romney preferred the Detroit auto makers be driven to bankruptcy and pretty much completely demolished.\u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/11\/19\/opinion\/19romney.html<\/a> Oddly enough, he also suggested "I believe the federal government should invest substantially more in basic research \u2014 on new energy sources, fuel-economy technology, materials science and the like \u2014 that will ultimately benefit the automotive industry, along with many others. I believe Washington should raise energy research spending to $20 billion a year, from the $4 billion that is spent today." Which kind of sounds like the (Bush Administration-initiated) Solyndra investment, except for all the Right-wing condemnation of same.<\/p>\n – I already talked about the "12 million jobs" thang earlier today.<\/p>\n – It's easy to claim that Obama hasn't created any new jobs, unless you look at the arc of job creation in line with the Great Recession he inherited:\u00a0http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/jobschart2.png<\/a><\/p>\n Google+:<\/strong> View post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/jobschart2.png<\/a><\/p>\n Google+:<\/strong> View post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"– Both candidates took advantage of the economic distortions of the Great Recession to make unwarranted points. \u00a0In an disastrous economic downturn, and the recovery from the abyss, lots of numbers change — fuel consumption, oil imports, employment, deficits, corporate profits etc. \u00a0Treating the last five years as "normal" in judging pretty much anything is … Continue reading “A bit of Presidential Debate fact-checking”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,35,77,99,131,10,134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-big-business","category-economy","category-elections-2012","category-energy","category-geopolitical-brouhaha","category-health-care"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":129156,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/17\/oh-my-god-the-syrian-refugees-are-carrying-terror-phones.html","url_meta":{"origin":30626,"position":0},"title":"Oh My God, the Syrian Refugees Are Carrying TERROR PHONES!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 17-Dec-15 11:34am","format":false,"excerpt":"The Donald is shocked, shocked I tell you, to discover that Syrian refugees have (gasp) mobile phones!\"First of all, why are people in a migration having cell phones? It\u2019s sort of strange. Who\u2019s paying for those cell phones? Where are they coming from? Who are they calling? These are people\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":824,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/11\/yup_you_can_sto.html","url_meta":{"origin":30626,"position":1},"title":"Yup, you can stop wondering. He did it.","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 11-Nov-01 3:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"In case you still had doubts whether bin Laden really was responsible for the 9-11 attacks ... he's basically confessed to doing so in an \"internal\" al Quaeda video tape,...","rel":"","context":"In "9-11"","block_context":{"text":"9-11","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/9-11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129054,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/04\/i-must-give-fox-news-credit-for-hitting-the-maximum-terror-tropes-per-segment-here.html","url_meta":{"origin":30626,"position":2},"title":"I must give Fox News credit for hitting the Maximum Terror Tropes per Segment here","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 4-Dec-15 5:05am","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow. Everything from \"terror\" to \"whitewash\" (multiple times) to \"ISIS\" to \"War on Christmas\" to (my favorite) \"Green Card Jihad\". Yes, that latter is apparently a Thing for some \"legal analysts.\"That said, what preliminary information has come out so far about the San Bernardino shootings (see http:\/\/goo.gl\/of7qe7, http:\/\/goo.gl\/W6SJT5) makes me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128902,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/19\/terror-suspects-are-allowed-to-buy-guns-because-guns.html","url_meta":{"origin":30626,"position":3},"title":"Terror suspects are allowed to buy guns, because … guns!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 19-Nov-15 9:51pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yeah, I have problems with how the federal government creates lists of potential \"terrorist\" suspects \/ allies \/ affiliates \/ fellow-travelers.But it's ironic (read: outrageous) that at a time when we are apparently terrified that some refugees might actually turn out to be (gasp) terrorists, we are so obsessed with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133235,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/09\/none-dare-call-it-terror-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":30626,"position":4},"title":"None Dare Call It Terror","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 9-Apr-17 10:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I guarantee you, if the man in this picture were a few shades darker and the word \"Muslim\" showed up in his biography, every news story in the nation would be using the word \"terrorist\". Manhunt intensifies for fugitive who stole guns, mailed manifesto to Trump Authorities were increasing security\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131542,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/14\/the-beautiful-terror-of-the-alien.html","url_meta":{"origin":30626,"position":5},"title":"The Beautiful Terror of the Alien","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 14-Sep-16 10:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"H. R. Giger's design for the Alien was something very different from the typical movie monster. It was definitely other, and there was unmistakable alienness and menace -- yet there was also a strange, organic beauty to it. This was no decaying corpse or collection of spikes and scales: this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/thinkprogress.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/jobschart2.png\"){kind=link}