A couple days later and I am still trying to get over Mitt Romney telling Jim Lehrer that he would cut funding for PBS.  For those who do not know, the part that I am trying to wrap my mind around is that Jim Lehrer is the host of the well-known PBS program, News Hour.  In effect, Mitt Romney told the Presidential Debate Moderator that he would fire him.  Then, of course, there is the Sesame Street comment for me to ponder.  I am not surprised about anything Romney says, after all his mouth is not connected to his brain.  Nevertheless, I am still amazed at how far Romney’s mouth will go.    

Outside of his PBS statement, Romney did a better job than I thought he would in the debate—meaning that he didn’t stutter and was prepared to answer questions.  This is rare for Mitt, as he usually stutters when answering questions that concern the public, which I think is because he fears what his mouth might say.

Regardless of how Romney conveyed his image he was still the same Romney—shallow, unclear, and flip-flopp’n.  Moreover, we should take note of all the lofty promises that Romney was serving up with a dish of bull dung that was seasoned with lies. 

“Let me be clear,” Obama has made his share of false statements as well and yes, I hate it when that happens.  When Democrats lie, it makes my life harder in the Republican town where I live.  Nevertheless, I always survive because I am a truth seeker and I will be the first to say “Shame on every politician who lies.”   

During the debate, I was fact checking as fast as I could—but it wasn’t fast enough.  So, I waited a couple days and let other people do the fact checking for me.  My favorite source for fact checking is politifact.com.  These guys do a decent job of finding the truth and citing their sources—unlike the pundits on Fox News who state a lot of “facts” with nothing to back them up.

So, what does Politifact have to say about the President and his Opponent?  Please observe the following graph:

(Source: politifact.com 10/5/2012)

Does this graph mean anything?  Yes and No.  No, because some of the statements that Politifact rate have no real value to the American public.  When a politician says something like, “My opponent lived in Kentucky …” Politifact will check that statement.  On the other hand, Politifact ratings do count because either way you angle it—someone will emerge as the biggest liar.

Out of the 13 statements from the debate that I found on Politifact, it appears that Romney and Obama were in stalemate on the “truth-o-meter.”  Obama had more statements rated with six out of eight being true or mostly true, while Romney was rated on five statements with three of those being true or mostly true.

Overall, the debate was not very exciting.  This is usually the case though, as presidential candidates will test the waters during the first debate and then jump full steam into the next.  Maybe Obama’s strategy for the first debate was to wait for Romney to gaffe himself to death.  If anyone has followed the Romney Campaign, you will know that Mitt Romney is damned good with the gaffes.  As a Democrat Party supporter and after observing Romney’s lack of PR skills, I was sure that Romney would go down in flames.  This didn’t happen—I was very disappointed.

Mitt Romney was a disappointment with his nearly gaffe-less and mostly truthful performance.  The only thing that is left for me to pick apart are Romney’s true statements.  For example, he wasn’t lying when he told the debate moderator, Jim Lehrer, that he would cut funding for PBS.  Romney was not lying when he said that during his first day in office he would seek deficit reduction, approve the Keystone oil pipeline, and seek tax cuts (which I think he meant for the top 1% earners). 

The only exciting part of the debate was when Obama helped Romney remember what he was going to do during his first day in office.  After Romney listed off the things that he was going to do, Obama reminded him that he was supposed to end Obamacare as well. 
zzz zzz zzz zzz zzz zzz ZZZ

Sorry … where was I?  Oh, right … Mitt Romney told the man, who was asking him questions, that he would fire him and all of his puppet friends.  That’s all I got out of the debate.

Click on the graphic above.  The debates are always more exciting after they happen. 

Thanks for reading!

       ~John Debar ... a conscious observer ~