Biden gave a rousing speech in North Carolina today, a contrast to his somewhat lackluster debate performance of last night, at least the first 20 minutes of it thanks to having a hoarse throat and a cold. I doubt that debate performance hurt him despite the NYT editorial board calling for him to step aside. The reason is because of the literally dozens of lies Trump told. Every word that came out of his mouth last night was a lie. The fact checkers are finally taking apart those lies.
Here is Biden's speech of today:
Here is last night's debate, so-called:
Here is a comment taking CNN to task for failing to do a live fact check of Trump's lies.
Keith Olbermann had commentary following last night's debate, raking CNN over the coals:
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The USSC sided with the city of Grants Pass, Oregon, over the homeless ordinance.
There are a number of places a viewer can go to watch the livestream debate between challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump. CSPAN is one such place:
My thoughts: That was the biggest shitshow I ever saw in a debate. The election was already pretty much over with the NYT Trump tax reports, but the debate, if it can be called that, shut the door on Trump for good. I don't see how anybody could have sat through that debate and feel Trump has any business whatsoever being president. The media, meaning CNN, created a Frankenstein monster with this orange-haired idiot.
Biden was presidential, he was calm, he got in barbs against this raging madman when he could, and he answered the questions. All Trump did was talk over and interrupt, in large part because moderator Chris Wallace lost control in the early going. Later on he got more firm. What happened was Trump displayed his pathology to the entire country, and I would think halfway intelligent people would ask themselves why the hell this guy ever got the GOP nomination in 2016, let alone get in the White House?
If there are two more debates, Trump won't be able to reverse course. I don't think at this point Putin or even Roger Stone could help him. Was it drugs that Trump was on, or did his handlers say to him to just let him be himself and try to smear Biden? Well, his attempts to smear Biden didn't work; Trump came off as completely childish.
It was 90 minutes long, but it felt like 90 hours.
God, Trump is worse in this debate than the first one. He has lied nonstop and engaging in personal attacks. He actually had the nerve to bring some of the Scaifettes to the hall in the audience section I guess to try and psych her. He insulted former president Bill Clinton. It isn't working. Hillary Clinton is acting totally presidential and answering questions.
I don't know if Trump has a head cold, a sinus infection, or if he is on drugs. He is puffy-looking and sniffing constantly. He looks horrible.
Of course he is just going through the motions because the presidential election is over.
There is no question Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States. There never was any question of it. If the GOP were serious about this election, they would have picked John Kasich, who would have posed a challenge.
This debate illustrates WHY somebody off the street CANNOT be a viable candidate for the most powerful job in the world. You cannot do like Trump and run on a major party ticket without going through the "farm system" of elected office. NO presidential candidate of a major party has ever been a nominee in this history of this country without elected political experience or high-ranking military, as a general, with latter having been the case only once since the 19th century, and that was with Ike. Candidates like HRC or Ronald Reagan can short-circuit the farm system somewhat based on name recognition, but the usual route to the presidency is local/state office, then national office like representative/Senate or governor.
Trump is completely in over his head. That is because he cannot talk policy since he has not ever been in government. He should not win a single state. He should lose at least as badly as Alf Landon did in 1936. The only reason anybody would vote for this doofus is sexism.
Last night's debate was a total bloodbath, a farce. It illustrated WHY somebody off the street should NEVER, EVER be a major party nominee for president. You HAVE to have policy knowledge to even BEGIN to get up there on national television and debate, much less be president.
In a sane world, Trump would not carry a single state in the general election. I am not so sure he won't lose like Alf Landon at the rate things are going.
The ONLY reason he would carry any states at all is because HRC is a woman. It is less she is a Clinton with all of the media lies about her. It is simply because she is female.
The Washington Post, among numerous other sources, as a YouTube channel where you can watch the thing.
I will put the embed here:
As the cartoon below illustrates, the bar is set at ground level for the Yammering Yam. As long as he doesn't pee in his pants, he will be declared the "winner," by the idiot pundits who are on the take.
Hillary Clinton merely has to breathe and she will be called "shrill," "cold," "non-smiling," "not deferential enough to men," and all of that other sexist shit we have come to expect.
It was the most lopsided debate ever televised. Trump is completely out of his league. He didn't prepare for shit. He gave sound bites coupled with word salad.
Lester Holt, when he was around, didn't have much in the way of control of the debate.
HRC should easily win this election. I don't think it was ever in doubt.
Here is the first part with the "bottom" seven candidates:
The main event in two parts:
Part One:
Part Two:
Yes, I did sit through the main debate. Here is the summary of the main debate:
Trump refused to rule out a third-party run. He was under severe attack from the Fox moderators and by the others, but it's hard to sling shit and make it stick on a Teflon candidate.
Christie and Paul nearly came to blows.
Huckabee, Cruz, and Carson sounded batshit crazy. None have a shot at the nomination.
Bush was dull.
Walker, the Koch puppet, is a dangerous s.o.b. Has no shot at the nomination or, if he does, at the presidency.
Rubio did fine even if he is a bit too extreme. He is a bit too young to be elected. He may get the running mate slot.
Kasich is the best of all of the presidential candidates in the GOP. He easily won the debate. He sounded the way the GOP used to sound decades ago before the old Birchers took over and the party went terminally insane. It helped him the debate was held in Kasich's state of Ohio.
Kasich, a veteran Washington pol before becoming governor of Ohio, COULD get elected president. So could Pataki, but I didn't see his performance yet. Because of their electability and their relative honesty compared to somebody like Jeb Bush, they won't get nominated.
What struck me is the very real possibility Trump is a stalking horse for the Democrats to guarantee the GOP doesn't win the White House. It would be a perfect revenge by the Democrats, especially the Clintons, for what Jeb Bush's antics did to Al Gore in 2000. It is also an equal possibility that Trump may be a stalking horse for the GOP for the same reason, to deny Bush the presidency.
I don't believe they want to win the White House next year and then have to be held accountable to their insane supporters to actually carry out the rhetoric they have been spewing for years. That is because the party already has control of the House and the Senate.
Comments: This is goddamned painful. Romney succeeded in diverting the debate from foreign policy to domestic policy. Both candidates score an epic fail on education.
Romney did this because he knows he doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground about foreign policy, and Schieffer let him get away with it. He has lost control of the debate.
Total fail. I'd rather hear the two talk about Lance Armstrong.
Obama is talking about defense, so at least he is trying to go back to foreign policy. Mitt keeps trying to divert but gave up and decided to be on point. "The horses and bayonets" remark by Obama was a nice touch.
Obama is winning this mess of a debate, but it is like taking candy from a baby.
Shit, this China thing is a mess. Obama scored a few points on Mitt's investments, and then Mitt changes the subject back to the auto industry instead of China. Obama is no prize and isn't as smart as he thinks he is, but Mitt is astoundingly ignorant. This is goddamned pitiful.
More yammering about education by two ignorant politicians. Closing statements. Foreign policy never returned to the debate.
A mess. A complete and total mess. I will be watching the "expanded" version with the third party candidates even though I have already voted.
It wasn't just that Romney was grossly uninformed, it was that he was so fucking rude. His attitude reinforces the stereotype of the spoiled rich kid who thinks his inferiors should bow down to him, even if those inferiors are a veteran journalist and the President of the United States.
It was stunning. As I mentioned last night, I had to shut the sound off. I tuned in later only a little bit during the live telecast and just happened to catch the Libya question:
But not even I expected Romney to let his entitled, Lord-of-the-Manor freak flag fly as proudly as he did on Tuesday night. He got in the president's face. He got in Crowley's face. That moment when he was hectoring the president about the president's pension made him look like someone to whom the valet has brought the wrong Mercedes.
"You'll get your chance in a moment. I'm still speaking."
Wow. To me, this was a revelatory, epochal moment. It was a look at the real Willard Romney, the Bain cutthroat who could get rich ruining lives and not lose a moment's sleep. But those people are merely the anonymous Help. The guy he was speaking to on Tuesday night is a man of considerable international influence. Outside of street protestors, and that Iraqi guy who threw a shoe at George W. Bush, I have never seen a more lucid example of manifest public disrespect for a sitting president than the hair-curling contempt with which Romney invested those words. (I've certainly never seen one from another candidate.) He's lucky Barack Obama prizes cool over everything else. LBJ would have taken out his heart with a pair of salad tongs and Harry Truman would have bitten off his nose.
It was totally shocking. I think this is actually part of Mitt's real personality. He has absolutely no use for anybody who is not in his social class. Not even Obama's tendency to be an elitist snob is good enough for Mitt. Obama didn't play the snob last night and wouldn't have been a match for a real snob anyway.
If you have the stomach for it, here is a live feed of the townhall deal in NYC. Candy Crowley is moderating the two liars.
Mitt is acting like a rude bastard again to the moderator. When somebody tells you to stop, Mitt, you stop. Who the hell do you think you are, John Galt, and don't have to play by the rules?
Obama is doing a little bit better, but he had nowhere to go but up.
Crowley should have cut Mitt's mic. Either play by the goddamned rules or get the hell out.
I had to mute that shit...Romney thinks he can pull that crap and it is going over very poorly.
He doesn't respect rules, he doesn't respect boundaries.
I put up with that shit at Washoe County School District, but I will be damned if I am going to listen to that shit tonight.
Final thought: It appears Obama won this round. Mitt was just too rude and vague for his own good.
Obama will probably do better tonight than two weeks ago in the "debate" or glorified press conference or whatever you want to call it. His worst trait is his narcissism and thinking his ideas are better than everybody else's and disregards any criticism. He isn't a Joe Biden and doesn't have to prep much at all because he is knowledgeable. Obama just isn't that bright or has the ability to think quickly on his feet.
I can't argue with the criticism by the WSWS. Everything Obama did on the economy was to benefit the financial elites, NOT the masses.
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Obituary: Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodian leader, died at the age of 89.
A pre-eminent figure in Cambodia's history for seven decades, Sihanouk however will also be remembered as a puppet kept by the Khmer Rouge during their 1970s reign of terror that killed almost a quarter of the Cambodian population.
The quixotic ruler held considerable power in the 1950s and 1960s when the young, flamboyant leader came to symbolize Cambodia's liberation from French rule in what is now seen as a golden age for an impoverished country long scarred by war.
His close aide, Prince Sisowath Thomico, said Sihanouk had died of heart failure.
"This is not just mourning by the royal family but for all Cambodians. He is the father of the nation," he said.
Finally, near 11 p.m., event organizer Tony Beam escorted D’Souza and Joseph to the nearby Comfort Suites. Beam noted that they checked in together and were apparently sharing a room for the night in the sold-out hotel. The next morning, around 6 a.m., Beam arrived back at the hotel and called up to D’Souza’s room. “We’ll be down in 10 minutes,” D’Souza told Beam. D’Souza and Joseph came down together, and Beam took them to the airport.
By the time he completes his packing and blows town, Jean-Claude Brizard, the undercompetent and overpaid (we said it a long time ago here, but it's worth repeating) will have taken Chicago for a million dollars himself for less than 18 months of servitude to Rahm Emanuel's scripted dog-and-pony shows and left behind about $10 million in patronage flunkies (also, mercenaries) now perched atop the nation's third largest school system. Yet to read the Chicago newspapers on October 14, 2012, you'd think that Chicago has just gone from one triumph to another, thanks to the Miracle Man at City Hall, Rahm Emanuel.
Failed administrators always do better than ever.
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It should have been clear to all who saw the debate debacle of last week if not YEARS earlier that Obama isn't a Democrat at all; he would sell his mother to appease the Republicans.
It can only be so because he really identifies with them, not with real Democrats:
Obama is the king of trying to reconcile what cannot be reconciled. He calls this process consensus, but in stark political terms it is nothing but capitulation. Obama cannot even muster support for Democratic low-hanging fruit like Social Security. When the moderator asked the president if he saw a difference with his opponent on Social Security he happily replied, “You know, I suspect that on Social Security we’ve got a somewhat similar position.” Those words may have been shocking but they were true. It is Obama who appointed a deficit reduction commission which called for cuts to entitlement programs. Only intransigence from Republicans prevented him from further double dealing with the people he is supposed to be working against.
The president floundered uncharacteristically because he forgot that his audience wasn’t made up of the Republicans he is so anxious to please, but voters who dared to think they were going to hear why he should remain in the Oval Office instead of Romney. As the Democrats have moved ever more to the right and become more dependent upon corporate largesse, Obama and other Democrats have gone along with their program even as they pretend to be an opposition. Obama was caught unprepared and unable to state plainly how he differs from his opponent, mostly because he doesn’t differ very much.
It was Romney who took the supposedly populist, progressive Obama to task for bailing out the banks, calling it the “biggest kiss to New York banks I’ve ever seen.” As with other Romney rejoinders the president was silenced, furiously scribbling notes as he tried to compose himself.
Another reason I am voting third party this year. The Democratic Party needs to purge themselves of this neoliberal poison.
It's more like breaking wind, especially when somebody decides to make shit up.
It's very obvious Mitt had a handkerchief at the very beginning of the debate. Here is a slo-mo of the "questionable" item he put on the podium after he shook hands with Obama:
Obama likely had one himself. It is hotter than hell under those lights.
Even if Mitt had notes, which of course he didn't, that doesn't account for Obama's brain-dead performance.
The blogger who came up with this "investigation" ought to be ashamed of herself.
