Quote of the Day
'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view,
And robes the mountain in its azure hue.
Thomas Campbell
The Presidential Debates: Round 1: The Economy
VERDICT: ROMNEY WINS GOING AWAY
The line of the might "you don't just pick winners and losers:you pick losers" (Solyndra et al,) There were a few missed moments, like when Obama tried to compare himself to Clinton. I would have channeled my inner Lloyd Bentsen, and said something like "I don't agree with much with Bill Clinton except when he admitted after the 1994 election that the era of Big Government is over. I compare how Clinton worked with the GOP House with how you worked with the GOP after the 2010 election, and you are no Clinton."
This was the closest thing I've seen to a real debate in years, and Romney won decisively across the board, in terms of style and delivery, specifics on the issues, and taking the fight to Obama without being disrespectful.. Some think the moderator 's control was too lax, but without specific rebuttal periods, Romney would insist on his right to rebut.
If there was ever a telling moment, it was probably was Obama's no más moment when he implored the moderator to move onto a new topic I'm sure Bill O''Reilly will have his body language specialist on, but Obama never maintained eye contact with Romney, seemed defensive, unprepared and out of his element. He also gave a few obnoxious smirks, highly unprofessional.
Obama again is claiming credit for Bush's Iraq withdrawal schedule--he fails to note he was trying to negotiate an extension and failed. I would have pointed out Obama's dithering on taxes, sequestration, and Afghanistration as not displaying leadership and increasing anti-growth economic uncertainty.
I disagreed with Romney on some points: I don't think you can finesse your way to a balanced budget, with 80% of the budget off the table, including Defense; I would have emphasized more delegated and/or de-federalized cost-cutting. On health care, I would have talked about "trickle down" centrally planned heathcare, more free market in healthcare cross-state risk pooling. Whereas Romney forcefully denied being ideologically anti-regulation. I would have pointed regulation doesn't have to mean government, and government regulation is a nearly $1.8T drag on the economy.
Congratulations, Triple Crown Winner
Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers
The Numbers: .331, 44 HR and 139 RBI
Next to pitching a perfect game, the most coveted title has to be the hitting triple crown which hasn't been accomplished in 45 years. his predecessors have included some of the greatest hitters ever, including Ty Cobb, Ted Williams, and Lou Gehrig.
An Inconvenient Political Truth
In yesterday's second-part commentary, I indirectly invoked Bastiat's notion of things seen and unseen, i.e., money spent by individuals whom make money or misspent by professional progressive politicians like Obama.The joint Bush-Obama Keynesian stimulus packages failed.
Entertainment Potpourri
I enjoyed this week's episode of New Girl where the womanizer character whom does bear a slight resemblance to Romney was trying to pick up girls pretending to be a Romney son. He got caught when he talked about having a cold beer with "Dad" while fishing. Romney, a devout Mormon, doesn't drink.
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Group
ZZ Top, "Viva Las Vegas".This is the last in this series. Next is the Alan Parsons Project,
