Couple comments on the second presidential debate

There were a few more details put forward in this debate—that's important—almost all of them were from President Obama—that's important.

Full disclosure: I'll vote for President Obama (again) on Nov. 6.

I thought both candidates were forceful and confident. Trouble is, Romney forcefully avoided giving more than a tidbit of his policy details, and he confidently changed several of the policy statements he's made during preceding months. Why is he so sure anyone will buy his policy reversals? Which Romney is running for president? I don't want any of them.

The issues were pretty much the same as in the first debate. It didn't make me happy that no one talked about global climate change, and there was very little talk about making desperately needed improvements to our national transportation infrastructure.

Romney – again, he avoided giving details, his "5 point plan" is long on points but short on specifics, he did a couple repeats of his recent habit of blandly stating tantalizing tidbits of policy specifics—last night he again mentioned a cap on itemized deductions, a week ago it was "$17,000" and last night it was "$25,000," I don't know how he thinks "deductions" are going to be limited if he's offering blanket exemptions like that, and anyway, how many middle class taxpayers are claiming MORE than $25,000 in itemized deductions?—Romney very curiously and frighteningly said he thinks "government regulators" should "encourage" business growth, that's a perverse, wacky view on how to control illegal and dangerous activities in the public sphere—Romney repeatedly banged President Obama for our four years of economic woes without acknowledging the previous factors that caused them….Romney repeatedly made statements that contradicted his public statements in the primaries…

President Obama – he emphasized his liberal philosophical approaches and the differences between him and Romney, you may disagree but you know where he stands—he talked about concern for our future and our environment in terms of clean energy and fossil fuel extraction—he asked viewers to consider how the policies and promises of each candidate would affect them personally, I think this is essential because I suspect that some or many Romney supporters "don't get it" when they applaud his statements without fully realizing how it will affect them—President Obama made it clear that he believes the very wealthy should pay more of their fair share of the costs of government services that we all want…

And, let's be fair, if you didn't watch the whole debate, you should step right up and admit that you don't have a fully informed opinion about it…

Looking forward to Debate No. 3 on foreign policy, set for Oct. 22.


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