20:26: There's a lot of territorial stomping around this 'town-hall' style debate. The incumbent and the challenger-to-the-throne are going head-to-head over energy policy., and each of them are prowling around the stage, vying for the center-stage. For my money, Romney seems to be on-top, even telling the President to "sit-down" and let him answer.
20:31: Now on to tax cuts. There is a huge tussle between the parties over who will cut taxes most to the middle-class. Yet it is confusing. Both of them say they are there to help the middle-class; both seem sincere. Yet, given both of their spots are backed up by stats you have to be an economics wiz to know who to believe (safe in the knowledge that those 'in-the-know' either had no idea, or didn't want to acknowledge the huge economic errors that plunged us into the current mess).
20:34: Obama is attacking Romney over the lack of specifics for his proposed tax and spending plans which Romney claims will save $7tn (that means trillion, your guess on how many zeros that is is as good as mine). Romney fires back with his Olympics and Massachusetts record and attacks the $16tn of national debt that has been accumulated under Obama.
20:39: Obama is more assertive for sure this debate. Yet the town-hall format was intended to be geared for the undecided voters out there. In fact, there are 80+ in the crowd. The arguments from both the debators seem to be going over the same ground. I am not sure that there is any new information being given thus far which is going to sway them either way.
20:41: The next question is on equal pay for women in the workplace. Romney talks of the equal-ops hiring policy that he ran under his tenure of Massachusetts. Romney is very 'on-the-money' with his numbers on women. He talks of the 3.5m unemployed women and seems to be in-touch. This was an area which commentators thought had been an apparent weakness of the Republican party.
20:44: Funnily enough, Obama doesn't see it that way. He takes Romney to task over the female health care issues, such as contraception, which would be 'out-of-their-hands' under a Republican administration. Female rights are a strong Democrat policy.
20:47: A female voter, who declares herself to be undecided, states she is underwhelmed by the present Obama administration, but also believes the present economic stagnation is due to errors made during the previous Bush administration.
20: 49 Romney picks the question up and thanks the lady for proffering it. He puts distance between himself and Bush (who came under a lot of flack as President) and says he will create jobs. Obama points to the 5.2m jobs created over the last 4 years. Getting the jobless figure (through luck or judgment) was a major coup for the Democrats. No part who have had unemployment over 8% have ever been invited back by the American public (it is currently 7.8%).
20: 53: A key technique for building rhetoric arguments is said to be repetition. This debate is evidence this is true! A concerned voter, who voted for Obama last time round, is finding there to be a lack of positive energy about this campaign and that prices have gone up. The same policies come back to him in a neat sound bite from Obama: tax cuts to the middle-class; end of the war in Iraq; attack on Al-Qaeda leadership, including the death of bin Laden. He states the last 4 years have been tough...but can he get away from the fact that gas was $1.86 a gallon at the pumps in 2008 and is now over $4.
20: 57: 2008 was a time for change. The focus of the Obama campaign was on social reform and hope that the under-represented minority populations would have a voice. Now the unrelenting question of economic stagnation is something the current President may find it too hard to break away from.
20:59: Wow! That half-hour flew by. I want to check in on other news sites such as the BBC, CNN, Fox etc and see how they think the debate is panning out...
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