tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6215077578479252542.post7473549262930036484..comments2024-03-15T17:06:31.642-05:00Comments on The Piety That Lies Between: A Progressive Christian Perspective: Were I President Obama...Eric Reitanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06135739290199272992noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6215077578479252542.post-2369581013720034842012-10-04T13:13:57.666-05:002012-10-04T13:13:57.666-05:00Obama's biggest problem was that he spent too ...Obama's biggest problem was that he spent too much time defending what he'd already done and too little time explaining how he'd make things better from here on out. It's true that Romney's charge to undo what Obama has done with a promise that everything can be done better is far too vague to be credible. And it's okay to point that out, but it still leaves Obama on the defensive. To go on the offensive, he's got to contrast Romney's vagueness with specific plans for the future moreso than specifics about the past.Jarodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10657747266291733478noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6215077578479252542.post-20987148346210297802012-10-04T12:52:43.454-05:002012-10-04T12:52:43.454-05:00I dislike this meme of Romney "winning" ...I dislike this meme of Romney "winning" on style. Our politics deserves to be about more than which lies are delivered with more conviction and aggressiveness. The only data we have on Romney's budget plans are his tax rate cut. That is it. So talking about his "principles" of revenue neutrality which would defeat the supposed job-creating impact and all of GOP history and policy.. it does not add up.<br /><br />On Obama's side, yes he should have forthrightly said that the deficit is good, as you note. Right now, in our situation where people are unemployed and the rest (companies and banks especially) are saving excessively, some of those savings need to be recycled into real spending, and the deficit is the way to do that. Over the heads of most people? Perhaps, but he can not deny the fact that we are deficit spending, so it would behoove him to explain accurately why that is a good policy.<br /><br />He also could have addressed the overall issue of inequality and its corrosiveness, but that would have required that he yet again attack what I understand to be Romney's (and Ryan's) clearly rich-friendly policy proposals, insofar as the data allows judgement.<br /><br />Lastly, "I like coal". That is not going to win any debate in my book.Burkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11158223475895530397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6215077578479252542.post-74530332768447220002012-10-04T09:47:24.823-05:002012-10-04T09:47:24.823-05:00I would also have been more forceful in answering ...I would also have been more forceful in answering Romney's repeated chastisement of Obama for not cutting the deficit. Were I Obama, I would have turned to Romney and said, "The reason I've proposed a long-term deficit solution rather than caving in to Republican congressional demands to reduce federal spending right now is because the economy tanked under the previous administration's watch. Cutting federal spending means cutting the jobs that the federal spending is paying for. Cut those jobs, and the people who held those jobs stop spending money in the economy. And when unemployment is already a serious problem, the private sector will respond to further reduction in consumption by...guess what? Cutting jobs. You can chastise me all you want for failing to cut the deficit. But that's like chastising me for refusing to gut an already weakened economy. Yes, I refused to do that. I refused because I care about the American people."<br /><br />Or something like that.Eric Reitanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06135739290199272992noreply@blogger.com