Prepping For The Spin

The second presidential debate at Hofstra University in Long Island, New York will officially begin tonight at 9PM Eastern/8PM Central Time - but we can tell you with certainty that the truly influential part of the debate has already begun.

Over the weekend, both campaigns already began hinting at what might be coming tonight. But the first camp to break the ethical boundary and begin outright spinning the media for their candidate was - to nobody's surprise - the Romney campaign. This time Team Romney is trying a new approach, in that they're turning their blame cannon on the media itself - by insisting that the media wants an Obama comeback.

The theory behind that claim is that it will place the blame completely on the media for any anti-Romney remarks that are made after the debate, while also lowering expectations for Mr. Romney's performance tonight.

Sadly, we're almost certain that, like stupid dogs that chase any ball thrown their way, much of the media will take Romney's bait and pull back on their criticism of him.

You can rest assured: we're nobody's lapdog, and we'll be tough on both candidates. If Obama lies as much as Romney does, we'll certainly call him on it. If either man attempts to do something out of character, we'll call him on that too.

The format for tonight is the town hall format, which our staff is frankly somewhat divided on.

The town hall format is a debate development that was first tried twenty years ago, and it has its pluses and minuses. On the positive side, the format often forces the candidates to think on their feet, pivot quickly, and showcase their charm - something every President has to do daily for four years. On the negative side, it's a form of leaving the incredibly difficult work of vetting candidates to complete amateurs, at a level where it should be done by the very best professionals available.

As with all town hall debates, the crowd will have been partially screened for political makeup, and even to some degree for the questions the attendees say they might ask. As long as the questioners aren't screened out too intensely, tonight may provide more fireworks than some in the media believe it will.

Remember: people are unpredictable, especially when they know cameras are rolling.

Tonight won't be easy for the moderator, CNN's Candy Crowley. To start with, Ms. Crowley is facing significant pressure from both the Romney and Obama campaigns to follow a "Memorandum Of Understanding" both campaigns signed prior to the debate in Denver, and which was leaked Monday by Time's Mark Halperin.

Ms. Crowley will also likely be judged against ABC's Martha Raddatz, who did an incredible job moderating during the Vice Presidential Debate. Like many at the top levels of the media, Ms. Crowley is competitive and Ms. Raddatz's performance last week set a phenomenally high bar. Hopefully, that competitive nature may spur Crowley to be truly tough on both candidates. Crowley has also stated publicly that she will get involved in this debate and likely ask follow-up questions - which we fervently hope she does, in spite of both campaign's efforts to silence her in the role of moderator.

As with previous debates, we'll have an analysis of the event in tomorrow's edition, along with the applicable fact checks.

Get your popcorn and drinks ready, folks - and know that we'll be watching with you tonight.
We have a feeling this will be the real 'Must See TV.'

Putting On Scary Airs

As the 2012 election season races towards its inevitable closure in 22 days, we're seeing a significant increase in the fear-mongering techniques of certain political hopefuls and their supporters.

We're not really surprised at this behavior. We could just chalk it up to the coming celebration of Halloween during an election year and ignore the fake fear - but that wouldn't be the best idea. In fact, looking at just who is trying to scare the American people by ramping up the fear factor tells us a lot more about the state of this year's political races than most of the polls.

In case you missed it heading into the weekend, some of America's corporate plutocrats appear to be awfully afraid of President Obama winning this fall, given that they've taken to throwing massive temper tantrums in the form of threatening their employees to vote for Mitt Romney - or else.

The CEO of Westgate Resorts, who built the largest house in America (90,000 square feet!) along with the CEO of Koch Industries (one of the largest backers of the Republican Party), both sent letters to their employees recently, effectively telling them to vote for Mitt Romney, or they could lose their jobs.

This voter intimidation technique is not only ethically reprehensible, but it may also violate Section 11.(b) of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It's also horrible business, since both letters effectively broadcast to the competitors of Koch Industries and Westgate Resorts that neither company is doing very well - and imply that neither company will be doing well in the future unless they can get unethical and/or illegal favorable treatment from the government.

There's more fear being spread in the churches too.

In Burlington, Iowa, a pastor at City Church recently began preaching about the removal of Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins, and displaying brochures that specifically call for Wiggins' removal - both of which are a blatant violation of Federal law. He's not the only one violating the 501c(3) law that gives churches tax-exempt status. Nearly 1500 pastors, preachers, bishops, rabbis and imams deliberately broke the law earlier this month, specifically in order to bring politics into their religious places.

We don't have a problem with religious organizations expressing opinions about the issues of the day. But if a church, synagogue, or mosque wants to get into politics, then they need to follow "man's laws" as well as their God's laws. In other words, if they want to advocate for the election or defeat of specific candidates or ballot measures, then it's time to start rendering unto Caesar.

The media's been driving a larger than normal share of fear too, lately. Corporate media execs, desperate to keep high ratings and sales, will most assuredly be flogging their staff members to call every political race a desperate tie - especially after the next Presidential debate this Tuesday.

Even the Romney/Ryan campaign has been spreading fear, as they've continued to politicize the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans even after multiple sources at the State Department have confirmed what Vice President Biden said last week in his debate.

The unifying trait we've noticed from all this fear-mongering is that almost all of it has been coming from the political right in America. Meanwhile, on the political left, the early voting returns keep showing significantly higher voting rates among Democrats and left-leaning independents than it does Republicans.

As we said earlier, we're not surprised at all the fear-mongering this year. We're just bored with it.

You'd think they could at least get better costumes.

Biden Wins Debate, Hands Down.

On Fridays, we usually like to focus on something positive outside of politics - a school event, have a cookout, support a worthy cause like a friend with cancer, something like that. Today, we can enjoy ourselves and focus on politics too.

From the very beginning of last night's debate, it was clear that Vice President Biden wasn't going to put up with any of the "malarky" that characterized the performance of Ryan's running mate in the first debate.

It was also clear that moderator Martha Raddatz wasn't going to put up with malarky or a lack of specifics either. Raddatz had a fantastic night as a moderator. She was crisp, she managed time well, and, unlike the first debate moderator, Jim Lerher, Ms. Raddatz called out both candidates on specifics and facts.

Diving into the issue of the terrorist attack on Libya and the deaths of four Americans - an issue the Romney/Ryan campaign has recently been politicizing in a macabre way - Raddatz went after Biden on specifics right out of the gate.

Biden delivered strongly on Libya, as he did all night long, on every topic.

On the other side of the table, Paul Ryan's inexperience on foreign policy was exposed from the very beginning. Ryan stumbled on the Libya issue, delivering a proven lie. He was all over the place on Iran and Israel, making a mess of the Iranian sanctions issue - which is working - as well as Israel's support of the Obama Adminstration.

Biden responded with laughter - and the truth.

The debate moved to the economy and taxes - and Ryan simply had no facts or details.

Raddatz pushed very hard for specifics from Mr. Ryan - and Ryan evaded Raddatz's every question about specifics and gave her none. Ryan kept throwing out numbers - but couldn't actually explain the Romney/Ryan tax plan specifically, with legitimate math. Ryan also kept insisting he had six studies that backed him up - a claim which was already previously debunked. Ryan also kept saying he and the Republicans wanted to be bipartisan - but then he'd push ideas that Democrats would never vote for.

Vice President Biden just laughed at Ryan's ridiculousness - literally.

Biden knew all the facts on the economy, on the auto industry, and on the stimulus too. Biden even made the point that Ryan had requested stimulus money for his constituents - a fact that made Ryan visibly squirm.

When it came to healthcare, Ryan's lack of facts and details ran smack into the tough moderation of Raddatz, and the facts that Biden provided, as multiple fact checks proved.

On defense, Ryan didn't even know his own campaign's position on the defense budgets. Biden knew exactly what was going on with Afghanistan. The Vice President did not equivocate - and he made it clear: America is leaving Afghanistan no later than 2014. In a confusing turn, Ryan seemed to be both for extending the war indefinitely and for ending the war, saying the Romney/Ryan ticket agreed with the Obama/Biden timeline and transition - but then wanted the right to stay in Afghanistan indefinitely. As with everything else, Ryan simply didn't give any specifics.

Ryan also seemed to be on both sides of the question on Syria, seemingly dinging the UN for moving too slow, while saying the Obama/Biden administration should have used the UN more - or implying the U.S. should have taken action on its own. Not surprisingly, when Biden pressed Ryan to outright say he would have taken the U.S. to war in Syria, Ryan evaded the question.

Thankfully, Raddatz made sure both men addressed social policy, specifically through their shared Catholic faith. Biden made it clear that he sided with the social justice wing of the Church, as we said he would. Biden also made it clear that he has no interest in forcing other Americans to abide by the tenants of his faith.

Ryan attempted to weasel out of siding with the positions of the culture warrior side of the Church - and ended up dropping a bombshell. In a brief but telling section of the debate, Ryan all but said a Romney/Ryan adminstration wouldn't use legislation to outlaw abortion, but clearly implyed they would do everything they could to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

In the end, the Vice President had the facts, he had the details, he had the energy - and most of the snap polls we saw coming down after the debates agreed Biden was the overwhelming winner.

The polls say Biden won. The facts say Biden won.

Vice President Biden obviously won this debate. Congressman Ryan lost. Badly.

What a way to start the weekend.