Postscript to the Debate: Odds and Ends
October 6, 2012
In case any of them is of interest:
- Matthew Continetti and Jonah Goldberg offer their thoughts on how liberals reacted to Obama’s performance.
- Charles Krauthammer suggests that Romney not only “won big” but did so “in an unusual way”—without any single home-run line on Romney’s part, but also without any particular gaffes or openings on Obama’s part for him to take advantage of.
- Mark Steyn, as usual, is must-read material. I have been very surprised by how much liberals are trying to make of the mention of Sesame Street—to hear some tell it, that moment should be both political poison to Romney (for threatening to cut a popular, non-threatening program) and considered a moral failing (if we must worry about things like deficits, why bother with small potatoes like PBS subsidies?). Unfortunately, the two arguments are contradictory. If Big Bird is the new third rail of American politics, how can we possibly reform the real spending problems, like the entitlement programs? If it’s political suicide to suggest cutting something peripheral and small like PBS, we may as well all admit that government can never be reduced at all, ever; it can only grow and grow, for ever and ever, world without end, amen.
Related entry: “Romney 1, Obama 0”
October 7, 2012 at 11:54 AM
I’m surprised that you made another post on the debate, which in the modern political news cycle already seems like old news, and failed to mention the surprisingly good job numbers, which should probably overshadow the debate in any event. O wait, no I’m not.
October 8, 2012 at 9:04 AM
“. . . which in the modern political news cycle already seems like old news . . . .”
Fortunately, the voters have a longer attention span than you—the post-debate bounce is just beginning!
As to the “good” job numbers, as the Obama administration itself would be the first to tell you, “it is important not to read too much into any one monthly report and it is helpful to consider each report in the context of other data”!
(Link added.)
October 8, 2012 at 11:00 AM
Right, but don’t the numbers mean something? If they don’t, why ever mention the unemployment rate?
October 8, 2012 at 9:09 AM
Postscript to the postscript: I should have put this in the list as well: Mark Steyn and Calvin Trillin with a little post-debate political poetry.
October 8, 2012 at 11:13 AM
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