Romney Smokes Obama In Pre-Debate Coin Tosses

AP

HOFSTRA DEBATE DETAILS AND ORDER

1) Staging -Romney won the toss.  Romney will enter and remain stage right, camera left.  Obama will enter and remain stage left, camera right.

2) Order of candidate introductions - The Romney campaign lost the coin toss.  Obama will be introduced first.  Romney will be introduced second.  The campaigns will advise on exact wording of candidate introduction.

3) Order of questioning- Obama loses toss.  Romney will take the first question. Obama will take the second question.

4) Closing statements -There will be no closing statements at this debate.

5)  Spouses' order of introduction- Romney wins toss, Mrs. Romney will be introduced first.  Mrs. Obama will be introduced second.  The campaigns will advise on exact wording of introductions.

Via: Fox News

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The Reality Principle

Column: Obama and Biden were winning—until they faced actual opponents

Hold it, I’m confused. I watched all of the vice presidential debate last night, and someone did not show up. Vice President Joe Biden was there—how could one miss him, with all the grinning, grunting, interrupting, and sneering. But where was the Ayn Rand-worshiping, rape-redefining, fanatically exercising zealot who wants to throw grandmothers off of cliffs and whose budget plan is, according to the president, “thinly veiled Social Darwinism” that is “antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility”? That Paul Ryan was nowhere to be found.

What America saw instead was a young and likable and knowledgeable conservative worried about the current trajectory of fiscal, monetary, foreign, and social policy. Where Biden harrumphed, Ryan calmly litigated President Obama’s failed record. Twice in eight days, the caricatures against which President Barack Obama and Biden are purporting to run have been exposed as grotesque exaggerations. The liberal attempt to frighten America with the illusory specter of an extremist Republican ticket dissolved on first contact with, well, the actual ticket. The reality principle asserted itself once again. We have an open race.

Perceptions matter. Why did 67 million people watch the first debate? One reason may have been that Americans, open to an alternative to the incumbent, wanted to know who the Republican nominee actually was. They only had vague knowledge of Mitt Romney going into the Denver bout—and their impression was not favorable.

What they knew was largely limited to the messages of $217 million in negative advertising from Obama and his allies: Romney was rich, secretive, out of touch, paying little in taxes, hiding his tax returns, stashing money in the Cayman Islands, singing out of tune, shipping jobs overseas with little thought of the lives he affected, dismissing out of hand 47 percent of the country, in favor of raising middle-class taxes and health-care costs for seniors, and waging a “war on women” with Todd Akin to “turn back the clock” on women’s rights.

Via: WFB

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WHILE OBAMA CRAMS, ROMNEY CAMPAIGNS

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and running mate Paul Ryan are campaigning through Ohio and other critical swing states while President Barack Obama crams for the second presidential debate on Tuesday. Yesterday, Romney addressed a crowd of 11,000 supporters in Lebanon, Ohio, just one of the many large crowds he has been drawing across the state in recent days. 

Meanwhile, Obama, who was criticized for not preparing enough for the first presidential debate on Oct. 3, is parked at a golf resort in Virginia to practice.

Romney is practicing, too, for the second debate, which will be held at Hofstra University near New York City on Tuesday, though he is squeezing debate preparation into his daily campaign schedule. 

Romney has the added benefit of having devoted more time to debate practice already over the past several weeks. He has also spend more time in the kind of town hall setting that will be used in Tuesday's debate. And he has less to prove, having won what both sides agree was a clear victory in the first debate. while Obama has ground to make up.

Obama has not made any apparent adjustments to his debate team, and is still using 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry as a stand-in for Romney, despite earlier criticism by the Obama campaign of Kerry's performance as a sparring partner. Obama has also indicated that he would be less "polite" than he had been at the first debate. Democrats believe that Romney won by dominating the discussion, though Obama spoke for longer than Romney and moderator Jim Lehrer interrupted Romney more often. Vice President Joe Biden cheered Democrats with an aggressive performance in his Oct. 11 debate with Rep. Paul Ryan, and Obama may follow his lead.

However, the extra time that Obama is devoting to debate practice during a critical late stage of the campaign may cost him crucial opportunities to interact with voters, even as Romney builds a lead in swing states. Early voting has already started in Ohio, for instance, and Romney's appearances there this weekend have lent an additional sense of momentum to his campaign. 

Via: Breitbart

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Ryan Slams Obama's Stance on China

Obama soft on 'cheating' China, which is hurting U.S. manufacturing

Republican vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan told Ohio voters Saturday that China’s unfair trade and currency practices are hurting the U.S. manufacturing sector and vowed that if elected he and Mitt Romney would “hold cheaters accountable.”

Ryan, R-Wis., made his pitch one day after the Obama administration announced it would delay a decision due Monday on whether to declare that China is manipulating its currency to gain trade advantages.

“The administration had its eighth chance to label China a currency manipulator,” Ryan said during a rally at Youngstown State University. “And they’ve indicated they are going to push this deadline off until after the election. That’s eight opportunities to say: ‘You know what, play fair with us, trade with us fairly.’ ”

The report examines the foreign exchange practices for major U.S. trading partners and has previously cited China for failing to allow its currency to appreciate more rapidly.

The Treasury Department now says the decision will come after finance ministers and central bank presidents meet Nov. 4 -5 in Mexico City. 

The agency said the delay would allow the administration to "assess progress" following the discussions of officials in the Group of 20 nations, which includes China.

Romney has already attacked the administration for not targeting China for unfair trade practices and is expected to renew the attack during an economic speech next week.

Ryan on Saturday also told potential voters in Ohio – a hub of U.S. manufacturing and rich in mineral resources – that China is hurting the middle class and a vital part of the U.S. economic by stealing secrets to make then sell less expensive goods in the global market.

“We need a strong manufacturing base in American if we want a strong middle class in America,” Ryan said.

Via: Fox News

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ORGS FILING SUIT AGAINST HHS MANDATE DEBUNK BIDEN'S DEBATE DEFENSE

In a statement released on Friday, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty announced that some of the leading Catholic institutions in the United States are filing a brief in support of the Becket Fund’s appeal to the D.C. Circuit on behalf of Wheaton College and Belmont Abbey College as they challenge the HHS mandate.

The Becket Fund represents many of the religious institutions and Catholic organizations currently suing the Obama administration over the mandate that requires all employers, including religious institutions, to provide free contraception, sterilization, and abortifacients to all their employees through their health insurance plans. In its press release, the Fund indicates that The Catholic University of America, the Catholic Archbishop of Washington, D.C., and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. have all urged the courts, in their brief, to address the violation of religious liberty as presented in the HHS mandate.

According to the Becket Fund, the brief filed by these Catholic institutions “comes less than one day after the Vice President of the United States stated” during his debate with Congressman Paul Ryan:

[L]et me make it absolutely clear. No religious institution—Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital—none has to either refer for contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact. That is a fact.

“But the facts are exactly the reverse,” asserted Kyle Duncan, General Counsel of the Becket Fund. “Under the mandate, nearly every Catholic hospital, charity, university, and diocese in the United States—along with millions of institutions of other faiths—must refer for, must pay for, and must act as a vehicle for contraception, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs. If they do not, they face millions in fines. That is a fact.”

In addition to the Catholic institutions, thirteen states, The Cato Institute, the American Civil Rights Union, The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, The American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Center for Law and Justice, and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, among others, have also filed on Friday on behalf of Wheaton and Belmont Abbey colleges.

Currently, there are now over 35 separate lawsuits that challenge the HHS mandate.

Via: Breitbart

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AP Fact-Checker Bulldozes Through Biden Falsehoods

WASHINGTON (AP) — Anyone who paid attention to a hearing in Congress this week knew that the administration had been implored to beef up security at the U.S. Consulate in Libya before the deadly terrorist attack there. But in the vice presidential debate Thursday night, Joe Biden seemed unaware.

 

"We weren't told they wanted more security there," the vice president asserted flatly. During a night in which Biden and Republican rival Paul Ryan both drifted from the facts on a range of domestic and foreign issues, that was a standout.

 

A look at some of their claims:

 

BIDEN: "Well, we weren't told they wanted more security there. We did not know they wanted more security again. And by the way, at the time we were told exactly — we said exactly what the intelligence community told us that they knew. That was the assessment. And as the intelligence community changed their view, we made it clear they changed their view."

 

RYAN: "There were requests for more security."

 

THE FACTS: Ryan is right, judging by testimony from Obama administration officials at the hearing a day earlier.

Charlene R. Lamb, a deputy assistant secretary for diplomatic security, told lawmakers she refused requests for more security in Benghazi, saying the department wanted to train Libyans to protect the consulate. "Yes, sir, I said personally I would not support it," she said.

 

Eric Nordstrom, who was the top security official in Libya earlier this year, testified he was criticized for seeking more security. He said conversations he had with people in Washington led him to believe that it was "abundantly clear we were not going to get resources until the aftermath of an incident. How thin does the ice have to get before someone falls through?"

 

He said his exasperation reached a point where he told a colleague that "for me the Taliban is on the inside of the building."

 

Via: Associated Press

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BIDEN GRUNTS, GUFFAWS, SMIRKS AND BULLIES HIS WAY THROUGH VP DEBATE

Did Joe Biden bring in Al Gore as his debate coach? Did he review the tape from the Bush-Gore debate in 2000 and think obnoxious interruptions and smirks on questions of national security are the way to move voters? He sighed. He broke into Ryan's answers. He chortled. His actual answers were the least of his problems. His tone and demeanor were beneath the office he currently holds. 

Paul Ryan was fine. And, I mean that in the most literal use of the term. A snap CNN poll found that Ryan won the debate, 48-44. It wasn't the decisive mauling that Romney delivered to Obama, but it was enough to sustain Romney's momentum. At times, I wished Ryan had been more aggressive in defending his time to speak. Biden left some whoppers on the table that went unanswered. 

That said, Ryan gave forceful, passionate answers to several questions and his closing was especially strong. He had a firm command of the situation in Libya, Syria and Afghanistan. Most voters only know him as a budget guy, so his command of these issues was probably a pleasant surprise. There was nothing in his performance that would suggest he wasn't up to the job of being Vice-President. 

Biden though, was beneath his office. He clearly carried the weight of the campaign's recent stumbles on his shoulder. In the first hour, he acted like a man would had downed a six-pack of Red Bull before taking the stage. By the debate's end, the sugar rush had clearly worn off and his speech was much slower and more deliberate. The frenetic pace is better for him, because you can't pay as much attention to each word he says. As he slows up, the utter absurdity of what he's saying becomes more clear. 

Both Biden and Ryan had decent moments. In the end, Biden lost for two reasons. Ryan came off as an earnest and utterly reasonable person, with substantive ideas on a range of issues. He was likable. Biden's biggest problem, though, was his tone. He was rude, abusive and dismissive. He repeatedly smirked while Ryan was prosecuting the Administration's missteps in Libya. Smirking should be the furthest thing from anyone's mind when four Americans have been murdered. 

Via: Breitbart

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Ryan cites increased unemployment rate in Biden’s hometown to drive economic argument

Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan slammed Vice President Joe Biden and the Obama administration’s economic record during Thursday night’s debate, referencing the high unemployment rate of Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania.

“You and I are from similar towns. He’s from Scranton, Pennsylvania, I’m from Janesville, Wisconsin. Do you know what the unemployment rate in Scranton is today?” Ryan asked.

“Sure do,” Biden responded.\

“Ten percent,” Ryan continued, “You know what it was the day you guys came in? 8.5 percent. That is happening all around America.”

“That’s not how it’s going,” Biden protested, “It’s going down!”

“Look, did they come into and we were in a tough situation? Absolutely, but we are going in the wrong direction,” Ryan explained. “Look at where we are. The economy is barely moving along. It is going at 1.3 percent — that is lower than it grew last year and last year was slower than the year before. Job growth in September was slower than it was in August and August was slower than it was in July. We are headed in the wrong direction.”

Ryan repeated some of the the statistics Romney used last week in his debate against Obama — including the 23 million Americans “struggling for work,” and high poverty rate.

“This is not what a real recovery looks like. We need new reforms for a real recovery,” he said.

Via: Daily Caller

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VP DEBATE: BIDEN, RYAN AT EACH OTHER ON EVERYTHING

DANVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- At odds early and often, Joe Biden and Republican Paul Ryan squabbled over the economy, taxes, Medicare and more Thursday night in a contentious, interruption-filled debate. "That is a bunch of malarkey," the vice president retorted after a particularly tough Ryan attack on the administration's foreign policy.

"I know you're under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground, but I think people would be better served if we don't interrupt each other," Ryan later scolded his rival, referring to Democratic pressure on Biden to make up for President Barack Obama's listless performance in last week's debate with Mitt Romney.

There was nothing listless this time as the 69-year-old Biden sat next to the 42-year old Wisconsin congressman on a stage at Centre College in Kentucky.

Nearly 90 minutes after the initial disagreement over foreign policy, the two men were still at it, clashing sharply over rival approaches to reducing federal deficits.

"The president likes to say he has a plan," said Ryan, a seven-term congressman. But in fact "he gave a speech" and never backed it up with details.

Biden conceded Republicans indeed had a plan. But he said that if enacted it would have "eviscerated all the things the middle class care about," including cutting health care programs and education.

As Biden and Ryan well knew, last week's presidential debate has fueled a Republican comeback in opinion polls.

Republicans and Democrats alike have said in recent days the presidential race now approximates the competitive situation in place before the two political conventions. Obama and Ryan are generally separated by a point or two in national public opinion polls and in several battleground states, while the president holds a slender lead in Ohio and Wisconsin.

Via: AP

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The Joke's On Joe

 By PATRICK GAVIN | 10/11/12 9:56 PM EDT Updated: 10/11/12 9:58 PM EDT

Vice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan were the two candidates on stage at Thursday’s vice presidential debate but a third character emerged: Joe Biden’s laugh, which didn’t escape the notice of tweeting politicos.

Weekly Standard’s Mark Hemingway: “Joe Biden’s laughing through talking about Iran sanctions?”

TIME’s Michael Scherer: “Not sure debate cameras have been light tested for Biden’s teeth. Best to watch with sunglasses.”

Washington Examiner’s Philip Klein: “Biden’s strategy seems to be to laugh at Ryan constantly. Will it work to infantalize Ryan, or backfire like Gore sighing?”

Via: Fox News

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Cutter’s Day Still Getting Worse: “I Promise To Resign As Soon As Romney Gives A Foreign Policy Speech With Some Policy In It”…

Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter continues to draw fire as she continues to criticize Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan for questioning President Obama’s response to the terrorist attack in Libya.

“I promise to resign as soon as Romney releases his taxes or gives a foreign policy speech with some policy in it,” Cutter emailed a Huffington Post reporter, after clashing with Townhall’s Katie Pavlich, who asked her if she was going to resign.

Cutter also clashed with FOX News’ Bret Baier over her remarks earlier this evening.

Via: Washington Examiner

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Morning Bell: 10 Questions for the Vice Presidential Debate

Tonight’s debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Representative Paul Ryan is supposed to cover both domestic and foreign policy. The Heritage Foundation’s policy experts have submitted 10 questions they would like to see asked in the debate.

Watch with us tonight—we will be streaming the debate live at 9 p.m. ET on our Debate 2012 page, with an experts’ live blog.

DOMESTIC POLICY

1. Obamacare takes $716 billion out of Medicare to fund Obamacare. This includes $156 billion in cuts to Medicare Advantage. Currently, 27 percent of all Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in Medicare Advantage, which is a private alternative to traditional Medicare. The Medicare Chief Actuary projects that by 2017, Obamacare’s severe cuts will decrease enrollment in Medicare Advantage by 50 percent and result in less generous benefit packages for those who do remain in the program. What changes would you make, if any, to ensure that these seniors are able to keep their current Medicare Advantage plan?

2. Patient choice is working well within Medicare and other government health programs. In addition to the private plans in Medicare Advantage, there are 1,100 plans in the Medicare drug program and hundreds of plans in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. None of these plans use “vouchers”; they receive a direct government contribution toward the cost of the plans. Would you expand patient choice in Medicare? Why or why not?

3. Most people under the age of 40 will pay more in Social Security taxes than they will receive in benefits, and Medicare adds to federal deficits faster than any other government spending program. How would you focus entitlement reform on reducing spending?

4. Under Obamacare, the Health and Human Services (HHS) preventive services mandate requires nearly all employers to cover abortion drugs and contraception regardless of religious or moral objection, effectively exempting only formal houses of worship. Should Americans be able to live out their faith commitments outside the four walls of their church—in the public square and in the way they run their businesses or non-profits?

5. It has been almost four years since the federal government took control of General Motors. Vice President Biden has said the bailout of the firm was a success. Was this a success? Why or why not? And when should the federal government sell the shares it still owns?

BIDEN CHALLENGE: KEEP DOWN-BALLOT DEMS FROM JUMPING SHIP

I have cautioned Republicans that we shouldn't get too excited about Thursday's VP debate. Yes, Paul Ryan has forgotten more about the federal budget than Joe Biden ever knew. But, sometimes, having too much knowledge can trip you up in a debate. More troubling, Biden has a habit of just making stuff up on the fly. Its hard to debate crazy. That said, the real pressure is on the Vice President. If he whiffs this debate, Democrats will start running away from the Obama ticket. 

If I had to make a bet, I would wager that Paul Ryan will do very well in the VP debate. As I have noted, though, I don't think its the slam-dunk many people think and, given Biden's tendencies to just make shit up, there is no telling how the debate will go. I fully expect, at some point in the debate, Ryan will be forced to give a WTF look at the moderator because of something "Grandpa Joe" says. 

That said, the pressure on Biden is enormous. Last week, President Obama gave the worst debate performance in history. A Gallup poll of adults, which provides some institutional bias for Democrats, found that Romney beat Obama on the question of who won the debate by a 52-point margin. It was the biggest victory margin in history. 

Its another week until Romney and Obama face off again. Since the first debate, Romney is surging in virtually every poll. He is confident and steady on the campaign trail. Even if Obama can pick up his game in the next debate, that is a week away. Another week of "Romney crushed Obama in the debate" would be a terrible blow to Obama's reelection. So, all eyes are on the VP debate. 

Biden needs to go beyond his tendency to misspeak and make gaffes and nail a coherent vision for Obama's second term. If he doesn't, down-ballot Dems running for the Senate or the House will start to aggressively move away from the national ticket. Obama may do a better job in the debate next week, but without a powerful assist from Biden on Thursday, many Dems won't be able to wait that long. 

Via: Breitbart

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VP debate: An epic non-event?

Tomorrow night, the American electorate will watch another in a series of four debates intended to help voters decide who should be the next President.  In this event, however, neither presidential candidate will be present.  Instead, the two running mates will discuss and debate policies and issues on national television for 90 minutes.  While that will no doubt provide much entertainment for the pundit class, will it move the needle for the election?

Politico’s Jonathan Martin thinks it might:

Vice presidential debates typically matter as much as vice presidential picks — which is to say not a lot — but a convergence of factors is raising the stakes on this week’s faceoff between Paul Ryan and Vice President Joe Biden.

Looming most heavy over the clash in Kentucky is President Barack Obama’s remarkably weak debate performance last week, a showing that has given Republicans their first sense of hope in weeks and increased the pressure on Biden to get Democrats back on course. …

If “Gentleman Joe” took the stage four years ago, determined not to come off as patronizing or bullying Sarah Palin, it seems almost certain that Thursday will bring the appearance of “Scranton Joe,” the scrappy pol who’s never been afraid to throw a punch.

That’s probably true, although we’re a lot more likely to see Gaffemaster Joe, too — the one who helpfully explained that the middle class had been “buried the last four years,” while he and his boss occupied the White House.  Ramesh Ponnuru notes that while mainly discounting its impact, but predicts a walkover for Paul Ryan anyway:

The Democratic reaction to Obama’s debate loss may also point Biden in the wrong direction. Among liberals — and among some Democratic strategists, too — the prevailing view is that Obama lost because he didn’t call Romney on his outrageous lies, and especially because he didn’t draw a stark contrast on Medicare and Social Security. Obama even said the two candidates had a “similar position” on the second program. Democrats will be urging Biden to be more combative.

The vice president isn’t above demagogic attacks: In his convention speech, for example, he claimed “experts” had said that one of Romney’s tax proposals would create 800,000 jobs, “all of them overseas, all of them.” In fact, Biden was referring to a study by one expert, and it didn’t say what he claimed: It estimated 800,000 jobs would be created overseas, but it didn’t examine the impact domestically. Yet Biden also likes to be liked, and has tended to take his hardest shots before partisan audiences rather than in front of the Republicans he is criticizing.

And the consensus Democratic view that Obama was too passive and disengaged probably misunderstands why he lost the debate. The real problem was that he was less up to speed on the arguments and counterarguments than Romney was. If Biden internalizes the Democratic conventional wisdom, he will be more engaged than Obama was — but it won’t help unless he is also better informed. An amped-up yet inadequate response can come across as bluster.

Via: Hot Air

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Ryan’s Impossible Debate Challenge

In a rational world, Paul Ryan should have a fairly easy time in the upcoming debate against Vice President Joe Biden. Ryan is a man who has mastered the intricacies of legislation and the federal budget while Biden has shown scant interest in anything in his senatorial career other than the AMTRAK schedule from Washington, DC to Delaware.

Unfortunately, we don’t live in a rational world. We live in one where Barack Obama is president AND Joe Biden is vice president. To win a debate against Joe Biden one must be prepared to engage with a man who has hardly more than a nodding acquaintance with the truth.

Most of us are familiar with Biden’s ill-starred run for the Demcocrat nomination in 1988 as part of the Seven Dwarfs. He was forced out when it was revealed that he’d not only plagiarized a speech by British Labor Party leader Neal Kinnock, he’s actually gone so far as to steal Kinnock’s biography, claiming to be the son of an impoverished coal miner. (Though to his credit, when Gary Hart was dropped out due to his marital infidelities Biden remarked, “We’ve lost Horny.”) To this day, Biden claims he was “raised in Scranton (PA)” though he left when he was 10 years old.

This should be a danger sign.

The fact is that when Biden gets put in a tough position he will simply make stuff up. For instance,Jonah Goldberg relates this tale:

The most notorious comes from Biden’s 1988 bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. He had been hounded about his law-school record and plagiarism problems (among other things, he copied five pages from a law journal for a 15-page paper and then claimed it was a footnoting error), and he was asked a question about his academic record by a resident of New Hampshire.

He responded: “I think I have a much higher IQ than you do, I suspect.” He went on:

I went to law school on a full academic scholarship, the only one in my class to have a full academic scholarship. In the first year in the law, I decided I didn’t want to be in law school and ended up in the bottom two-thirds of my class and then decided I wanted to stay, went back to law school, and, in fact, ended up in the top half of my class. I won the international moot-court competition. I was the outstanding student in the political-science department at the end of my year. I graduated with three degrees from undergraduate school and 165 credits — only needed 123 credits. And I would be delighted to sit down and compare my IQ to yours.

Most of these statements were outright lies.

Via: Red State

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BIDEN ADMITS: 'YES WE DO' WANT TO RAISE TAXES $1T

This is a huge gaffe on Vice President Joe Biden's part. Instead of using the dishonest language of "letting the Bush tax cuts expire," Biden finally comes straight out and tells the truth:

-BIDEN: You know the phrase they always use? "Obama and Biden want to raise taxes by a trillion dollars." Guess what? Yes we do, in one regard. We want to let that trillion dollar tax cut expire so the middle class doesn’t have to bare the burden of all that money going to the super wealthy.

This is exactly what Mitt Romney was talking about during last night's debate with respect to "trickle-down government" and the promised Obama-tax increase that will will hit our biggest small businesses and cost the economy 700,000 jobs.

Regardless, after the last four years of failure, who in their right mind believes Obama and Biden have any idea what they're doing? And who in their right minds believe Obama and Biden will do a smarter job of spending this money than the private sector?

Taking a trillion dollars out of the economy, especially away from job creators, when our economy is slowing and has slowed to 1.2% is nothing more than economic suicide.

But now Slow Joe has finally said it outright; we are going to raise taxes by one trillion dollars.

I wouldn't be surprised if this long past due and gaffe-tastic admission from Team Obama is seen in Romney ads everywhere by Monday. 

Via: Breitbart

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Opinion: Why ObamaCare Has Doctors Depressed And Discouraged

Wednesday night the first presidential debate will take place in Denver. The focus will be on domestic policy. But it’s a safe bet, while you’ll likely hear about ObamaCare, you won’t hear about the doctors on the front lines of medicine in the United States today. President Obama has said he likes the term ObamaCare because it signifies that "Obama cares," but if he does, why has he failed to consider life here in the medical trenches, where me and my fellow physicians are discouraged and concerned about how we will care for you and your family in this brave new world of health insurance expansion.

You may remember the famous ad that took aim at Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan (now the GOP’s vice presidential nominee) and his proposed privatizing of Medicare -- that showed the congressman pushing an elderly woman off a cliff. The hard truth is that it is we doctors who are going off the cliff, not granny.

President Obama and Congress should have checked with the country’s physicians before passing a law that relies on our efforts to handle health insurance expansion to more than 30 million more people.

A new on-line survey by the non-profit The Physicians Foundation, one of the largest doctors surveys ever performed, confirms that over two thirds of physicians are pessimistic about the future of medicine, over 84 percent feel that our profession is in decline, and a majority would not recommend it as a career for their children. (The survey was sent to over 600,000 doctors and over 14,000 responded).

If you ask my three children you will find that neither my wife or I (also a physician) are recommending a medical career to them despite the fact that we still manage to find ways to enjoy what we do.

We are overburdened, underpaid, ill equipped to handle what we already have on our plates let alone the expected expansion under ObamaCare.

-

Survey after survey from Deloitte, Sermo.com, the Doctor-Patient Medical Association, and Investors Business Daily have all previously shown that doctors are not happy with the direction of medicine and that it is impacting how we practice. 

Over the past two years I’ve taken my own informal survey as have my patients and patients all across the country. 

Doctors everywhere are complaining. We are overburdened, underpaid, ill equipped to handle what we already have on our plates let alone the expected expansion under ObamaCare. Technology provides us with more complex tests and treatments that we are paid less for administering to an increasing volume of patients.

Via:  Fox News

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Ryan, others pound away at Obama at Derry gathering

DERRY — Touting Mitt Romney as the right choice for hard economic times, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan urged New Hampshire voters to get out the vote on Nov. 6.

Ryan spoke to a packed gymnasium of supporters at Pinkerton Academy on Saturday morning, hitting Barack Obama on the economy and delineating a clear choice between the Romney/Ryan ticket and the current administration.

“We have a choice to make, and Mitt Romney and I give you the choice,” said an upbeat and animated Ryan. “There is a very clear choice between two different futures. It's not too late to get it right and turn the economy around and secure the promise of America that our parents secured for us.”

Ryan hit on national defense and repealing Obamacare, but for the majority of his speech, the focus was on the economy and Romney's qualifications to turn the economy around.

The reelection of Obama would result in a continuing stagnant economy and foster dependency on the government. Ryan said the Republican ticket would work to get more people out of poverty and into the middle class.

Ryan contrasted Romney's record as governor of Massachusetts with that of Obama as President.

He noted that under Obama, average annual household income has a dropped by $4,000, while household income rose in Massachusetts by $5,000 while Romney was governor.

“He treated people respectfully and reached out across the aisle,” Ryan said. “He balanced the budget without raising taxes. That is the type of leadership we need.”

Via: Union Leader

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Biden Accuses Republicans Of “Buying Into Extremism”…

 Makes Middle Class Appeal In GOP-Voting Virginia Suburb

CHESTERFIELD, Va. — Vice President Joe Biden made a raw appeal to Virginia's middle class on Tuesday, blasting the GOP presidential ticket for pushing what he says is a blueprint for boosting middle-income taxes while giving trillions in tax breaks to the rich.

Biden said Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan represent a radical and obstructionist brand of conservatism that would sacrifice education and Medicare to help the wealthy.

"Look, folks, this is not your father's Republican Party," Biden said, portraying Romney as out of touch with ordinary people and Ryan as willing to wreck the nation's finances to protect the wealthy from tax increases.

Virginia Republicans countered that it's Obama's policies that will hurt economic growth and kill jobs.

"The president's proposed tax increases will not make the next four years any better than the last. They will only stifle growth and eliminate nearly 20,000 jobs in Virginia alone," said Michael Short, a spokesman for the Republican Party in Virginia. Short argued that Romney's approach would lower tax rates for all and create 340,000 jobs in the state.

Appealing directly to the moderates who decide elections in Virginia, particularly in middle-class suburbs like Chesterfield, Biden evoked his former Senate colleague from the state.

"I would be dumbfounded if former Republican Sen. John Warner said anything like that," Biden told his audience of more than 500 people in a cramped tractor barn at a county fairground. "I would be dumbfounded. I worked with him for 30 years." Warner retired in 2009 after serving five terms. He was succeeded in office by Democrat Mark R. Warner.

Via:  The Huffington Post

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