Columns

Poor record, poor debate

LEN TRIA, Uncommon Sense
Published: October 10, 2012

The dust, so to speak, has settled from the "Great Debate," the first of three, between the President and the challenger.

The fact is it was not much of a debate but more of a lesson in humility for the president. The man who said that after he was inaugurated that the sea levels would fall and the climate would cool.

Well one out of two is not bad and that one being that the political climate for the incumbent has definitely cooled. After the spectacle of the smartest guy in the room not being to articulate a coherent message some of his most ardent supporters started throwing rotten tomato criticism.

Then there were the delusional few who came up with all kinds of excuses for the president's poor performance. I personally like the one that Al Gore postulated that it was the rarified air of Denver that robbed the President's brain of much needed oxygen that caused his debate failure.

Interestingly it more likely was the lack of his teleprompter with the answers spelled out for him to read. It is difficult to debate at anytime but even more so with the stakes so high. What is hard to believe that the President stood there like a punching bag with his eyes downcast and with no visible emotional attachment to the moment.

Much of the back and forth rhetoric should have been easy set-ups for the champion but for some reason he went into a defensive mode and never recovered. Credit has to be given to the challenger, Mitt Romney, as he had clearly studied for this preliminary event and his performance proved it. He came back at some worn out issues that the President and his cohorts have been echoing, unchallenged, for weeks.

The false accusation that Romney would raise taxes on the middle class was turned back masterfully. The study that President Obama cited was making many assumptions and we all know what happens when you assume too much; even the study people said what the president said was inaccurate and they were not supportive of his view.

The plain and simple fact is that the president did so poorly because he could not run on his failed economic policies. That usually is what an incumbent does he/she runs on their accomplishments not their failures.

The poll numbers that are now out show the American people are not asleep and almost 70 million of them watched the debate and the polls have indicated that the challenger clearly has the momentum.

Then on Friday the administration release the bombshell that unemployment has gone down below 8 percent in an effort to revive the falling poll numbers. How can anyone believe that with the creation of some 114,000 jobs, most in the public sector, that was enough to lower the rate?

The blatant misrepresentation was the household survey that claimed 800,000 people had found work. This is a bogus assertion and many economists are shaking their collective heads on that survey. What kind of work, benefits, wages were not addressed but we are to believe that with the creation of 114,000 jobs 800,000 people found work.

This is the cool-aid that the President and his dishonest campaign are trying to get the American people to drink. With the labor participation rate around the 63 percent level that has to tell you that people are so disheartened they have left the jobs market place. The truth is that they are still unemployed and receiving some benefits from the government but not a job.

Len Tria, a regular columnist for Hernando Today, lives in Spring Hill and is a former Hernando County commissioner.