The most recent debate between Mitt Romney, President Obama and moderated by Candy Crowley perfectly illustrates, in a microcosm, what Romney is up against in his run for president. It’s not just that he has to present his side of the issues and then let the people make their mind. No, he has to present them in an unfriendly environment, to an unfriendly interviewer (moderator), and then has to spend his limited time pointing out the disingenuous answers that are given by the President.

I will defend that statement in a second. But, first let me say that Romney acquitted himself very well last night. He had command of the facts and made point after point concerning jobs, the economy, and both our debt and growing deficit. He had Obama constantly trying to defend his record, and I don’t think Obama’s answers on the economy, or much else, are going to play very well with undecided voters.  Both sides are claiming victory on this one, but Obama needed a decisive victory to stop the bleeding. He didn’t get it. Like the VP debate of last week, the talk is about Crowley and Obama’s deceptive answer, not the issues. Round two to the challenger.

Unfriendly environment; each of these four debates is being held at a university; supposedly neutral territory. But, last night shows, by the cheering (presumably by the students, and not the press) when Crowley “fact checked” on an answer the president gave. The vast and overwhelming majority of our colleges have become indoctrination centers for not only liberalism, but socialism. The fact that attendees could not contain themselves, when “their man” was supposedly vindicated, is proof positive. Why are none of the debates being held at places like Hillsdale College, Grove College, Pepperdine, or even in a non-university setting? Where is it written that the conservative must always be on hostile ground?

Unfriendly reporter: The prime directive of a debate moderator is to stay objective and neutral. Candy Crowley was not that. It started with the second question of the debate. In a debate there is a back and forth. Debater #1 gets the question; Debater #2 gets the last word. In the first question, about Jobs, Romney got the question, and Obama got the last word. On the next question, about gas prices, they went back and forth, but the last response should have gone to Romney. He had to call Crowley on that, and then when she tried to brush him off, talk over her to get his point across. She constantly let the president run over on his allotted time and Obama ended up with 11% more talking time.

Then we have the questions. And remember, these were not random questions. They were fully screened, chosen, and even who would get which question was decided by Candy Crowley and her staff. There was nothing random about what was asked or who it was asked to. Question #4 was about the “fact” that women make only 72% of what women do. This is an old half truth, which has been debunked time and time again. Women who have worked for the same company, for the same amount of time, doing the same job, make almost the same amount of money. The discrepancy is no where near 28 cents on 

I decided I wasn’t done with Joe Biden yet. Last week I dissected his performance and demonstrated that the whole debate was nothing but an act; an attempt to do nothing but paint Romney and Ryan as liars and incompetents. It failed, as all anyone is talking about is Joe Biden’s antics. Jay Leno and Saturday Night Live are thanking God for Joe Biden right now.

But, the more I though about the more I couldn’t let Joe off so easy. Because not only was his smirking, laughing, and gesticulating unprofessional and immature, he sat there and lied to the American people, and only talk radio is calling him on it.

Let’s start with this quote after the moderator asked about the killing of Chris Stephens in Libya and Paul Ryan pointing out that the embassy had inadequate (to say the least) security.

“Well, we weren’t told they wanted more security there. We did not know they wanted more security again.”  ---Joe Biden

First, they need to be told that on the anniversary of 9-11, the first anniversary of 9-11 after the killing of Bin Laden, a fact Obama trumpets every time foreign policy is brought up, in a city with known Al Qaeda activity, that beefed up security is needed? Who shows these mental giants where the bathrooms are at? Perhaps, instead of going on Letterman or The View Obama should attend the security briefings that he routinely ignores.

But, it doesn’t stop at incompetence. The very day before the Vice Presidential debates a congressional hearing was conducted on the actions in Benghazi and Eric Nordstrom, the former chief security officer for the American Embassy in Libya said that;

“his request to extend the deployment of an American military team was thwarted by the State Department’s Department of Diplomatic Security.”

The White House claims it wouldn’t have done any good. I so trust their judgment on this matter over the guy in charge of keeping those American’s safe.

Staying on the subject of the tight grasp the Obama administration has on the Middle East, we have this quote from Joe Biden.

“When my friend talks about fissile material, they have to take this highly enriched uranium, get it from 20 percent up, then they have to be able to have something to put it in. There is no weapon that the Iranians have at this point”

Biden is conceding that Iran is going to get to the point of having the fissionable material. This is a complete failure of the Obama administration. Obama has talked 

It took me a day or so to digest the things said and to come to my conclusions from the Vice Presidential debate of Thursday. The obvious thing that everyone was talking about was Joe Biden’s performance. His thoughts and those of Congressman Ryan on the issues are on the back burner. What people are talking about is Joe Biden’s performance.

Democrats are lauding him and Republicans are condemning him for his boorish, petty behavior and his constant interruptions. These debates are supposed to be about an exchange of ideas, giving the voters a chance to see where each candidate stands and to hear a rebuttal about what the other side is proposing. Vice President Biden seemed to be working against that. Then it hit me. Of course he is. This was a contrived performance. Joe Biden was an actor on stage. In the high stakes situation for the future of America, Joe Biden chose to become Alec Baldwin.

An acting performance by the man next in line to lead the free world.  How else do you explain the complete lack of civility and decorum, the dismissive laugh, and Biden’s extra large Polident smile from the very first answer Ryan gave? Every mannerism was meant to convey the idea that Ryan was not to be taken seriously. It was evident in Biden’s condescending way in which he called Ryan “my friend”, his cartoonish waving of his arms, and the ever-present interruptions.

Why this performance and why now?  He didn’t use this tactic with Sarah Palin four years ago. There are three reasons why Biden used every arrow in his quiver to try to paint Ryan as a liar, insincere, and wrong.

The first is that the Obama record on foreign policy and the economy is dismal. Facing someone who is as knowledgeable about the issues as Paul Ryan is, scares the Obama team to death. Towards the last part of the debate Biden challenged Ryan’s plan to cut tax rates and preserve middle class deductions at the same time. Biden says it’s not mathematically possible. Ryan says it is and begins his explanation by listing those administrations that have done it in the past. When he mentions Kennedy, Biden says “So now you’re Jack Kennedy?” Nice zinger, but the point was to derail Ryan’s rebuttal. It worked and Ryan never finished his explanation. And it was that way the whole debate. Every chance Biden got to stop Ryan from explaining the Romney/Ryan position, he took.

Reason number two is their record. Unemployment finally dipped down to the same level it was when Obama took office, gas prices have nearly doubled in that time, five trillion more in debt, the failed stimulus, the unpopular ObamaCare legislation, going around Congress to take out the work requirements for welfare and to give amnesty to 30 year old “children” of illegal immigrants, the doubling of the number of people on food stamps, our Libyan ambassador was killed, Obama’s Hot Mic incident with Russian 

While I do predict that Mitt Romney will become the next president of the United States, and I do not think this race is anywhere near decided, after watching this first 2012 Presidential debate, this was the first time that the words “President Romney” actually formed in my mind.

I know that is an odd thing to think this late in the race.  But up until now, I really only considered Romney as the Republican nominee. He was just the face I was attaching to the job of removing Obama from office. But, about the time Mitt was interrupting Jim Lehrer, and preventing Obama from ending the segment by mis-stating (polite word for lying) about his tax plan, the words “President Romney” came to me.

Mitt Romney looked presidential. He took control of the debate. He refused to be buffaloed by the moderator. In the first segment, Romney had to remind Lehrer that since Obama started it he got the last word. Then realizing he was not going to get an even hand from the liberal Jim Lehrer, he took control of this situation. That is the attitude I want in a President. That is the kind of tenacity and passion I want to see from the Leader of the Free World.

Then Romney also came across as the man who could bring people together. He touted his record as Massachusetts’ governor; working with the opposition majority (87% Democrat he repeated several times) in getting things done. He painted Obama as a dictator shoving his ideas and ways down the American people’s throat, and then watching as Obama feebly attempted to claim that ObamaCare was a bipartisan effort and that he listened to ideas from all sides.

Obama looked ill prepared and out of his league.  I chalk this up to Obama's own arrogance, narcissism, as well as his coddling by the leftstream media. Romney has had a dogfight for the last eight years to get to where he is. He has had to face down and debate the likes of Newt Gingrich and a constant hostile media. Obama has been treated with kit gloves by most of the press since it was evident that he would beat Hillary for the nomination in 2008. He had no primaries to temper him and his debates with John McCain were against a man who had decided certain topics were hands off. Couple that with Obama’s narcissistic attitude that he always the smartest man in the room and this is the result you get.

It was evident how much Obama missed his teleprompter. Without it to feed him his words, he was constantly fumbling around for the right thing to say, stalling with pauses and uh-ums and looking down to either hide his dislike for being there or his contempt of Romney. He came across as petulant and untrustworthy.  Obama was on his heals virtually the whole time, defending and parrying. Even when he tired to go on the offensive he sound like a campaign ad and not a man qualified to lead America to the bathroom, let alone out of this economic malaise. 

How about RomneyCare? I was dreading that part. Obama was going to shred Romney on passing a bill that many argue is the same as ObamaCare. Romney turned it into a story of bipartisan camaraderie and had Obama wondering what the hell just happened.

 Romney, on the other hand, looked calm, cool, level headed and had his facts. He belted out stat after stat, and challenged Obama at every turn. Obama says “tax breaks for corporations to move companies overseas” and Romney calls him on it, (‘I have 25 years of business experience and I have no idea what