What the Frack?! How the 2012 election could come down to one thing: coal.

FOREIGN POLICY  "For political reasons, Obama will never say a cross word about coal. It is too popular in too many blue and swing states. He will continue to sing the praises of "clean coal" and maintain the pretense that there is a future for coal in a climate-constrained power system. But he will not do anything to halt coal's inevitable economic decline. He'll enforce existing EPA regulations and give the agency space to issue new ones. He'll back the natural gas industry and the clean-energy industry. And he'll let history take its course."

President, Debate Moderator Can't Keep Facts Straight on Libya

This may turn out to be the significant part of the debate, partly thanks to Crowley's, um, gaffe.  As they say, there's no such thing as bad publicity.

Sunshine State Sarah   "During tonight's presidential debate, Mitt Romney directly challenged Barack Obama on the issue of the terrorist attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya. With some assistance from teammate moderator Candy Crowley, Obama once again avoided telling the American people the straight truth about the events that led to the deaths of four Americans and heightened concerns about the safety of our diplomats around the globe.
(I loved the intense look on Mitt Romney's eyes as he stared at the president while asking him about the White House response to the attack)

"After the debate, Crowley was forced to eat crow and admit that Romney's comments on Libya were actually correct:"...

"Now, this list might look strange to mainstream media types. You know, because it contains actual facts. Read on below..."...

Jennifer Rubin; Obama still wrong on Libya; Crowley blows it   "In what surely was one of the weirdest incidents in a presidential debate, CNN’s Candy Crowley egregiously sided with President Obama on his false remarks on Libya, was repeatedly and decisively fact-checked post-debate as wrong (somewhere between “mostly wrong” and “pants on fire” in my book) and then backed away from her own incorrect assertion. As was the case in the vice presidential debate, the biggest story may be the after-the-debate tumult over White House misrepresentations on Libya."  (emphasis added)

Fox News; CNN’s Crowley first plays umpire, then joins Team Obama  "CNN’s Candy Crowley made her presence felt as a moderator in a major way on two points, but none larger than the issue of Libya.

"The terrorist attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and four others in Benghazi has become a sore point for Obama, but Crowley made sure she called Romney out before Obama could tag him."

WaPo; Crowley skews hard for Obama in disastrous presidential debate

Neal Boortz asks Crowley: WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?   "I mean, really?   You’re supposed to be moderating a debate, and suddenly you feel compelled to weigh in on the side of one of the combatants?  And to top it all off, you get it WRONG?"
...."Obama did NOT say the attack on the consulate was a terrorist act.  What he did say was that “No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation.”  Well, hopefully that’s right!  But that was a statement of policy, not a description of what happened the night before in Benghazi.  Obama clearly stopped short of calling THIS particular attack an act of terror.  Sorry .. but that’s the way the English language works."

American Thinker; Crowley: Obama's Teleprompter Substitute   "She grabbed the ball from Obama's hands and slam dunked it! And the audience applauded. Why in the world did they applaud? I thought they were undecided ergo objective. Why didn't they emit a collective gasp in horror at Crowley's totally unacceptable intervention in the debate? Had they too memorized the speech? And forgotten everything said by the president and his men and women since then?"
 
More detail on the Libya statement here  Mr. Obama did indeed say,  "No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for."
But here the article quotes extensively Obama's words that came subsequently showing he did call the act a response to that video.


Lucianne has many links for you to follow:
The Hill; Moderator Crowley helps Obama rebut Romney on Libya
UK Mail; Desperate and dirty! Obama goes for jugular in ugly clashes with Romney during fiery debate - but will it turn round his ailing campaign? 
American Spectator; With a little help from the moderator, the president returns to his "energetic" pandering and deceptions.

"Can you say that a little louder, Candy?" Obama craved more credit from the moderator, Candy Crowley, for her correction to Mitt Romney that the president had in fact used the word "terror" a day after the killing of his ambassador in Libya. "He did, in fact, sir," Crowley said to Romney."

hopenchangecartoons

Reading List of some late posts

Michael Gerson; Biden’s toxic victory   "Normally, a debate “victory” doesn’t require quite so much damage control. Following Vice President Biden’s manic, careening ride through global politics last week, President Obama is left to make a variety of cleanups and clarifications."
....If Biden’s behavior were universalized, American politics would be a squalid, carnival sideshow. Or cable television. Whichever is worse. Americans have every right to hate politics if it looks like this. Via Lucianne

Debate Audience Selected by Firm Squeezed by Obama Justice Department  "Think the deck for Tuesday's town hall debate might have been stacked? The firm hired to select the audience asking questions is under pressure from the Obama Justice Department, and some observers suggest may have already succumbed to that bullying."

Gaming the Presidential Debate; How will it play out?   "And bouncing back is easier for Obama than it is most other presidents. What makes Obama tough to beat is that he has a very high floor of support nationwide, especially in the swing states. His approval rating has fallen below 40% only a couple of times and almost immediately risen above it. It makes Romney’s job very difficult indeed because, in effect, the GOP candidate has to lower the president’s floor of support in order to overcome what is certainly going to be an Obama advantage in get-out-the-vote operations on Election Day."

Tonight’s MSNBC pre-debate talking point: If Romney wins and ObamaCare is repealed, many more people will die   MSNBC being MSNBC.

There’s no such thing as an undecided voter! And neither candidate this year can compete with Bill Clinton’s empathy! Matt Latimer on the five things he’ll be screaming at the TV during Obama-Romney 2.

Victor Davis Hanson; A Presidency Squandered

National Review; In January 2009, the future seemed to be all Barack Obama’s.

A few excerpts from Hanson's insightful column: ...."Never has a president entered office with so much goodwill from so many diverse quarters.

"Rarely does a president enter office with a majority in both the House and the Senate. Not only did Obama do so, but his soaring ratings put enormous pressure on the Republican minorities to join the Democratic majorities. Liberals were talking about a new era of Democratic political dominance." 

"No prior president had such a supportive media. ....Barack Obama was not just a liberal Democrat whom they would tilt toward, but a messianic figure for whom they gladly sacrificed the last ounce of disinterested coverage."

....And so here we are, three weeks before the election, with a squandered presidency and a president desperately seeking reelection not by defending his record, but by demonizing his predecessor, his opponent — and half of the country.

"What, then, was Obama’s first term?"

Media on trial at tonight’s presidential debate  "There is little doubt that the media have been covering for Obama for the past four years. But Powerline Blog predicts that if Obama has another lackluster performance, his willing accomplices, the media, *might* begin to turn on him. They compare this election with the way the media turned on Jimmy Carter in 1980:"...

Boortz says, "...but then we are dealing with ObamaBots here, so I’m not expecting much in the way of brains.

Neal Boortz  "Somewhere on the campaign trail, Obama supporters are apparently handing out a flyer where they have summed up Obama’s four major accomplishments."....

"I mean, what can you say to that one, folks?  This is all these ObamaBots have.  Obama had nothing to do with the killing of Osama bin Laden other than finally (after three attempts) giving the Navy SEALs the OK to do their mission, which they began planning well before Obama even took office."

What Role Will White Guilt Play in the 2012 Election?  "Every week's news brings a new report detailing the climb in the national poverty level, an increased reliance on food stamps, and growing unemployment statistics particularly among urban blacks, as the recession's negative impact on them mounts -- with no end in sight."    Also here,  and here.

Discussions on tonight's debate

Heritage; Cultural questions deserve debate  "The first presidential debate of the fall gave Americans good insight into the candidates' perspectives on domestic issues, including the economy, health care and the role of government. But we heard hardly anything about the effect of such policies on our culture. That's a serious omission."
...."Civil society would provide the self-government that made a limited central government possible, ensuring Americans' freedom. That's why it's important to take stock of how Washington's policies are shaping the work ethic and the health of civil society. Here are just two questions that would help shed light on these topics in the upcoming debates::....

Companion article from Heritage; 5 Issues That Haven’t Come Up in the Debates  "...there are key questions still to be answered. Heritage experts submitted five issues below—with questions—that it is important to discuss before the debate moves on to foreign policy exclusively.
 Join us tonight at 9 p.m. ET—you can watch the debate live on our Debate 2012 page. We’ll have the live stream of the debate and a live blog of our experts’ analysis, and you can follow our tweets and chime in.

MSNBC teaches us how biased debate moderators do it. I'm sure this question got Brian Williams lots of praise in liberal social gatherings and in Hollywood.

Taegan D. Goddard's Political Wire; Why Tonight's Debate is So Crucial   "Tonight is all about suburban women; it has been Obama's demographic firewall." 

Six Pitfalls in Town Hall Style Debate  Seven, if you count democrat-favoring moderators.

Obama-favoring Buzzfeed tells us that Team Obama Looks For Debate Redemption.  At right: stand-ins for Romney, left, and Obama run through a rehearsal with moderator Candy Crowley.




Did Hillary Clinton Setup Obama for Tonight’s Debate?  If Obama wins the election, what big price will he have to pay the Clintons for their extensive help? Here is a reasonable guess:
"Did Obama make a deal with her? If she took the blame and if he wins, Joe Biden will step down as vice president and he’ll pick Hillary, setting her up as the logical choice for President in 2016."  Standing by her man once more?   
7 More Simple Things Mitt Should Say (but only if he wants to win)   "In a word, Mitt has momentum.  The beauty of momentum is - unless disturbed by an outside force - it builds.  So Mitt needs to first and foremost not be the force that disturbs his existing momentum.  Better yet, he needs to add to his momentum.  Continuing with the earlier theme of "keep It Simple Stupid" - KISS - here are 10 more things Mitt should do or say in his next debate performance."

3 AM and Hillary picks up the phone

Tony Branco

To strike or not to strike?

Obama, Benghazi, and the Blame Game  Obama blames Republicans for their spending priorities, but what about this Democrat choice? "As was pointed out in the hearings, obviously the State Department has their priorities a little out of order, since they’re spending huge sums of money on electric cars in Europe, while neglecting to provide needed security personnel in the Middle East and North Africa."

Hillary Apologizes for Benghazi, But Where’s Obama?   "This is nothing short of disastrous for President Obama. After dodging responsibility for the Benghazi attack for over a month, pointing fingers at everything from the State Department to the intelligence community, the White House is outclassed by…Hillary Clinton. By taking the blame now, Hillary effectively 1.) Undermined Obama’s leadership, 2.) Put pressure on him right before a major debate to take the heat:"...  

Hillary's Price   "Rest assured that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham-Clinton isn't taking a fall over the Benghazi debacle for President Obama without exacting a price -- a steep price.  It's not Bill's or Hill's way to give from the heart.  Like the devil, the Clintons expect their due, and gosh darn it, they're going to get it -- one way or another."
Rush just said that Hillary accepted responsibility, but did not take blame.

Video from Ann Althouse, with the comment,  "Provide direction and leadership? He's leading from behind. Behind Hillary".   (Emphasis in the original)

WaPo from Oct 8th: State Dept officials deny linking attack to anti-Islam video, raising questions

Remember back in 1996 that William Safire called Hillary Clinton a "congenital liar".
"The reaction that is of interest to language students centered on the meaning of congenital. An op-ed colleague called to ask: "Did you mean inherited? Shouldn't you have used habitual?" A White House spokesman also picked up this literal interpretation of the adjective, and Mrs. Clinton later chose to escalate the charge in a National Public Radio interview: "My mother took some offense, because being called a congenital liar seems to reflect badly on her and my late father." "

What’s a Christian business owner supposed to do?

World Magazine  "I’ve always thought—in a theoretical way—that I might someday face a situation where the government was asking or telling me to do something that was counter to God’s law as I understood it. If such a situation arose, I hoped I would have the backbone to stand tall and disobey the government mandate. Well, that day seems to have come."
....
After citing the passage Jeremiah 1:4-5, the author concludes:
"How’s that for biblical confirmation that the unborn baby is important in the eyes of God! After reading that passage, I felt confirmed in my responsibility to stand up against a government that is trampling on my religious liberty. May God be merciful to all of us."
Mark D. Taylor is president of Tyndale House Publishers Inc.

Update; The above leads to a general discussion of the state of Christianity in America today: 
One Nation, Under God?
"The role of religion in American social and political life is an ever-present element in our civic conversation. The recent controversy over the contraception mandate ignited a smoldering conflict over just this issue."
....

Under his heading titled The Rise of Bad Religion, Thornton posits, "Another popular and lucrative heresy is the “prosperity gospel.” The credo of the “pray and grow rich,” Douthat writes, is “God gives without demanding, forgives without threatening to judge, and hands out His rewards in this life rather than the next.” In the doctrine of preachers like Joel Osteen, Jesus “seems less like a savior than like a college buddy with good stock tips, which are more or less guaranteed to pay off for any Christian bold enough to act on them.” "

Did We Watch The Same VP Debate? Lets examine the points Biden made.

Conservative Daily News  
"Unbiased Martha Raddatz – She was, after the debate, criticized for interrupting [Paul Ryan] 31 times – that’s in addition to the 82 timesBiden interrupted Ryan. So, it seems that both Raddatz and Biden tried to “marginalize Ryan,” to “show … contempt for Ryan….”"Biden backed up his smiling contempt with strong words” – unfortunately, his “strong words” weren’t founded on facts, something I don’t say without cause:"
By Warren Beatty (not the liberal actor).

Gotta love old Uncle Joe

NRO Editorial; Biden’s Private Reality "Joe Biden’s career of intellectual dishonesty is one step short of the Aristotelian ideal: It has a beginning...and a middle (his later campaign-trail plagiarism), but his performance in the recent debate suggests that it is without end. From misrepresenting Paul Ryan’s legislative record to telling bald-faced lies about his own, the vice president offered a master class in the art of deception." Be sure to check out the links in this post.

Uncle Joe, How Close is the Obama Administration with Israel?  "In the vice-presidential debate, Joe Biden indicated the administration had close ties with Israeli prime Minister Netanyahu. The video below which features Netanyahu calls that claim into question."

Lastly, there's something else Biden should know about Catholic doctrine  "The Church teaches-and this was reaffirmed by the Pope several years ago-that politicians who publicly support abortion automatically excommunicate themselves.  

"If I have chutzpah for saying that, then we have something in common, Mr. Biden. The difference is that I place mine in the service of Truth."

Obama and Biden were winning—until they faced actual opponents

....All Romney and Ryan "needed to do was show independent and undecided voters who they are, demonstrate that they are not so scary after all, and emphasize the administration’s lackluster record. Which is what they did.

Obama and Biden should know better. Spend all your time boxing shadows, and there’s a decent chance that, when faced with a real opponent, you will be knocked out."

More "Progressive" Kindness and Civility

More reason to vote Romney; we will not be intimidated by the left!
New Threats to Riot if Obama Loses Election; Buzz explodes across web
"The new threats continue to dominate Twitter and the vast majority make no reference to press coverage of the issue over the last week, illustrating the fact that they are a legitimate expression of how many Obama voters plan to respond if Romney comes out on top, and not merely a reaction to media hype."

There were others much more profane that we took out. These should be enough for you to get the picture.

I have seen little signs of class in Barack Obama and would be surprised if he worked to stifle the anger and bigotry in his followers.  Electing Obama did not do none thing to heal  the racial wounds in America; it has only left us more torn apart than ever.

Who are the racists now?

Obama vs Libya Benghazi attack: Chris Wallace explodes at David Axelrod  (Video)
"Sunday, during a FOX News panel with Chris Wallace, Bob Woodard(sic), of Watergate fame, inferred that mainstream media risked being guilty by omission in what may be a White House political cover-up of "Benghazi-gate." Chris Wallace agreed. In fact, he was so incensed by what appears to be a White House effort to keep Americans in the dark about Libya, that he finally exploded at Obama campaign senior advisor, David Axelrod.
....."Before the interview concluded, Wallace's eyes narrowed and he held up his hands to stop Axelrod in his verbal tracks. In steely tones of contempt, Wallace demanded:

"Wait, wait, wait a minute! David, wait a minute. This is the first U.S. ambassador that has been killed since 1979. Susan Rice came on this show, and five others, and gave the American people a story that turned out not to be true; and you're saying that we shouldn't discuss this! That we should wait for the investigation to be completed? That's what you just said."

.... "Wallace appears to be frustrated and incredulous that serious questions are being obstructed with word play."