The Goat Pen

Yes. It was unanimously agreed that you are an idiot. Actually, there wasn't even a debate, both sides just agreed that you are an idiot from the beginning and went home. There was no debate about it or even any contention whatsoever. Perfect harmony from every party involved. You are the great unifier...

Romney did better in the debate. But if there are specific instances where his words during the debate are opposite of what he's said on the stump and if the Administration then runs those things side by side in commercials (the first if is more likely than the second), then this all may backfire on Romney.

well you can make an argument that food prices are up, gas prices are up (although I don't buy into the gas was $2 a gallon when Obama was elected), health care is up, home prices are down which are great if you are in the market for a house but horrible if you are trying to sell, refinance or get home equity. Our economy is based on (or at least it was) on consumer spending and consumer spending was fueled , not by increases in middle class income, but by increases to accessible equity. . Middle class income has actually dropped, so while its probably true that many middle class families who have steady jobs see a yearly increase in salary, its probably offset by increased cost in everyday goods and services, increased health care costs and increases in local taxes having to overcome the loss in revenues at the state and federal level. With the loss of home equity, that puts a hit on the purchasing of durable goods and automobiles. And that isn't even addressing the additional 30 million or so middle class incomes that are gone due to unemployment in the current economy.

Obama seems to think that government can step in help solve this, while Romney seems to think that reducing government intervention will.

Hard core GOP should take away two things from the debate tonight - 1. be thrilled that their man came out swinging . 2 be scared to death that he is saying he is going to sit down with democrats and negotiate.

Tea Party people aren't going to tolerate that for a second.

hedge wrote:Yes. It was unanimously agreed that you are an idiot. Actually, there wasn't even a debate, both sides just agreed that you are an idiot from the beginning and went home. There was no debate about it or even any contention whatsoever. Perfect harmony from every party involved. You are the great unifier...

Why did you need to debate what was already well known? Silly. You idiots made me miss Criminal Minds because of that stupid shit.

"And that isn't even addressing the additional 30 million or so middle class incomes that are gone due to unemployment in the current economy."

Not sure where that number is coming from. If we're at 8% unemployment (and I assume we don't count infants, quadraplegics and the elderly (etc) when deriving that number) and that indicates 8% of the employable population, I can't see how we have a pool of more than a couple hundred million employable people. 8% of that number is 16 million, so I'm not sure where 30 million "extra" (extra? Do you mean on top of the official 8% unemployment numbers?) is coming from. Please enlighten me...

I pulled it out of my ass. I actually thought I was being conservative with the number.

I figured if 1 out of 2 is on government assistance now, then that was a pretty serious drop in the middle class ranks.

Yeah, well that's one thing I haven't quite figured out. Everybody sits there and complains about how bad it is, but here we are in the supposedly worst economic period in the past century and we're sitting at 8% unemployment. Hello?! That means 92% are gainfully employed. Could it be better? Sure. But are you really telling me that having 92% of the population being actively employed is borderline Great Depression??? I don't get it...

Biggest loser in tonight's debate was Jim Lehrer. He'll never moderate again...

hedge wrote:Yeah, well that's one thing I haven't quite figured out. Everybody sits there and complains about how bad it is, but here we are in the supposedly worst economic period in the past century and we're sitting at 8% unemployment. Hello?! That means 92% are gainfully employed. Could it be better? Sure. But are you really telling me that having 92% of the population being actively employed is borderline Great Depression??? I don't get it...

true but I think another part of that is another 8 - 10 % are underemployed and working some shitty wal-mart level job. And those numbers are based on people that are actually looking for jobs and haven't just moved into someone's basement.

my god, Al Sharpton has lost weight everywhere but his head. He looks like an alien sitting at the bar in a star wars movie now.

LMFAO...

Have you seen the Sharpton commercial that ends with him saying "That's not Obama, that's yo MAMA!"

hedge wrote:Yeah, well that's one thing I haven't quite figured out. Everybody sits there and complains about how bad it is, but here we are in the supposedly worst economic period in the past century and we're sitting at 8% unemployment. Hello?! That means 92% are gainfully employed. Could it be better? Sure. But are you really telling me that having 92% of the population being actively employed is borderline Great Depression??? I don't get it...

I think, think, that the unemployment rate is based on the number of applications for unemployment benefits so potentially there are a huge number of people out there that have run out of benefits, or are not applying for whatever reason so theoretically the actual number of unemployed is much higher.

I am not disputing that there are plenty of people out there unemployed, but I live and work in eastern NC and I doubt there is a poorer sector in the nation, and I see people going to work every day and doing whatever hard-scrabble, low-paying job that they can get. It's not like they're expecting a check from the government. Plenty of folks out there are expecting it, I'm sure, but I see plenty more who slog off to their $10 an hour job every morning, without fail. Hell, I've got a guy driving a truck for me, no way he'll make more than $30K this year, and there's no way he'd ever vote for Obama. There are alot of people around here like him. Probably a majority, in fact. Not sure what he thinks Mitt Romney is going to do for him, but he sure has bought into whatever Mitt and the repubs are selling, whatever that is...

hedge wrote:I am not disputing that there are plenty of people out there unemployed, but I live and work in eastern NC and I doubt there is a poorer sector in the nation, and I see people going to work every day and doing whatever hard-scrabble, low-paying job that they can get. It's not like they're expecting a check from the government. Plenty of folks out there are expecting it, I'm sure, but I see plenty more who slog off to their $10 an hour job every morning, without fail. Hell, I've got a guy driving a truck for me, no way he'll make more than $30K this year, and there's no way he'd ever vote for Obama. There are alot of people around here like him. Probably a majority, in fact. Not sure what he thinks Mitt Romney is going to do for him, but he sure has bought into whatever Mitt and the repubs are selling, whatever that is...

I think I read that like 70% of rural white America is voting for Mitt.

Yeah, that post became a bit of a ramble, but there's no denying that plenty of marginally employed people are going to vote for Romney (if they vote at all). I think my point was that they're either in denial or just bald-faced hypocrites, b/c they are amongst the main beneficiaries of liberal tax relief policies, and yet they're the main complainers about people "getting" something from the government....

Well, this is about like the Clint Eastwood thing at the repub convention. I didn't think it was that bad. In fact, I thought it was about the best and most creative segment of the whole event. But the "official" interpretation by the press was that it was an embarrassing disaster, and so that's what it became in "reality". Same thing is happening now. Obama totally blew it, never seen such a destruction, blah blah blah. I didn't see that, but I don't have 10 million people depending on me to tell them who "won" that or any debate...

hedge wrote:Biggest loser in tonight's debate was Jim Lehrer. He'll never moderate again...

Jim Lehrer won't even be alive when the next set of presidential debates roll around.

Come to think of it, neither will Chris Matthews. That guy is a walking aneurysm.

eCat wrote:well you can make an argument that food prices are up, gas prices are up (although I don't buy into the gas was $2 a gallon when Obama was elected), health care is up,

http://www.GasBuddy.com/gb_retail_price ... 0&units=us


Price of Gas and Oil over the past 5 years. US Average.