Debate #1

Tonight is the first of three debates between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.  The mainstream press has it completely wrong.  To win, they believe Romney must increase his likability and avoid gaffs.  What they are really saying is that Romney shouldn’t attack Obama on his record.  They are trying to steal Romney’s inherent advantage.

Mitt has the advantage in these contests.  All he needs to do is stick to facts, call out Obama on his lies, and draw Obama off script.  Teleprompters are off, so Obama will ad lib to his disadvantage.  Here are the Romney touchdown plays I hope to see:

• Point out that Obama claimed that if the first stimulus was passed, unemployment would not go over 8%.  We have seen unemployment greater than 8% for 40 consecutive months.
• Tell America that family income has dropped by 8% and that gas prices have doubled since Obama took office.  This make it hard to say that anyone, black, brown or white, is better off than before.
• Obama will blame others for his lack of success.  Romney should point out that Obama has been president for nearly four years, he wanted the job, had a democratically controlled congress for two years, is not the first president forced to work with a divided congress, and George Bush is not running this year.
• Call out Obama on his promise to halve the deficit in his first four years.  Obama called George Bush unpatriotic for running up $4 trillion in new debt during his 8 years, while Obama has run up $6 trillion in just four years.
• Obama promised to change the tone in Washington and pledged a return to unity and bi-partisanship, but has been nothing but uncompromising and divisive.
• Noted economists now believe we are not in economic recovery, but headed for a new recession.
• Tax Armageddon on January 1 will surely return the economy to recession, and is mostly due to Obama’s pigheadedness over raising taxes on the “rich”.
• Obama’s plan to increase taxes on those earning more that $250,000 a year would fund the government for 11 minutes.

The coupe de grace could be if Obama dares to repeat his fabricated lie about Romney wanting to raise middle class taxes by $2,000 per year.  Romney should calmly ask Obama to point out where in his plan that fact would be found.  He should do so in such a manner that requires Obama’s allies (the press) to follow up.  He could say “Mr. President, I would be satisfied if any undecided voter made their choice based on whether your statement is true or completely fabricated.  If you are lying to them about this, they should be curious about what else are you lying about.”