by B. R. GOWANI
President Obama and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney face off during the presidential debate at the University of Denver on Wednesday as moderator Jim Lehrer looks on. PHOTO/NPR
Who’s the winner?
The big corporations’ hold over the government or their defrauding of public money or why the United States need such a big defense budget are subjects which are simply not given importance in presidential debates. Rather the debates are turned into a match where the discussion, prior to debates, revolves around who’s going to win, and then post debates, victor’s and loser’s postures, aggressivity or passivity, etc. are discussed for days.
President Barack Obama had thrown away his boxing gloves not too long after entering the stage and so the outcome was not difficult to judge.
Conspiracy theory
This is a good opportunity for professional conspiracy theorists to weave a conspiracy about Obama’s lack of enthusiasm and missed chances to counter-punch Romney. A hint: They can float a theory that Obama is a closet Republican. Or they can claim that Obama doesn’t want to win the second term because he wants to be an imam of a mosque.
Obama under attack
In four years, this is the first time that so many liberals have criticized Obama so openly and strongly. And this for a lackluster performance during the debate and not the drone attacks or “kill list.”
Romney and PBS
This wealthfare beneficiary told moderator Jim Lehrer of the PBS:
“I like PBS, I love Big Bird — I actually like you too — but I am not going to keep spending money on things [we have] to borrow money from China to pay for.”
This crook who pays less than 15% tax and has got money sitting in foreign banks wants to cut down the government subsidy to a public television! As far as the political and historical perspectives are concerned, the PBS is not much different than corporate owned TV channels. However, its science, arts, children’s programs are good and consists of few commercials. Besides, the government funding is not that high. Astrophysicist Neil deGrass Tyson reminded Romney:
“Cutting PBS support (0.012% of budget) to help balance the Federal budget is like deleting text files to make room on your 500Gig hard drive.”
Election outcome
Two debates are still left and so it would be a bit rash to declare who the next president of the US will be. It has happened in the past that the presidents have lost the first debate but have recovered the ground in the latter debates.
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com