The Deficit and Taxes
It’s a tough issue for President Barack Obama, and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney hammered him on it, saying the president had doubled the deficit rather than cutting it in half. Romney also said he would not raise revenue in order to balance the budget.
Obama said a balanced, responsible approach was necessary, with $2.50 in spending cuts for every $1 in new revenue, mostly from higher taxes on the wealthy.
Obama also went after the oil and gas industry, repeating his belief that the $4 billion in tax breaks available to them are corporate welfare.…
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The Waitress, Wal-Mart Mom
Celinda Lake, a prominent Democratic pollster in Washington, told visiting business leaders from Oklahoma on Tuesday that the typical swing voter right now is, essentially, a working mother without a college education — Lake called her a waitress Wal-mart mom — and that both candidates had to speak to her during the debate.
If she’s still awake at this point, she may have trouble figuring out what both are even saying as they get deep in the weeds on tax policy.…
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The Economy
It’s most likely going to be the deciding issue of the election: Jobs. And President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney got to it right away in the first presidential debate at the University of Denver, with condensed versions of their stump speeches. Obama accused Romney of trickle down economics and Romney accused Obama of trickle down government.
Both mentioned energy in their opening remarks, with Romney saying he would open up more areas to drilling and Obama saying he would focus on new sources of energy.…
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Inside the Debate Hall
I’ve covered four presidential debates and here’s where I and most of the other reporters were during the debates themselves: In a nearby room or temporary tent sitting at a long table watching them on television. There isn’t enough space in the halls to fit the huge press corps so only a few print reporters get inside. After the debate, surrogates for each candidate go to the press room to give their “spin” to reporters.
At my first debate, in East Lansing, Michigan in 1992, then Oklahoma Gov.…
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Jim Lehrer’s Oklahoma Connection
Jim Lehrer, the longtime PBS news anchor who is moderating the first presidential debate tonight, has written a series of mystery novels about an Oklahoma Lt. Governor named One-Eyed Mack. Here is the summary of one called “Crown Oklahoma”:
From Publishers Weekly
TV anchorman Lehrer of The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour takes a dyspeptic view of the mass media in this slim picaresque fable. Its hero is One-Eyed Mack, swashbuckling if harried lieutenant-governor of Oklahoma who starred in Lehrer’s last novel, Kick the Can.…
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