Post Scripts

http://thehill.com/video/campaign/260321-romney-surrogate-sununu-calls-obama-lazy

Former Gov. John Sununu said, “What people saw last night, I think, was a president that revealed his incompetence, how lazy and detached he is, how he has absolutely no idea how serious the economic problems of the country are, and how he has failed to even begin to address them,”

“I think even the liberal press reacted with shock at this revelation, and I find it fascinating now this morning, after they’ve slept, to watch them all scrambling around to clean up the mess the president left on the floor last night,” he continued.

Oil headed for a third weekly drop in New York as signals that supply is exceeding demand outweighed an unexpected decline in the unemployment rate.

Futures are set to cap the longest run of weekly decreases since June after an Energy Department report on Oct. 3 showed U.S. crude output rose to 6.52 million barrels a day last week, the most since December 1996. Prices pared their descent earlier when government data showed the U.S. added 114,000 jobs last month as the jobless rate fell to 7.8 percent.

“The fundamentals of the oil market point to ample supplies, especially here in the U.S., and anemic demand,” said Gene McGillian, an analyst and broker at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut. “There is some positive sentiment in the employment data which is providing some support.”

(SAN FRANCISCO) — Californians woke up to a shock Friday as overnight gasoline prices jumped by as much as 20 cents a gallon in some areas, ending a week of soaring costs that saw some stations close and others charge record prices.

The average price of regular gas across the state was nearly $4.49 a gallon, the highest in the nation, according to AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge report.

In Southern California, the price jumped 20 cents a gallon overnight to $4.53 in Ventura. And in the Los Angeles-Long Beach area prices went up 19 cents to nearly $4.54. And it wasn’t any better to the north, as a gallon of regular gas in San Francisco averaged nearly $4.60.

In many areas, prices have jumped 40 cents in a week as refinery problems have created shortages and helped send wholesale prices soaring. Some stations ran out of gas and shut down Thursday rather than pay those costs.

The California legislature is responsible for the high fuel costs, because they forced a special fuel formulation on us and we can’t import fuel from outside our state because it doesn’t meet the strict state standard. However, the state standard is of questionable benefit for pollution. Studies have shown that the formulation creates ground pollution which offsets whatever minimal reduction in air pollution there may be.

Some areas of California, like Calabasas, are charging over $5.27 a gallon. Thank you State Legislature, California is now a virtual island among the rest of the states and this wisdom is showing up at the pump price. Brilliant.

Read more: http://nation.time.com/2012/10/05/california-gas-prices-jump-by-up-to-20-cents-overnight/#ixzz28RP6zhBm

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) — A top Iranian official says that Iran will be able to annihilate Israel within a day.

According to The Jerusalem Post, Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Shirazi, representative to Iran’s Qods Force for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claims that all they need is “24 hours and an excuse” to attack the Jewish state.

“If such a war does happen, it would not be a long war, and it would benefit the entire Islamic umma [the global community of Muslims],” Shirazi said, according to the Post. “We have expertise in fighting wars of attrition and Israel cannot fight a war of attrition.”

Shirazi went on to say that Israel is “foolish” to believe that they can launch an attack on Iran to stop its nuclear development.

“[W]hen Israel finds itself in danger of extinction, it flails around, and so it’s easy for it to do foolish things and will start a war just to sting Iran.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly hinted that an attack on Iran is possible if the Tehran regime continues progressing toward a nuclear weapon. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Netanyahu “retarded” during a press conference in Tehran Tuesday after accusing the Israeli leader of being a war-monger.

More than 67 million people watched the first presidential debate of this election cycle — nearly 15 million more people than watched the first presidential debate four years ago.

That 67 million, however, falls very short of the Mother of All Presidential Debates: the Oct. 28, 1980 smackdown between President Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, which had drawn a whopping 81 million viewers.

About 12 million of the 67 mil who watched President Obama square off with GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney at the University of Denver were aged 18-34 years. Nearly 31 million of them were 55 years or older, Nielsen reported Thursday.

The debate was carried live across 11 networks; Telemundo aired it on tape delay.

by Bud Biddle

Interesting, low key, Presidential Debate….~

Obama essentially told America that he’s been doing just fine, made a couple mistakes but needs more time due to what he encountered when he took Office. That his policies are working in an ‘ongoing’ manner and he kept at Romney for specifics about his plans…all which Romney clearly provided, time after time, seemingly to no avail but it ate up time like Obama is famous for doing. Obama was clearly uncomfortable at times and had obviously been coached to deflect, deny and to offer nothing new; to stay on script, out of any trouble. Obama kept to his mentors’ advice and in addition he kept bringing up the ‘rich’ in several clever ways all which may have fallen flat on many voters this time. Obama lacked the verve of old and seemed tired/looked tired and was even a bit dismissive of Romney in a few instances by using subtle body language.

Romney was crisp, direct and fully dedicated to his belief in the private business sector while he answered all the accusations, negative innuendos and critiques that Obama gently directed at him. Romney drove home serious points with a full grasp of all the facts presented. His analysis, presentation and clearly defined depth of knowledge never faltered. He looked strong, Presidential and functioned dramatically better than I felt he would. Romney was absent his usual stiffness, demonstrated a clear contrast to Obama and was minus his sometimes apologetic tone being totally devoid of any resemblance to how he sometimes seems to be while he’s out campaigning.

Romney looked/sounded very Presidential tonight. Obama, in a somewhat unusual twist of fortune, did not..?

That’s my take on Debate #1….what’s yours..?

Posted by Tina

Romney won the debate in my opinion. He was respectful, fearless and fully prepared. He was natural in his responses as a result of fully understanding economics, business and how to create conditions to support growth in the economy, and…JOBS…JOBS JOBS…and as a result, increased revenues flowing to government. He has a firm grasp on what is needed to pay down the debt and balance the budget. And I think he has the humility and strength to work with Congress as a leader.

I have little to say about the President. He believes what he believes and is unwilling to move. My way or the highway is no way to lead. He still doesn’t get how lower taxes cause growth and increase revenues so he misleads (lies) about what is possible and what is not. If he can’t get that simple concept he can’t create conditions for JOBS…JOBS…JOBS. He harkened back to the Clinton era but failed to fully explain what happened under Clinton. Success was produced by tax cuts that caused growth and reforms and restraints in spending. Together they brought a surplus…Clinton, unlike Obama, was willing to be moved.

The web is packed and I couldn’t even get on to some of my favorites…I did read that Romney was up in two swing states after the debates and that a restaurant in Denver that refused to host Romney has seen its business fal of.

NOW…what do you think?

by Jack

The media pundits shouldn’t dismiss value of the presidential debate as just partisan posturing of the same nature that we’ve heard all year long. It isn’t, the debates are designed to educate everyone, but mostly the undecided voter who still needs a little nudge one way or the other. For the astute observer, who watches body language, as well has listens to the words, there’s even more to be learned. Tonight’s debate is likely to be the most watched in the history of televised debates that reaches back to 1960 when Nixon and Kennedy went at it.

If you want to follow the first presidential debate between Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama in real-time, you have a plethora of options. This is shaping up to be a heavily live-streamed, live-tweeted, live-blogged and even live-GIF’d, political event.

When is the debate happening? The debate will begin at 6 p.m. PST tonight.

THE VENUE AND TOPIC AREA: The first debate, held at the University of Denver’s Magness Arena, is slated to be about domestic policy. One hopes that the lingering effects of the 2008 financial crash — especially the ongoing unemployment and foreclosure crisis — will be heavily featured in the discussion, but you can also expect the candidates to respond to questions about their plans for tax reform, entitlement programs, health care reform and the deficit. Those topics alone could crowd out a 90-minute debate session, which means that one thing you’ll want to watch for is which topics don’t make it to the table. Student loans, immigration reform, infrastructure restoration, financial regulatory reform — one or more of these topics might not end up getting discussed.

THE MODERATOR: Moderating the first debate will be PBS NewsHour host Jim Lehrer, and if you’ve been longing for the 2012 presidential contest to emerge from its extended period of superficiality and become, at last, substantive, Lehrer is your best hope. The man wrote the book on presidential debates — literally. His instructive memoir of the years he’s spent both as a moderator of debates and a student of the genre, “Tension City” is a terrific insider take on how moderators prepare and shape the contests, with deep detail on many of the “frozen moments” we remember from debates past.

If “Tension City” gives us any clue as to how Lehrer is approaching his task, you can expect him to be meticulously well-prepared. The man pretty much agonizes over the language he uses to engage the candidates. He’ll have spent weeks drafting, redrafting, and refining his inquiries — and he’ll have done so out of a sense of duty. Of course, if you’ve read “Tension City,” you’ll know that in it, he vowed that he was getting out of the debate moderation game, and he’s apparently “seething” about criticism that he’s “too old and too safe to moderate yet another debate.”

Nevertheless, he’ll leave his mark on the Denver debate.