Vee Pee Debate Prediction Thread

The debate was nonsense, and is irrelevant. Neither man will change anyone's opinions in any meaningful way. Biden did a little better than I expected, as did Ryan. I didn't expect much from the moderator, and I wasn't disappointed. No on will feel any differently tomorrow than they did today. 

The next two debates between Obama and Romney will be more convincing to many people. 

Now I am living in Tokyo, and I have been working in the financial industry here. Most people here like Obama, they think he looks good and acts cool (cool is important in Japan), but few people want to see him as president for another 4 years. America has always been the engine which has driven the world's economies, and the current drivers of that engine couldn't find their backsides with both hands and a flashlight. 

The upcoming election has a lot at stake, not just for America, but for Europe and Japan as well. The last 4 years have been murky, with no meaningful leadership from America of any kind. Vast amounts of stimulus money has been spent to "jumpstart" the economy, but most of this money has been given to the states, which in turn have used the money to pay their government workers. Almost none of this money has made it to the private sector. The public sector does employ many, but it generates no net revenue for the government. 

Unemployment went down last week, but only because 800,000 new government jobs were "created". There was nearly no growth in the private sector. In real world numbers, government workers would not be considered in an employment poll, once again, because they generate no net revenue to the economy. For each public sector job, there should be at least 25 private sector jobs. These private sector jobs generate enough tax revenue to pay for the public sector workers. 

The rest of the stimulus has been the printing of money, which the government has used to buy it's own bonds, which devalues the currency, making gas, food, and everything more expensive to ordinary people. 

Obama said during his debate that his administration had "reduced the deficit by one trillion dollars". Deficit and debt have two different meanings. When he said he "reduced the deficit" it means that projected spending was reduced, not that any actual money was saved or recovered. In his first term in office, Obama has added more money to the debt than all the previous presidents combined, included Bush. At the moment, your family's share of this debt is $137,000. Any guess how much it might be the current president gets another 4 years to manage the economy?

I don't like Romney, but I dislike Obama even more. I think Obama is a good man, even an honest and well-meaning man, but he is a terrible president. 

Guess he didn't get the memo. Or maybe he just believes the lie?

I wonder how much of Biden being Biden in this was to make up for Obama's sort of reserved presence in the first debate? I also wonder if that's even possible -- it'd take some assumption that Biden listens to his handlers. 

I agree with you, though. He stuck to the party points -- well, both did -- and I think he walked away pretty OK. Ryan did as well, although I think Biden had the upper-hand on the foreign policy and social/domestic issues, whereas Ryan's calm and collection during the economic stuff made him come off better.