How the Candidates Are Different From B4

In the October 16, 2012 President Obama and Mitt Romney Town Hall debate with CNN’s Candy Crowley the fifth question was – How do you differentiate yourself from Bush? Romney went back to the last question and said – he doesn’t believe that the government or an employer should decide if a woman should have contraceptives, every woman in America should have access and then went on to this question. Romney said – during the Bush era there wasn’t new technology to allow us easier access to our energy resources; Bush didn’t crack down on China or expand on trade, he increased the deficit and didn’t balance the budget, and he’ll champion small business – the Republican Party has been focused on big business for too long and his regulation plan is to help small businesses grow. Obama responded with – we’ve been digging out from the policies that were put in place and Romney’s plan includes tax cuts that took us from surplus to deficit, Romney invests in companies doing business in China and elsewhere, while his (Obama’s) administration has expanded trade and brought twice as many cases of unfair trade practices then the previous administration and we’ve won; Romney is different than Bush in that Bush didn’t propose turning Medicare into a voucher system, Bush embraced immigration reform and didn’t want to do away with Planned Parenthood; Romney’s economic policy is not different and his social policies are more extreme. What I find interesting here is what Romney said about Bush and the Republican Party. He acknowledges that the Bush tax cuts created a deficit and the Republican Party focuses on big business and yet he intends to keep the cuts that continue with both situations. The differences he points out are all things that Obama has done and will continue to do. Romney just wants to jump on the bandwagon of something that works, like the parts of ObamaCare he wants to keep or touting Massachusetts #1 place in education when in fact it dropped while he was Governor and pulled itself back up after he left.  

Question #6 was – I voted for you in 2008 and I’m not optimistic now as most things I need are very expensive. Obama identified the things he’s done and said he wants to use the war savings to focus on putting people back to work; he stated the commitments he hasn’t kept wasn’t because of the lack of trying and he’ll get it done in a second term; he said pay attention to the promises Romney has made that he is expected to keep – the choice in this election is whose promises are more likely to help you. Romney responded – with Obama you’ll get a repeat of the last 4 years; the policies he’s put in place has stopped the economy from taking off like it could have; he gave Reagan’s economy as an example – identifying that unemployment went down (failed to say he also increased the deficit by 218%); he said this election is about who can give the middle class a better future. Candy didn’t let Obama respond; she went to the next question.