Not An Exciting Debate

G'Morning, Clownies! 
     Already I'm hearing from people this morning on how one candidate crushed the other.  I didn't see a lot of crushing.  I saw two well rehearsed and studied candidates, smug looks while waiting to speak, and a lot of agreement on what problems currently plague this country.
     Man.  Obama sure is a windbag.  I listened to his anniversary wishes to Michelle and then just tuned out!  No.  I didn't do that.  It was neat to watch Mitt realize as the debate wore on that if he didn't talk over Jim Lehrer, then he wasn't going to get to match Obama on time.  He stepped it up and stopped taking no for an answer.  Here's a nice story from FOX about how much Jim sucks.  I can't find a debate fact check page on their site.  Isn't that wack?  Yes.  Whatever that means.
     I would have loved to hear what the candidates said to each other as they walked out and shook hands cordially.  My tele was not up loud enough for that.  Sad.  I don't have the time for a blow by blow so here's some quick highlights:
     Romney busted Obama's chops for not being more aggressive with revising and then promoting Simpson-Bowles.  He was right to do so.  It isn't that Simpson-Bowles is a flawless cure-all plan to destroy the deficit, but that Obama could have been working harder to lower the deficit even in a down-turned economy.  We can discuss Congress' current lack of movement and whether or not Obama can reach across the aisle without totally watering down the effectiveness of any given bill or budget plan, but we're not going to.  Tough titties.
     Romney once again misrepresented the $716 billion dollar Medicare cut.  Can we drop this already?  The cut doesn't affect benefits for people that receive medicare.  Ok?  It doesn't.  Also, let us not forget that Paul Ryan has, in the past, promoted a similar cut to Medicare, but without Obamacare to keep the benefits stable.
     Obama took some hits on failed alternative energy companies like Solyndra.  We all understand that Bush II started the initiative that allowed for guaranteed loans to clean energy projects.  Right???  The Obama Stimulus Package also allowed for money to go to clean energy.  Congress approved that package.  The program, started by Bush, and maintained by Obama has been a success per the original aim and concept of the plan.  The House has investigated Solyndra for over a year and has turned up "no wrong doing".  Who controls the House again?  Nuff said.
     Both candidates want to cut the deficit.  Obama wants to use a balanced approach and Romney doesn't want to increase revenue.  Obama is right on this.  Taxes have to go up for the wealthy.  Romney and Obama both want to close loopholes in the tax codes, which is great, but what deductions does Mitt want to eliminate?  He didn't really get into that.  Which isn't great.  I like my deductions very much.
     The bottom line:
    The debate was light on zingers.  That is real classy, but sad.  I love zingers (pronounced New York style - zing-guz).  Both candidates conducted themselves professionally and civilly.  That is super classy, but boring as shit.  We got no meltdowns, no explosions, and no sweating through shirts.  We all know what the problems are, but the solutions we have either don't work, don't work fast enough, or are untested.  Last night I learned nothing that I didn't already know.  So, all things considered I would have rather been watching the new release of The Princess Bride on Blu-ray.

Here's some links for debate fact checking, because even though you smell funny, I respect you.  The lying and bullshit were minimal, but awesomely even from both candidates.  Well, almost awesomely even.

Here is a fact check list from npr.  Check it out.  There are other good ones around the web as well and most of them agree with each other.
Factcheck.org Dis one is super short, sweet and fair.
Politifact.com Dis one has real purty pichers.
Salon.com 
The Daily Beast 

Please feel free to leave your impressions on last night's debate in the comment area below.  Don't forget to share this page on Facebook and Twitter and get me more peeps to preach to!  Amen brothers and sisters!

Caustic the Clown