I'm bettin' that many here were just a wee bit disappointed on Wednesday evening. Let's just say the slump that seemed to begin during the convention, culminated with many swings and misses. Not O's best night. So I thought I might offer a suggestion for a different approach. It may be a different strategy, imperfect and more confrontational , but THAT approach last Wednesday needs to retirement.
****
Thank you ladies and gentlemen and panel members and blah, blah, blah. And thank you Mr. Romney, whichever one you are tonight.
I have to admit, I rather liked some of that new Romney we met in our first debate. All of a sudden he was in favor of regulation, education spending, liked most of Dodd/Frank, liked parts of Obama Care, (might even be totally in favor if it were only called Romney Care), wasn't going to cut Medicaid, and even said he wasn't lowering effective taxes on the wealthy.
But I'm afraid this was just one of the Mitts we've come to know. We were first introduced to the Mitt who ran in Massachusetts; then to the Mitt whose focus was to make money, regardless the human cost; then to the Mitt who ran for president in 2008; then to the Tea Party Mitt who performed in the Republican debate; then to the Mitt who, not knowing a camera was recording, characterized 47% of Americans as just moochers, and now, this new Mitt.
The problem American's must ask, which Mitt will they get? It seems he has as many personalities as Sybil.
But beyond this personality identity problem, we also have Magic Mitt.
He will reduce taxes by $5T, add $2T to the military, and find $7T in deductions to cover it. The problem is, no one who crunches the numbers can find this magic $7T. But Mitt can. He won't tell us how. We must trust him
Magic Mitt will make it work. Who needs specifics? Just trust him and hope one of the Mitts will figure it out. And then hope it is the right one. He will go to Congress and on day one, DAY ONE, undo Obamacare, "and begin replacing [it] with common-sense health care reform," you know . . . like his plan in Massachusetts. He will either introduce tax cuts that are not tax cuts, or tax cuts that are tax cuts, depending which Mitt arrives on day one.
That is if you elect him.
He tells us that he will create 12 million jobs. Using the same strategy as George Bush, who had, by far, the worst job creation of any president, he will magically create 12M jobs. But if Magic Mitt is this good today, what happened in Massachusetts? Why was his state 47th in job creation during his governorship?
Then there is Medicare. He insists he won't touch it for those over 55. But what about all those other Mitts? What might they do? And if he does keep this promise, if this new plan is so good for those under 55, why isn't it so good for those over 55? Is one generation better than the other? Why does one generation get Medicare as we know it, and the other, some voucher that might not pay the bills? Why do they get the cut-rate system?
Mitt says he wants to reform government, but when I do, he doesn't like it. After we reformed government by cutting costs in reimbursement to the hospitals (who agreed due to their new customer base) and reduced taxpayer payment and government waste to the insurance industry (who charge more than Medicare for the same minimum coverage) Mitt wants to undo this reform. After we extended Medicare 8 years, Mitt says he wants to undo the reform. On top of it he mischaracterizes this government reform as "cutting Medicare".
(said very slowly and very carefully)
Obama Care does not cut benefits for a single person.
Anyone who says I cut Medicare 716 billion dollars is simply lying.
Remember, it was a Democrat who gave us Social Security. It was a Democrat who gave us Medicare. We take pride in their preservation.
The only reason Republicans accept these programs today is because you, the people, like them. And you like them because they are good programs. Please don’t allow these great, earned benefits, to wither away. Not only is this what the Mitt standing next to me wants to do, but also every single Mitt we’ve ever met.