Webloggin » Update: Is McCain Anti-Business? Anderson Cooper: Moderator, Debater or Simply a Liberal Hack?

Final Thoughts: There was a back and forth in this debate where John McCain once again tried to smear Mitt Romney by blatantly mis-characterizing Romney’s stance on Iraq. I wrote about that smear earlier at this link here and others are talking about it once again today now that John McCain looked so petty and un-presidential as he failed when confronted by Romney face to face.

In fact John McCain pretty much said the exact same thing that Mitt Romney said one week after Romney made the statement that McCain is waving around completely out of context.

Asked what penalty would be imposed if Iraq failed to meet his benchmarks, [McCain] said: “I think everybody knows the consequences. Haven’t met the benchmarks? Obviously, then, we’re not able to complete the mission. Then you have to examine your options.” – John McCain, January 26, 2007

This statement prompted Barack Obama to say “I called for that . . . several weeks ago. I’m glad that John McCain agrees with me.”

So not only is John McCain essentially lying about what Mitt Romney said McCain made statements that were actually endorsed by Barack Obama. I wish to God that the Romney campaign would wake the hell up and dish that into John McCain’s mug the next time he brings this false charge up.

At the end of the back and forth the viewer was left to see two different people up there. Mitt Romney who defended himself against a blatant smear and John McCain who simply continued to try and fool the American people into voting for him based on a false charge. I don’t think the conservative base is oblivious to this fact. A man that has to mis-characterize his opponent is the kind of person this nation can do without as President. We’ve had enough of that to last a lifetime.

Update: The Question: Would, and if so, why — why would Ronald Reagan endorse you? Would Ronald Reagan endorse you? And if so, why?

Best Answer:

HUCKABEE: I think it would be incredibly presumptuous and even arrogant for me to try to suggest what Ronald Reagan would do, that he would endorse any of us against the others.

Let me just say this, I’m not going to pretend he would endorse me. I wish he would. I would love that, but I endorse him, and I’m going to tell you why.

It wasn’t just his specific policies, but Ronald Reagan was something more than just a policy wonk. He was a man who loved this country, and he inspired this country to believe in itself again.

What made Ronald Reagan a great president was not just the intricacies of his policies, though they were good policies. It was that he loved America and saw it as a good nation and a great nation because of the greatness of its people.

And if we can recapture that, that’s when we recapture the Reagan spirit. It’s that spirit that has a can-do attitude about America’s futures and that makes us love our country whether we’re Democrats or Republicans. And that’s what I believe Ronald Reagan did — he brought this country back together and made us believe in ourselves.

And whether he believes in us, I hope we still believe in those things which made him a great leader and a great American.

I can see why Huckabee gets a good response. He’s sharp and quick when responding. This was a great answer.

Debate Transcript: Click Here.

Update:John McCain launched a broadside on Mitt Romney by commending him as a fine man who managed companies BUT, “he bought and he sold and sometimes people lost their jobs“. This is the exact kind of statement I would expect from John Edwards, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

COOPER: I’m going to ask you all for follow-ups on this, but, Senator McCain, I just want to give you an opportunity to follow up on that. Is Governor Romney ready to be a military commander?

MCCAIN: Oh, I’m sure that, as I say, he’s a fine man. And I think he managed companies, and he bought, and he sold, and sometimes people lost their jobs. That’s the nature of that business.

Nice Democrat response. Rather than recognizing that Mitt Romney used his business experience to help create jobs or that he came in and saved the Olympics John McCain used the standard line of Democrats who view capitalism with disdain. This is the John McCain I know. In fact John McCain ran away from the question when asked how he is qualified to manage the economy.

Ron Paul actually got one right here. He said that Presidents don’t manage the economy, the people are supposed to run it. Lower taxes, less regulations and not print money out of thin air.

PAUL: OK. The Constitution is very clear that the president is commander in chief of the military, but the president is not the commander in chief of the economy or of the people. And when we get reflection of conventional wisdom, but of a lot of lack of understanding of how the economy works.

The president is not supposed to manage and run the economy. The people are supposed to do this. The government is supposed to give them sound money, low taxes, less regulation. The people are supposed to run it.

But here, we’re assuming that the president is supposed to run the economy. We’re not supposed to manage. We’re not supposed to manage the people’s…

He gets it correct then goes right off the edge with his empire talk.

Where to start? I turned on the CNN Reagan Library Debate a few minutes late just in time to see Anderson Cooper try an pin down Mitt Romney with a leading “Is America Better off Now Than Eight Years Ago Regarding the Economy“. Romney answered the question in terms of what he did for the people of Massachusetts, which is something you’d expect a guy to say when he is running on his record as opposed to that of the last couple of Congress’s or the Bush administration. But that wasn’t good enough for Cooper; he was hoping to set a somber mood as the stage for Republicans to hang themselves on.

“Cooper: Let me just interrupt though. The question was are Americans better off than they were eight years ago? And as you know, there are a lot of Americans out there right now who are very interested in the answer, they’re not feeling particularly good about their home sales, the, the value of their homes coming down or the unemployment rate rising. How do you feel how America’s doing?”

To which Romney replied “I’m pleased to talk about what I did as Governor and I’m happy to talk about that record“. At which point Cooper cut him off, “Are you running for governor or are you running for President?”

Thankfully Romney pushed it back in Coopers face, “But I’m not running on President Bush’s record. President Bush can talk about his record. Washington is badly broken right now.”

This is the sort of thing that proves my point about these mainstream media darlings, their lack of professionalism and the utter void between their ears. Americans want to know what Romney will do to reignite the economy. If I had to guess whether or not American’s are better off than they were 8 years ago I’d say it is a mixed bag. More Americans own houses and more Americans are in foreclosure. Cooper and all the morons up there talk about the current unemployment rate as if it is at some unbelievable extraordinary level. The reality is that the United States unemployment rate is in a state considered full employment. In fact the average unemployment rate during the Bush years is less than the average during the Clinton years. So if Cooper wants to wax philosophic and yearn for the good ol’ Clinton days he should consider the actual numbers.

Even John McCain beat back the lefty moderator as Cooper stammered, “it sounds like they are not better off” where McCain replied “I think they are better off overall if you look at the entire picture“. This is a correct response.

Huckabee of course went the other way in a calculated manner, “I don’t think we are (better off).” Thankfully he blamed a Congress that sat on their hands and not President Bush.

The moderators also stated to Ron Paul that 61% of the Americans polled by some unnamed organization stated that the economy “is in a recession already”. A prefect question for a pessimistic obgyn that talks about Republicans as if he isn’t one himself. Oh wait, he isn’t. Ok, so we have established that CNN or some other polling organization is proving that 67% of the Americans have no clue what a recession is. The prospects for a recession loom but a recession doesn’t occur unless there are two or more consecutive declines in GDP.

Anderson Cooper and all the other libs up on that stage probably haven’t heard of the 2001 recession that President Bush inherited or how his tax cuts helped stimulate the economy despite the Clinton recession or 9/11. Which proves once again that the mainstream media is the last group of people that should be informing the American public. That is unless you want to dumb America down.

Cooper, supposedly not an idiot, plays a fools game in front of a conservative audience.