Denver Debate Analysis on Uprising! Radio
“ Then you have Mitt Romney who is a really, really dangerous guy who was prepped and had his hair really good and had his one liners but he is even more dangerous…” – My thoughts on Romney after the Denver Debate on Uprising! Radio.
On October 3rd, the two major party candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney faced off against each other for the first time in this election season at the University of Denver in Colorado. This first presidential debate, moderated by PBS’s Jim Lehrer, focused on domestic issues such as the economy, taxes, Medicare, the Affordable Care Act, financial regulations, domestic energy production, as well as the role of government. The morning after the debate, commentators concluded that Governor Romney appeared to be the better prepared of the two, while President Obama appeared unsure of himself.
The morning after the debate, I made an appearance on Uprising! as a 2012 election analyst with: Roberto Lovato, writer with New America Media, co-founder of Presente.org and Adele Stan, Washington bureau chief for AlterNet. Listen to the segment or read the transcript and comment with thoughts!
Click for full: UPRISING! Transcript .
Listen here for the roundtable discussion with the 2012 Uprising! Election Analysts:
Click here to download.
Listen here for for the entire program:
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Uprising! is hosted by Sonali Kohatkar on KPFK 90.7 FM
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In 2008, Eric Mann told people to vote for Obama (http://kasamaproject.org/2008/10/24/eric-mann-10-reasons-for-obama-vote/). In 2009, he gave a speech at the Labor Strategy Center’s 20th anniversary in which he strongly criticized Obama. What does Mann have to say for himself and is he endorsing Obama again?
I agree with the critique offered by these distinguished panelists, but I honestly don’t understand how progressive activists and analysts could discuss this so-called debate (which they all agree was “pathetic”) without objecting to the exclusive character of the debate process itself, and its arbitrary exclusion of third party candidates.
Jill Stein (Green) and Gary Johnson (Libertarian) have qualified for ballot status in enough states to win the election, but the private, corporate-controlled Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) will make sure that only the two shills for Wall Street and the war profiteers will be heard. Amy Goodman did the right thing and broadcast an expanded debate on Democracy Now!, which included Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson (Gary Johnson was also invited).
The legal and political struggles to open the debates have been going on for years, and various legal actions have attempted to challenge the monopoly control over the debates by two parties. Ralph Nader waged a battle to open the debates in 2000, Green Party candidate David Cobb was arrested in 2004 protesting the exclusion of third party candidates. This year Gary Johnson filed a lawsuit, and protests are being held outside the debates.
Critiquing the Romney-Obama spectacle without mentioning the blatant partisan hijacking of the debates, and without even mentioning the fact that other candidates are on the ballot with a very different political perspective, does a disservice to the public.
Alachua Green. I completely agree with you. We try to “break the bounds of thinkable thought” and yet I fell into the trap of taking “the debate” between the two corporate parties as the parameters of my own consiousness. We are working on on having Jill Stein, on Voices from the Frontlines, our radio show, very soon which we did before getting your email. But I think the blackout of Ralph Nader, the Democrat’s “blaming” him for having the right to run, and refusal to confront for Al Gore’s cowardice in challenging the election and the Supreme Court’s coup is an important part of US history that can’t be forgotten. And the present exclusion of alternate party candidates should be a much bigger issue. I did focus my remarks on the life and death issues that were not part of “the debate” climate change, mass deportations of immigrants, and the mass incarceration of Black and Brown communities. But next time I’m on the air, including my own show, I’ll read your letter and agree with your constructive criticisms. We live and learn.