By Nellie Peyton
The presidential race has significantly tightened in the past week, which most pundits predicted it would as Election Day approaches. The President’s lackluster performance in the first debate certainly contributed to Romney’s gain, and it is unclear whether or not the polls have settled yet from that bounce. According to Nate Silver’s New York Times analysis, Obama currently has a 63% chance of winning on November 6th.
In the VP debate on Thursday, Biden came out swinging against Paul Ryan, who showed his lack of experience as he dodged questions and tried to stick to his talking points. When asked about foreign policy, he repeated one-liners such as, “problems are growing abroad, but jobs aren’t growing here at home.” Yet apart from statements of party ideology, he made no significant points, and could not point out a substantive difference between his and the Obama administration’s policy. Read what The Atlantic has to say about this here.
Ryan also failed to give any details on Romney’s tax plan, even when Raddatz pressed him for it. As evidenced below and throughout the debate, his best tactic was a complete change of subject:
Spoiler: the ‘…’ does not lead to any specifics, but keep reading the full transcript.
Raddatz also finally asked the candidates for their views on abortion, a subject about which Romney appears to be seriously confused. On October 8th, he told The Des Moines Register, “There is no legislation with regards to abortion that I’m familiar with that would become part of my agenda.”
Interestingly, his website says this:
“…he believes that the right next step is for the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade”
and this:
“Mitt supports the Hyde Amendment, which broadly bars the use of federal funds for abortions. As president, he will end federal funding for abortion advocates like Planned Parenthood.”
Looking ahead: The next presidential debate is on Tuesday, October 16th at 9:00 pm. Also, President Obama will appear on The Daily Show this Thursday! Be sure to tune in.
