The Last Presidential Debate

There was a lot said tonight about how the combination of a strong economy and a strong diplomatic presence in the world will fix the nations problems.  Definitely the highlights of the debate were the points were Romney continued to almost rant on how terrible the world is and there was truth to what he was saying but failed to offer a sufficient solution. Also Romney suggested that President Obama was not being tough enough on Iran and the President replied by saying establishing sanctions are tough and the sanctions he established are incredibly effective.
One of the biggest developments was that Obama continued to successfully state the Governor is wrong and to call him out. Obama also referenced the 'apology tour' attack. The president stated that he used trips to Israel in 2008 to better understand the Israeli conflict. Stating specific incidents of touring bombsites. However the President did not address whether or not it was okay for the President to criticize the united States abroad which is the key reason for the criticism in the first place.

Governor Romney failed in providing a successful attack on the Presidents record and understandably so. The President's record on foreign policy is fantastic and you really cant beat it. Governor Romney even recognized the Presidents successful decision to approve the operation that successfully killed Osama Bin Laden. Also President Obama made this point clearer by using a quote from Romney saying it is not necessary to move heaven and earth to get one man. Also Romney said we can't kill our way out of this mess. Both of these instances the Governor looks weak. Romney simply looked weak tonight and unfortunately for him the President's strongest point foreign policy was the subject of the last debate. In this very close race each candidates need every inch they can gain. Governor Romney lost ground tonight, he lost the debate and may have lost the election. In the first debate Governor Romney came out strong and all he needed to do was continue his momentum and he failed to do that because he was too busy bickering with the President. The Obama campaign is looking stronger than ever and may use this momentum to win the election.

The Final Debate and What to Look for

The candidates have covered many of the important issues but some issues have been foreshadowed. Foreign policy has not been talked about however that will be the primary focus of the debate tomorrow. Bob Scheiffer from CBS's face the nation will be moderator the debate and I believe he will do an excellent job. The debate will run smoothly as far as format goes but what about those issues that have been foreshadowed? Will they be addressed?
 
Well probably not. Mainly because both candidates overuse other issues to distract voters away from other issues they are weak on. For example, the Obama campaign can't drop the big bird issue. Of course republicans want to cut spending in all sectors of government. And that does that not make them unreasonable nor evil. However, say that you like big bird even though you would cut funding to PBS and he wants to murder big bird. Why doesn't Obama campaign address how investing in Solyndra and other failed green companies is not reckless spending and necessary for the economy to function? Because making stupid jokes about sesame takes a third grade effort and making an intelligent logical argument requires an intelligent, mature campaign staff. 
The Romney campaign is perhaps even more guilty of redirecting the electorates attention away from more important issues. Although the Romney campaign doesn't seem to fabricate issues they cant seem to let go for some of them. It is sickening that the attack in Benghazi has been played so hard by the Romney campaign. I understand that something needs to be said on the mishandling of the event because the protest and attack could not have been foreseen the deaths of Americans could have. They needed more security and requested it. They were either unheard or ignored in either case makes the United States and the President look weak. However, using the death of a beloved American diplomat for your own political gain is disgraceful. A good man died and the Romney campaign belabors the issue politely. They should throw a literal book at the President because that would be more polite.

Either way I hope that the candidates show there true colors in the last debate. I advise they take the gloves off don't pull punches and talk about the issues that matters because that's what the American people deserve. They don't deserve this petty school yard bickering. They deserve intelligent arguments and well formed points. They deserve so much more and I hope the candidates will give it to them. I am going to post about the debate immediately after the debate so you can come back and check and see more analysis. Please leave a comment on what questions you hope the candidates answer.

Iran Nuclear Talks in an Election Year

Their are rumors and discussion flying around the diplomatic community that Iran may be open to new talks with the United States over Iran's highly controversial nuclear program. Iran is finally giving into pressures from the international sanctions that has dramatically crippled its economy. The leadership in Iran is beginning to feel the hurt especially with their currency falling in value.
However the lead elder on the elder council Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may hold up the political talks because he has not given them the 'ok' yet.
This story is very optimistic with very dark undertones. Iran may be stalling with the United States so they continue their literally underground nuclear program. Also this may be considered the last diplomatic before war. For if the talks fail which is entirely possible then war will breakout anyways. The Iranians may also use the US presidential elections to continue to stall talks because like any good negotiators they want to know who they are talking to.

That is what should be concerning voters who will the Iranians be talking to?

Will they be talking to Governor Romney who has an interventionist crush on Israel or President Obama. President Obama has been pushing a diplomatic approach since the beginning of his presidency and seems to been successful with this new news. Yet Governor Romney argue that the Iranians never stopped their nuclear program and thus have failed the American people. Also one of the biggest Iranian relation gaffs happened underneath Obama. We lost a prototype stealth UAV in Iran. We were clearly spying on Iran as determined by the flight pattern. Now the Iranians are not technologically advanced enough to use any of the technology on-board. They may have sold or given the technology to China or their major international ally Russia.
Now it comes to who will handle Iran better in the future. We are at a critical point in the middle east. The entire region can go to war or we can usher in a new era of piece. I believe that President Obama can successfully go a diplomatic route and resolve this issue and that President Romney cannot. However Iran may ignore the US entirely and we will be forced into war. At that point Mitt would be right but still have to launch a successful military strike against Iran which both candidates can and will do. Romney more readily than Obama. We will have to see how it plays out but for now leave a comment on who you think will handle Iran better in the coming year. Also do you think the Iranians want to talk or are they stalling?

'Romnesia'

Today the President gave a very strongly worded powerful speech in Fairfax, Virginia. 18 days before the election President Obama launched his most brazen attack against Governor Mitt Romney in a very well done speech. To be fair the President did stutter at key parts in his speech but otherwise it was flawless. It was an incredible expression of his suave, swagger, and classic Obama cool.

Here is the link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BBEXB1Wf9c

 The President gave a speech warning his supporters of a fictional, satirical disease called Romnesia the main symptoms are forgetting your positions and thus directly contradicting yourself. He pointed out how 'Mr. severely conservative' has been forgetting his own positions by side-stepping and back-tracking. As he went through the list of symptoms the President attacked each of Governor Romney's conflicting positions. He even laughed at Romney when referring to the coal plant he shut down as governor. Then he slammed Governor Romney saying that he cant remember what positions he has been running on for 6 years. He ended his speech with the most powerful attack of his campaign in a condescending joke that should shivers down the base of the Romney camp. The President said to his supporters, "If you come down with a case of Romnesia and (laughing) you can't seem to remember the policies on your website. Or the six years you have been running for President. Here's the good news, Obamacare covers preexisting conditions!"

This is precisely what Obama needs to do in the final days of this election. Obama needs to expose Romney's most obvious and painful weakness. That is Romney's inconsistency. It is Romney's flip-flopping and conflicting views on key issues like tax reform,  women's right to contraception, equal pay and a few other issues. This campaign has largely been a war of misinformation from both campaigns however the Romeny campaign has been constantly biting its tongue. At one point in the campaign the Romney campaign even fired their press secretary for admitting Romeny care was the reason Obama was able to form a model for Obamacare. This unbelievable powerful slam can ruin Romeny's campaign unless he comes out with a strong victory from the third debate. The power of the speech the president gave cannot be understated. This speech may have won him the election.

Turkey and Eygpt with a New Alliance

The Arab Spring has created a dramatic shift in power in the Middle East between countries and governments. However the most important shift may have happened recently with a new alliance forming between Turkey and Egypt.
Turkey has always been a very important country in this region of the world due to its stability and economic success. They have a very well formed democracy largely foreign to the Arab world until recently. Right now Turkey is faced with the difficult decision of what to do with its neighbor Syria. Recently Syrian government artillery shells landed inside of the Turkish border killing several Turkish civilians (including women and children). In addition to the shelling Syrian refugees have been flooding over into Turkey for safety from the government sponsored shellings in a 'civil war' between President Bashar Al-Assad's regime and the Free Syrian Army. The Free Syrian Army has been doing well in this over a year long conflict and the international community has done a lot of talking but no action inside the country despite gross human rights abuses and massacres of civilians.

The brutality of the conflict is appalling. There have been reports form the Free Syrian Army that whenever the directly attack government bases they begin shelling civilian targets to halt attacks. They are literally killing the families and friends of the rebel soldiers when they attack military targets. This tactic is sadly effective and is one of the contributing factors that has prolonged this conflict.

The Free Syrian Army is out gunned by the Assad regime because Russia continues to sell the Syrian government weapons under the table. Back to how Turkey plays a role in this conflict Turkish air forces intercepted a Russian plane full of assault weaponry heading for Syria. The Russian government has denied these claims made by the Turkish government. However if the rebels do not get access to better weapons or the government runs out of supplies this conflict will continue to be long and bloody and Turkey may have to step in to end it before war crosses over into its borders.

Yet where does Egypt play a role in all of this? They have been receiving bailout money, from Turkey, to help kick start their ailing economy. Their has also been talk of lifting visa restrictions. In addition the Turkish and Egyptian navies conducted naval exercises in the Mediterranean. Egypt despite is revolution and ailing economy is a very powerful country in the region adn combined with the second most powerful country is a new force to be considered in foreign policy.

If Syria and Turkey do indeed go to war then Egypt will likely join as Turkey's ally. Which would give legitimacy to and invasion to end a middle eastern conflict without aid from the West. Any interventionist action taken by the West will backfire in one way or another. However if these two large middle eastern powers can guide their region to stability and peace without western help the future looks quite bright for the Middle East for the first time in a long time. This has truly what the Middle East needed all along. They needed to discover democracy. For the first time all of these people have voice in their government and in their lives. They are no longer controlled by dictators who hide behind religion as a real claim to power. The future looks bright for the Middle East. Despite all of the tension this area of the world is finally beginning to heal from the dictatorships that have oppressed its people. And with the regional leadership of Syria and Egypt the future of the middle east is more stable than ever.

The Syrian Conflict and the Status of CovertNews

I am working on a piece about the Syrian conflict and will hopefully post something substantial about the conflict and the direction I believe both the global community should take as well as the United States specifically. Essentially the Syrian conflict combined with the Iranian-Israeli conflict will be the world's next major war. It will be massive it will be ugly and China will come out shining. I will elaborate and explain my position in another blog post. I am still working on technical things here and there I just want the site to run a bit more smoothly and add more depth.

All the News the Electorate Deserves to Know

I am attempting to make this a daily news and political blog.
Each day you can check back and see what has been going on in the world and in American politics.
I want to be able to cover as much as I can as often as I can.
My mission is two part: Inform the electorate and encourage debate. I want to spark interests in politics because I believe we are at a crucial point in history were we can decide to have absolute free information and a new era of global security. Or we can lose our freedoms and be launched into yet another interventionist war that will lead us further into debt. The European Union's debt and the United State's debt. Yet that is an issue for another post.
Please check back tomorrow for more news and enjoy your day.

The Presidential debates thus far

So far we have seen that both candidates are not strong enough to surpass the other defiantly in the polls which makes this election interesting and annoying. I think we should start to understand by now who is going to win but each debate puts doubt in my mind.

After the first I assumed that Romney would win the election because it highlighted the fact that Barack Obama much like Ronald Reagan relies a little too heavily on teleprompters. These debates matter in close elections but traditionally don't matter in most elections. However Romney did exactly what he was supposed to do. He appealed to Americans as human and even cracked a few jokes and bashed Obama. Great go team Romney. 

After the Vice Presidential debate I felt both sides lost grounds. I feel Ryan despite his suave, swagger, and mien lost points. The moderator asked for specifics on his budget reduction plan and he failed to provide good responses. Biden made excellent points but came off as a condescending old man. He was a jerk short and simple. This has been aggressive race so far but you shouldn't take that into the debates because it's not good for either candidate. Fighting between candidates is only good for each parties base. At this point in the election the base doesn't even matter because they are already set. For those undecided voters they will continue to see this kind of bickering because the election is close and it seems to be a war of misinformation.

After the second presidential debate I felt neither side came out on top but we did see how polarized both sides of the government are. The left is talking about a government overhaul and destroying top down economics where the right is talking about relaxing controls and getting rid of tax breaks. The whole thing was a mess as expected to be with the format. I even feel simply letting the candidates get up and move around was too much as I thought they were going to fight when they had their shouting matches inches form each other. Right now Romney still has the edge because of that first debate and unless either side uses fact checkers than this race will be decided by which candidate is more believable.

New Blog

Well here it is my first blog post. I am doing this because I want to inspire our electorate to do more than read headlines. I want my generation to understand the issues and how they impact our nation and our lives. I won't be impartial on this blog it will be opinionated however I will always address both sides of the argument. Or rather all sides of the argument. Let's discuss some news!