Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post Prints Racist, Pro-Assassination Cartoon – Again

Posted by Mark NC on November 3, 2012 at 11:37 am. 9 Comments :

OK, so the New York Post is a puerile, dishonest, sensationalist rag. But how on earth could anyone have approved this cartoon for publication?

You might think that a cartoon depicting President Obama as the bug-eyed prey fleeing fearfully from a stallion-mounted Romney, who is armed to the teeth, would have given a major metropolitan newspaper editor pause. You would be wrong, particularly if the newspaper is owned by Rupert Murdoch, an ultra-conservative propagandist who will do anything to manipulate an election.

The racist overtones of that cartoon should have been noticeable to anyone who even glanced at it. It practically shouts recollections of slave owners chasing runaway slaves. And even setting aside that repulsive message, the cartoon presents a wholly unsavory theme of violence directed the President.

What could have possessed the editors of the New York Post to publish this offensive garbage? And why hasn’t it stirred more of reaction from the public? If this were an isolated incident it would be bad enough, but three years ago a similarly themed cartoon made it into the pages of the Post:

And by the way, it was the same cartoonist, Sean Delonas, who did both of these racist, pro-assassination, pictorial diatribes. It is just inconceivable that this sort of thing is considered appropriate and that a paper like the Post can get away with it. There ought to be consequences and, hopefully, the people of New York will impose them.

Fox & Friends Bashes NBC’s Sandy Telethon: Is It A Hurricane Benefit Or A Concert For Obama?

Posted by Mark NC on November 2, 2012 at 3:21 pm. 9 Comments :

The compassionate cast of petulant pundits on Fox & Friends bashed the efforts by NBC and a collection of celebrities to raise money to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy. Their complaint is that the program might have a positive effect on the campaign of President Obama. And to prevent any possibility of that, Fox thinks the benefit should be called off or delayed.

Great idea. Let’s just forget about the millions of people struggling to provide for their families without power or clothes or food or homes. They can wait another week or two until we’re certain that the President won’t get any ancillary afterglow from the charity program. After all, what’s more important? Taking care of people whose lives have been turned upside down by a natural disaster, or placating heartless Republicans who are against helping people in the first place?

These weasels turn my stomach. And in case you thought it might just be limited to the imbeciles on one Fox News program, Fox also published a story saying much the same thing on their web site. That story quoted only a right-wing PR executive and a VP of the uber-conservative Media Research Center. No one from NBC or any artists representatives were allowed to comment. However, Fox did include comments from anonymous Tweeters who shamefully advocated boycotting the benefit. Seriously, they want to boycott a charity event for hurricane victims. What’s next? Picketing cancer survivors? Tripping blind people? And all of this unsympathetic bombast is being spewed prior to the event when none of these critics know what will take place, or who will participate.

Typical right-wing, knee-jerk opposition to any project that might help people. Brought to you by the same folks who opposed Social Security and Medicare, and now want to see those programs scrapped in favor of vouchers and private sector solutions so that businesses can profit from other peoples misery. Which, by the way, is precisely how Mitt Romney proposed to deal with disaster relief.

Succumbing To Desperation: Fox News’ Loony Last Days Of The Election

Posted by Mark NC on November 2, 2012 at 12:24 pm. 4 Comments :

As hard as it seems to believe after an interminably long and divisive campaign, election day is upon us in just four short days. And with momentum shifting toward President Obama, Fox News is pulling out all the stops to find something – anything – to smear the President and grease the skids for Oily Mitt Romney. But this is getting ridiculous…

These articles are bordering on Dadaist absurdity in their wild flailing about for subjects of attack. If anything, this only makes Fox look more desperate and childish than they usually do.

For Fox to note that there are New Yorkers who are still struggling with the devastation of Superstorm Sandy is not exactly news. Every projection of the impact of the storm prior to its arrival made it clear that there was going to be severe damage and that recovery would take weeks, if not months. But to ask “Where’s Obama,” as if he should be delivering cans of soup from the back of a van is ludicrous. The truth is that Obama’s federal response is managing a variety of agencies working on restoration of power, cleanup, rebuilding, and rescue and medical attention. On top of that, CNN reported that…

“The federal government shipped one million meals Thursday to New York, where National Guard troops were distributing them to people in need, [New York Governor Andrew] Cuomo told reporters.”

Obama has cut red tape to declare disaster status and accelerate aid. And he has been universally praised by the local authorities, including political adversaries like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Where’s Obama? Right where he should be – in charge and showing leadership.

The other daft article by Fox was a reporting of a column from the Daily Caller, a right-wing rag run by Fox News contributor Tucker Carlson. The headline snidely asks if Obama had a grade-point average of 2.6 while at Columbia University. But as if to refute their own brash slander, the second paragraph of the story says…

“The 2.6 grade can’t be confirmed, is contradicted by some evidence, and it doesn’t say anything about the courses, professors and associations Obama was immersed in during his two-year stay in Columbia.”

They why fu heck print it? This is the lengths that the right will go to tarnish the President on the eve of the election. It has nothing to with his record, his leadership, or his vision for the future. It reaches back twenty years to speculate about something that they admit they have no evidence of. However, if they are determined to bring up Obama’s academic history they could just mention that he graduated from Harvard Law Magna Cum Laud. That’s verifiable and a clear indication of his scholastic excellence. It’s interesting that Fox continues to be obsessed with Obama’s decades old school files but isn’t the least bit interested in Mitt Romney’s tax returns, which are far more relevant to the question of fitness to serve as president.

Fox News NewsBusters This sort of reporting brings Fox down to the level of the broadly ridiculed “challenge” by Donald Trump to ransom Obama’s academic records in exchange for five million dollars. The tone of Fox’s reporting just keeps getting sillier. That may be because they have handed off their editorial duties to the uber-conservative Media Research Center and their comically inept NewsBusters. Recently Fox stacked their op-ed page with content exclusively acquired from MRC/NewsBusters. Fox seems to have outsourced their opinion pages to one of the most partisan GOP flacks in the nation. The four articles featured were by Noel Sheppard, Tim Graham, Clay Waters, and Dan Gainor, all MRC/NewsBusters hacks.

This actually isn’t too surprising considering that Fox’s former chief anchor, Brit Hume, effusively credited MRC when he retired from the anchor desk saying…

“I want to say a word, however, of thanks to Brent and the team at the Media Research Center […] for the tremendous amount of material that the Media Research Center provided me for so many years when I was anchoring Special Report, I don’t know what we would’ve done without them. It was a daily buffet of material to work from, and we certainly made tremendous use of it.”

Just four more days. Thank God. How much more preposterous do you think Fox can get in that brief window of opportunity? Will we see articles blaming Obama for extreme weather catastrophes? Will they charge him with murdering American ambassadors? Will they find his Kenyan passport in a shoebox along with love letters from Hugo Chavez? Don’t rule it out. Desperation causes strange and deranged behavior. And Fox is already exhibiting symptoms of Obama Dementia Disease (ODD).

Romney’s Home Stretch Pitch Aims For The Gullible And Ignorant

Posted by Mark NC on October 31, 2012 at 10:18 am. 6 Comments :

With less than a week until election day, the campaign of Republican contender Mitt Romney is pulling out all the stops to appeal to a voter demographic that is often neglected: the irredeemably stupid.

What else could explain Romney’s late surge of blatantly false rhetoric? As he stumps around the nation, Romney is now repeatedly blathering about Chrysler moving Jeep production to China. That charge has been ruled a “Pants-on-Fire” lie by PolitiFact. It was given “four Pinocchios” by the Washington Post. It was forcefully refuted by Chrysler who called Romney’s assertions “unnecessary fantasies.”

These are not mere disagreements on subjective political statements. These are the lowest ratings possible for falsehoods. Perhaps we should not be surprised by a candidate who has previously declared that they would not let their campaign be “dictated by fact-checkers.” Romney has lived up to that promise. Currently 41% of his statements reviewed by PolitiFact are rated as false, and 19 of those are “Pants-on-Fire” lies. That’s a record, and a dubious achievement for a public figure.

The only conclusion is that Romney has abandoned all pretense of being an honorable public servant. He has decided that his only path to the White House is to corral as many idiots who are susceptible to this sort of hogwash as possible. It is a open play for the most ill-informed, deliberately ignorant yokels in America. Who else would vote for a man who has demonstrated that he has no core principles and admittedly “Etch-a-Sketches” his positions as required to pander to his audience.

Romney has taken diametrically opposing stances on key agendas including the auto bailout, abortion, gay rights, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Climate Change, and even his own hallmark health care plan. It was that tendency for being so ethically-challenged that made Romney a hated figure in his own Republican Party during most of the primary season. Now much of the party has sucked up their disgust and have settled for a man they despise, but only because they despise Obama even more.

So in these final days of the campaign, the remaining undecided morons are struggling to choose between an historically accomplished president (who says he can’t run on his record?), and a failed governor whose home state abhors him. The choice is between a man who has rescued the economy from disaster, reduced unemployment from 10.1% to 7.8%, advanced civil rights for women, gays and minorities, brought the Iraq war to an end, saved the auto industry from collapse, and advanced a progressive agenda for financial reform, energy production, and job creation, or an unrepentant liar who regards half the nation as moochers, represents only big corporations and the wealthy, has no understanding of foreign policy, and wants to privatize Social Security, Medicare, and even FEMA.

Seriously, you would have to be pretty stupid to vote for Mitt Romney. To do so with full knowledge of what he represents is basically an admission that you have given up on intelligence, reason, and rational thought. If that is insulting to those of you who still intend to vote for Romney, there is recourse. Don’t vote for him. It is not too late to restart your brain. Remember why you opposed him so vehemently in the primary and refuse to sacrifice your integrity for a man who has not exhibited any of his own.

For the rest of you, those who grasp the importance of an election that will result in the implementation of America’s first health care plan, the appointment of a couple of Supreme Court justices, and shape the direction of civil liberties and economic fairness and equality, make voting your priority. Nothing you do in the next week will have a greater impact on your life for the next decade. Vote early, if available in your state, but just be sure to vote – and take a couple of people along with you.

In The Fox Nation, Hurricane Sandy Is All About Anti-Obama Politics

Posted by Mark NC on October 29, 2012 at 4:54 pm. 5 Comments :

In the hours preceding the landfall of Hurricane Sandy, Fox Nation posts as their “Pic of the Day” something they clearly regard as humorous. Their sense of humor, however, is perverse, to say the least.

Fox Nation - Perfect Storm The picture shows somebody’s home about to be flooded. Fox apparently doesn’t care about the welfare of the residents of the imperiled home, their physical safety, or the financial calamity they will suffer. What Fox is focused on is how hilarious they think it is that the family, whose lives are about to be turned upside down, are Democrats who support President Obama.

Hysterical, isn’t it? What could be funnier than thousands of Americans being evacuated from their homes and facing uncertainty as to what they will return to? Add to that comedy gold of millions more who are anticipating severe hardships due to flooding and power outages. First responders must be laughing their asses off as the threat to human life escalates.

What makes this sorry attempt at “photo-journalism” even more pathetic is that the Fox Nationalists have completely mangled the message conveyed by the picture. Rather than symbolizing a sunken Obama campaign, it is more representative of a campaign whose indomitable spirit is unsinkable. The sign has not been crushed by the elements or submerged. It is standing above the waterline, spread out and readable. It is more reflective of the star-spangled banner that gave “proof through the night that our flag was still there.”

Nevertheless, Fox chose to malign this inspiring vision and simultaneously trivialize the suffering that presently awaits this household and millions of others. Nice work, Fox.

Bonus Fox Nation Politicization:
Just to affirm that the above politicking at the expense of disaster-stricken Americans is not an isolated event by the Fox Nationalists, here is a sampling of their other postings today:

While all of these are the result of ignorance and dishonesty, a couple deserve extra attention. First, the charge that the “Obama Sequester Proposal Slashes Funds For FEMA, Disaster Relief,” is a deliberate misreading of the law. What the administration did was simply to comply with legislation that calls for the White House to enumerate what cuts would take place. The law explicitly prohibits the administration from deciding what the cuts would be, so the responsibility was entirely with Congress to determine the amounts.

Secondly, the “outrage” expressed by Fox over the possibility of the jobs report being delayed is absurd in the extreme. Such a delay should be considered plausible under the circumstances, but even so, the Labor Department issued a statement that they expect the report to be issued on Friday as usual. What makes this ridiculous is that Fox and their conservative comrades all thought that the last jobs report was falsified by an Obama-friendly Labor Department. So why would they conspire to delay the report now if, according the right-wing nut jobs, they were going to fake it anyway? Wouldn’t they want their phony report showing another drop in the unemployment rate to get out before the election? Fox obviously can’t keep their conspiracy theories straight.

Why Is Fox News Attacking Ben Gazzara?

Posted by Mark NC on October 26, 2012 at 2:12 pm. 4 Comments :

In the past few weeks Fox News has been on an all-consuming rant that defies logic and insults the intelligence of the American people. On an almost 24/7 basis, Fox has broadcast hundreds of false and disparaging reports with little substance and zero evidence. And all of this to vilify a respected man who has given much to his country.

Ben Gazzara was an actor best known for the 1960’s TV series “Run for Your Life.” He was also acclaimed in films such as “Husbands,” “Saint Jack,” and “They All Laughed.” He made 38 movies and worked with many of Hollywood’s biggest stars and directors. He was honored by prestigious nominations for Emmys and Golden Globes. He originated the role of Brick Pollitt in the Broadway production of “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.” Gazzara passed away earlier this year of pancreatic cancer.

This makes it all the more curious why Fox News would embark on shrill campaign to stain the memory of this beloved American icon. They have featured hundreds of stories alleging malfeasance, deceit, and even treason. The reports were all aired amidst a backdrop of riots, terrorism, and flaming ruins. Somehow Fox even managed to persuade public figures (politicians, pundits, retired military, etc.) to appear and contribute to the smear campaign.

What could possible have driven Fox to attack this fine man so mercilessly/ It is disgraceful and unwarranted and…..

UPDATE: Apparently there has been a small misunderstanding. It seems that Fox News has been reporting on the Libyan town of Benghazi, not actor Ben Gazzara. So…..Never mind.

Actually, there are still some relevant insights in the commentary above. In fact, the entire first paragraph of this article applies perfectly to Fox’s irresponsible reporting on Benghazi. Let’s read it again:

In the past few weeks Fox News has been on an all-consuming rant that defies logic and insults the intelligence of the American people. On an almost 24/7 basis, Fox has broadcast hundreds of false and disparaging reports with little substance and zero evidence. And all of this to vilify a respected man who has given much to his country.

Alone in the media, Fox is trying to elevate a tragic, isolated event into a scandal of gargantuan proportions. They have devoted an inordinate amount of airtime to a story that lacks sufficient facts to draw a conclusion. And then Fox gets pissy because other media isn’t foolish enough to run the same phony story. What’s worse, Fox has shamelessly politicized the tragedy in order to damage President Obama in the midst of the closing days of a heated campaign. The families of the victims have spoken out explicitly requesting that their sorrows not be exploited for political gain:

Ambassador Chris Stevens’ father: “It would really be abhorrent to make this into a campaign issue.”
Navy SEAL Glen Doherty’s mother: “He shouldn’t make my son’s death part of his political agenda.”

Nevertheless, Fox News has jumped on every particle of news no matter how diaphanous. They sensationalize the most specious reports as if they were confirmed as fact. As an example, they trumpeted the release of State Department cables that referenced claims that Al Qaeda had taken responsibility for the Benghazi attacks. However, those cables were never meant to confirm such claims. They were merely reporting an uncorroborated Facebook posting that was later refuted by other agents of Al Qaeda. But for Fox, any nutty assertion on the Internet is golden and true, so long as it reflects badly on President Obama.

Another example is a report by Ed Klein, a thoroughly discredited Obama-hater who writes for the birther web site WorldNetDaily. Fox Nation featured the story this morning. Klein asserts that Hillary Clinton asked Obama for more security, and Obama said no.

There is not a single nugget of truth anywhere in the story. Klein claims that his source is a legal counsel to Sec. Clinton. Think about that claim. Klein expects us to believe that a representative of Clinton would give sensitive information to a known Obama adversary. Even more unbelievable, it is a legal representative who has ethical obligations not to disclose private information. So this source, according to Klein, has jeopardized not only his allegiance to his boss, but his future in the practice of law. It’s fair to say that this source, in all likelihood, does not exist.

Klein is notorious for making wildly absurd claims without any substantiation. His sources are never revealed or corroborated. Consequently, his writings are nothing more than fables by an overtly partisan, proven liar.

Unfortunately, we will probably have to endure continued false reporting from Fox as they brazenly exploit dead Americans in their effort to help push Romney into the White House. But I would bet that after the election, Fox will suddenly fail to find anything newsworthy about Benghazi – or Fast and Furious, or Solyndra, or any of the other fabricated controversies they have been slinging. The veracity of their reporting on Benghazi is just as blatantly untrue as if it were about Ben Gazzara (R.I.P).

Update: The brilliant Stephen Colbert has perfectly framed the absurdity of how Fox is handling this non-story:

The GOP’s Faith-Based Obsession With Fox News And Other Lightweight Media

Posted by Mark NC on October 25, 2012 at 11:19 am. 4 Comments :

A new report by YouGov’s BrandIndex reveals something of the character of Republicans and their focus as consumers. The study ranks the favorite brands of Americans and segments them by political party.

The top ten brands for Democrats are familiar consumer names with little affiliation to politics:

Google
Amazon.com
Cheerios
Clorox
Craftsman
Dawn
M&Ms
Levis
PBS
Sony

Republicans, on the other hand, lead off their list with the most partisan brand name imaginable:

Fox News
History Channel
Craftsman
Chick-Fil-A
Johnson & Johnson
Lowe’s
Cheerios
Clorox
FOX
Discovery Channel

Pray for Fox News The lists illustrate the core differences between how Democrats and Republicans face the society they live in. It is a testament to what is important to each of them. And clearly Republicans place a great deal of emphasis on the network that keeps them supplied with right-wing talking points and propaganda. (And it’s no coincidence that Chick-Fil-A popped up for the first time). It’s a major victory for the marketing gurus at Fox to have their network place first in such a survey, and it says a lot about the measure of devotion that Fox’s disciples have for a media ministry that is literally faith-based (as opposed to facts).

While the only media entity that appears on the Democrat’s list is PBS, the Republicans have a total of four, including the Fox Broadcast network and cable’s Discovery and History channels. Before anyone jumps to the conclusion that right-wingers are drawn to educational programming, it should be noted that the Discovery and History channels have not exactly lived up to their founding principles in the early days of cable when they were promoted as alternatives to PBS. Typical fare on these networks is “reality” hogwash like Pawn Stars, UFO Files, and American Pickers (on History), and American Chopper, Auction Kings, and Moonshiners (on Discovery).

The heavy weighting of media by Republicans is evidence of their reliance on a paternalistic press to shape their thinking and comfort them when breaking news doesn’t go their way. Fox News is a warming hearth that always gives them a pro-GOP spin to ease their electoral anxiety. It is a 24 hour intravenous shot of conservatism. Stephen Colbert, once again, demonstrated this in a brilliant segment last night that mocked Fox-style “journalism.”

Clint Eastwood’s Unpatriotic Ad For Mitt Romney

Posted by Mark NC on October 24, 2012 at 9:22 pm. 8 Comments :

What is it about desperate politicians who are afraid they are losing that makes them resort to ugly and counterproductive rhetorical assaults? In 2008 we saw Sarah Palin accuse Barack Obama of “palling around with terrorists.” Now, in 2012, Mitt Romney’s surrogates have dispatched Clint Eastwood to up the ante.

The ad featuring Eastwood (video below) was produced by Karl Rove’s American Crossroads Super PAC, which is funded by millionaires who are ashamed of disclosing their identities. Super PACs themselves are unpatriotic in that they are a perverted distortion of the democratic principle of “one person, one vote.” When millionaires are allowed to anonymously aggregate unlimited sums of money you have something more like “one dollar, one vote.”

Eastwood’s performance in this ad is a big improvement over the one he gave at the Republican convention. Of course, he had a script for this. The problem is that the script contained this bit of foolishness: “Obama’s second term would be a rerun of the first and our country just couldn’t survive that.”

Precisely how weak does Eastwood (and his handlers at American Crossroads) think this country is? Does he really believe that America will dissolve into dust if Obama is reelected? Does he think that our enemies will subdue and enslave us? What dreadful fate awaits in the second term of Obama’s presidency that would cause us not to survive? That sounds like the kind of fear mongering that is more often associated with Apocalyptic prophets or Glenn Beck’s fans. And it is a starkly different message than the one he delivered in his famous halftime ad for Chrysler when he spoke about the difficulties are nation had endured:

“But after those trials, we all rallied around what was right, and acted as one. Because that’s what we do. We find a way through tough times, and if we can’t find a way, then we’ll make one.”

Apparently Eastwood has lost that sense of optimism and now thinks that when we encounter tough times we will fold up like paper dolls and be swept away by a light breeze. Or maybe it just tells us something about the differences between a commercial trying to sell us a car and one trying to sell us a horror story about monsters from Kenya who hate freedom.

It is also curious why Eastwood thinks a rerun of Obama’s first term would be unsurvivable. Which part does he think would do us in? The part where Osama Bin Laden (and dozens of Al Qaeda leaders) was put to rest? The part where the war in Iraq was concluded? The part where the stock market doubled? The part where unemployment went from 10.1% to 7.8%? The part where a full-on depression was avoided and companies like Chrysler were rescued so they could hire actors like Eastwood to make commercials?

America survived a civil war, two world wars, a depression, presidential assassinations and corruption leading to resignation, and George W. Bush. If people like Eastwood and Rove and Romney are so pessimistic about America that they think it will not survive another four years of Obama, they have very little faith in the nation they profess to love and they should stop pretending they are patriots.

Failing To Score Points By Criticizing Obama, Romney Flips To Agreeing With Him

Posted by Mark NC on October 23, 2012 at 12:41 pm. NO Comments :

After watching last night’s debate I was struck by how often Mitt Romney agreed with President Obama on a string of the most significant foreign policy issues. It’s hard to fathom how Romney can go out on the campaign trail and lambaste the President for a foreign policy that he asserts is falling apart, when he seems to concur nearly across the board with what Obama is doing and has done.

Setting aside the fact that Romney has also blasted Obama for these very same policies, here is a short list of examples of his Etch-a-Sketchy new positions that he has cribbed from the President:

I believe, as the president indicated, and said at the time that I supported his action [in Libya].
I don’t blame the administration for the fact that the relationship with Pakistan is strained.
I support that and entirely, and feel the president was right to up the usage of [drones], and believe that we should continue to use it,
I congratulate him on taking out Osama bin Laden and going after the leadership in al-Qaeda.
It’s absolutely the right thing to do, to have crippling sanctions [on Iran].
The surge [in Afghanistan] has been successful and the training program is proceeding apace […] and we’re going to be able to make that transition by the end of 2014.
We can be a partner with China. We don’t have to be an adversary in any way, shape or form.
First of all, I want to underscore the same point the president made which is that if I’m President of the United States, when I’m President of the United States, we will stand with Israel.
I couldn’t agree more about going forward.

That kind of acquiescence makes for a pretty one-sided debate – which is what it was. On a question regarding Syria, Obama responded to Romney’s answer by saying “What you just heard Governor Romney said is he doesn’t have different ideas. And that’s because we’re doing exactly what we should be doing.” That might just as well have been the answer almost everything Romney said. Romney obviously doesn’t have an original thought to contribute to the discussion so he pathetically mimics the President.

The Huffington Post helpfully put together a video that features just how deferential Romney was to Obama last night.

Mitt Romney: Taking America Back To The Future – Horses And Bayonets And All

Posted by Mark NC on October 23, 2012 at 6:00 am. 5 Comments :

The final debate of the 2012 presidential campaign is history, which is ironic because that’s where Mitt Romney appears to want to lead America.

There was almost nothing that Romney said that described a vision for the future of America. The entire focus of his remarks centered on either what he regarded as Obama’s failures in the past four years or his own proposals that closely mirrored those of the Bush administration – or even farther back. When Romney raised what he surely thought was a killer point comparing the size of today’s Navy to that of the Navy in 1917, Obama shot back

“But Governor, when it comes to our foreign policy, you seem to want to import the foreign policies of the 1980s, just like the social policies of the 1950s and the economic policies of the 1920s.

The President topped that observation by noting that Romney’s backward looking analysis failed to take into consideration the capabilities of a modern military force. While it may be true that the number of certain defense assets fluctuate, Obama zinged “We also have fewer horses and bayonets.”

Romney was clearly uncomfortable talking about foreign policy, an area in which he has no experience. He was so uneasy that he repeatedly attempted to shift his answers to the domestic economy. Unfortunately for him, he lost debate points on that field as well. Romney’s dodging resulted in a lackluster performance that even his conservative colleagues noticed. Many of them lamented that he didn’t bring up Libya and the tragic murders in Benghazi. In fact, the only time Romney could be said to have gone on offense was a lame criticism of Obama’s travel itinerary in the first few months of his presidency.

On many other issues of substance Romney resorted to agreeing with Obama’s policies – on Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, and the killing of Osama Bin Laden – even though Romney had previously excoriated Obama on those matters in stump speeches throughout the year. With regard to Romney’s past criticisms Obama blasted his judgment saying “I know you haven’t been in a position to actually execute foreign policy, but every time you’ve offered an opinion, you’ve been wrong.”

Audiences were keenly aware of Romney’s failings. The polls that have been published this morning all give the win to Obama. CNN put it at 48-40. CBS has 53-23. Public Policy Polling gave Obama a 53-42 advantage. It’s what is commonly known in polling circles as a blowout. Although it remains to be seen what impact this debate will have on broader presidential preference polling that will be conducted over the next several days.

Perhaps the most devastating misfire by Romney is the one that Fox News has been trumpeting all morning as a success. Romney had the gall to chastise Obama for the fabled “apology tour.” The folks at Fox and Friends were nearly giddy in their recitation of that segment of the debate. However, the charge is one that has been examined and repeatedly debunked. PolitiFact gave it a ruling of a “Pants-on-Fire” lie. And that is emblematic of the Romney campaign. If this remains the core talking point in Romney’s favor for the rest of the day, he’s in big trouble.

As of this morning the race is still pretty close. But if substance matters, voters should begin to swing back to the President. He has now decisively won two out of three debates, and he has demonstrated his superior grasp of both domestic and foreign affairs. And any objective analysis would have to conclude that the country is way better off now than it was in 2008, after Republicans, executing the same policies that Romney advocates today, created an economic calamity of historic proportions. Obama’s best message is that, after all we’ve endured, we must not allow the party that steered the nation into the rocks to regain control of the helm.

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