Re: First Presidential Debate
 

Or as soon as President Bush took office.

Re: First Presidential Debate
 

That's fair to say. As I've often mentioned, I am in no way a fan of Bush's domestic record.

It's also fair to say it leveled off pretty quickly after he was elected, as well. You can't say that about the time under Pres. Obama's administration. 4 years of steady declines.

Re: First Presidential Debate
 

VP debate tomorrow night should be interesting.

Re: First Presidential Debate
 

This is a shitshow...

Re: First Presidential Debate
 

I'd say Ryan closed the gap in the second half of the debate, but Biden won. He was a interrupting bully, and a little embarrassing at times, but he won. Actually, I thought Ryan was surprisingly ineffective on some subjects that are usually his strengths.

If anything, I think this shows just how good Romney is at debating. Both Romney and Ryan discussed similar points, but Romney articulated them more effectively.

Re: First Presidential Debate
 

That was the most bizarre debate I've seen in a while. I guess I'd call it a draw.

Re: First Presidential Debate
 

Is there a reason for the different format of the VP debate vs the Presidential one (sit down vs podium)?

Re: First Presidential Debate
 

I think each debate has a different format. The next one will be a town hall.

Re: First Presidential Debate
 

Well this is surprising. Looks like Biden "Al Gored" himself a bit...

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...-44/?hpt=hp_t1

Re: First Presidential Debate
 

Closest RCP electoral map yet:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo...llege_map.html

Looks like Romney is making significant gains in Florida, Virginia, New Hampshire, and Colorado.

Re: First Presidential Debate
 

And it tightened up in OREGON?????

Re: First Presidential Debate
 

Prof, I guess my question about the participation rates would be... what policies do you think led to it going down like it has? Do you consider this as bleeding caused by the previous administration that the new one couldn't stop fast enough? Or do you think something passed under the current administration that directly lead to this?

From every source I've read, it seems like the job situation has gotten better since late 2008. There must be either a lot of people who lost unemployment benefits, or a lot of new one-income households. It's hard to explain how there are so many more people actively working, while there are less people looking for work at the same time.

Re: First Presidential Debate
 

Game, you've asked a lot, so let me take one at a time:

I actually think Romney did a great job of explaining this. Many of the regulations that were placed on banking after the collapse were very ambiguous. Combine uncertainty with continued low interest rates and banks simply aren't encouraged to risk loans to small businesses or individuals. Higher risk, lower reward.

The Obama administration was not in power during the collapse, so I can hardly blame them for the collapse. I don't think anyone has. What I do believe is that they're prescriptions for curing the problem have not helped, and have likely hurt what natural market forces would have been able to accomplish. Our recovery has been pathetic. We should have hit 4% growth a year ago. Instead growth has slowed over the last 2 years.

Population growth. Out economy added 114,000 jobs in September, but needs to add over 200,000 just to keep up with new demand. Also, more and more young people are dropping out of the work force. Very troubling.

The bottom line is this: We need serious economic growth to improve the job situation. We have not had that, and in fact, we're moving in the wrong direction.

Re: First Presidential Debate
 

This will be fun.

Re: First Presidential Debate
 

Now we will find out who is the master debater