Election 2012

Which Debate Trespass Was Worse?

Not delivering a fully energized Sorkin-ish performance (Obama)?

Or delivering a lively performance but lying and misleading throughout?

The guy who evidently "won" the debate last night lied about almost everything.

Ezra Klein:

Romney said his web site has a “lengthy description” of his health-care plan. In fact, it’s only 369 words. He also said it covers preexisting conditions. It doesn’t. Romney wouldn’t cover preexisting conditions for Americans who fall uninsured for periods of time, which happened to 89 million Americans between 2004 and 2007.

Jackie Calmes:

Mr. Romney says Mr. Obama doubled the deficit. That is not true. When Mr. Obama took office in January 2009, the Congressional Budget Office had already projected that the deficit for fiscal year 2009, which ended Sept. 30 of that year, would be $1.2 trillion. (It ended up as $1.4 trillion.) For the just-finished fiscal year 2012, which ended last week, the deficit is expected to be $1.1 trillion — just under the level in the year he was inaugurated. Measured as a share of the economy, as economists prefer, the deficit has declined more significantly — from 10.1 percent of the economy’s total output in 2009 to 7.3 percent for 2012.

FactCheck.org via Twitter:

FactCheck.org on Romney's claim that "six different studies" confirm his $5 trillion tax cut is revenue neutral:

Romney and running mate Paul Ryan exaggerate when they say “five different studies” prove that all of the stated goals of Romney’s revenue-neutral tax plan could be accomplished without raising taxes on middle-income taxpayers. Two of the five “studies” were blog items. And none of three other studies was nonpartisan: Two were written by Romney campaign advisers and a third was by a former economic adviser to President George W. Bush.

Politifact:

When Romney was talking about the Independent Payment Advisory Board and Medicare, he said, Barack Obama "put in place a board that can tell people ultimately what treatments they're going to receive."

We rate his statement Mostly False.

But Obama was a little off his game last night so Romney won.