romney said he would not cut taxes on the upper income americans but cut taxes on middle income americans. by the way, everybody is saying, why was obama pretty bad? it s pretty simple to me, what is he going to run on, his record? is he going to run on jobs? is he going to run on finances or deficit? unemployment? what did he say about the future? governor strickland? what deductions was mitt romney willing to lay before the american people? what he said is he has an idea but there s no detail there. and the american people know that when you cut taxes for wealthy people and somebody s got to pay the freight man. somebody s got to carry the burden of keeping this government running, of paying veteran benefits, of making sure medicare is secure, of protecting social security. i mean, mitt romney is devoid of
yes, he did manage to get a health care plan that was done that worked for massachusetts and that was bipartisan approved. now, many swing voters who heard that last night processed the idea of someone matching to govern despite the other party working against him, someone managing a tough political environment and in other words they heard a template from mitt romney doing what barack obama has failed to do in the last four years. so the fact that mitt romney got to talk about a record of bipartisanship that, yes, did produce a health care law in massachusetts, but also put massachusetts number one in the country in educational rankings, that s all to the good for mitt romney. and many americans did not process that information until last night. this was by most accounts, and i m sure you heard this too, congressman, the most policy-oriented debate, maybe we ve ever had. at times it was pretty wonky, especially for folks following
the bush tax cuts expire for people making more than $250,000 a year. but he s also counting $1 trillion in savings by drawing down the wars in iraq and afghanistan. nonpartisan budget experts call that a gimmick because the wars were deficit-financed in the first place. back to our panel. brad, your thoughts on the deficit? well, look, first of all, you won t be surprised that i disagree with that analysis. you know the president, the savings from the wars is actually true and important. i mean, mitt romney, chris, wants to spend $2 trillion on the defense department the pentagon asked for and he wants to go back to war in iraq. those should be concerns of the american people. those would explode the deficit. he didn t lay out one single detail about how other than going after big bird how he would deal with the deficit last night. not one single detail. what were the details there, shawn? okay, hold on a second. this is the same president who
that s right. but here are the specifics. obviously the american people listen to both sides and concluded that mitt romney was right. because he happens to be right. and governor, respectfully, he said you lower the corporate tax rate to 25% and the petroleum industry exemptions can go away. that was another specific. he didn t say that. yes, he did say that. he said it might go away. he was not specific. let me play for you a series of clips because there s a lot of talk about, obviously, how important this election is and whether or not the american people, the voters were well-served last night. listen to this. dodd frank. dodd frank. bowles simpson. bowles simpson. did you think things got wonky last night? i think governor strickland was watching a different debate because it was obvious mitt
there s that same perception that it is reality, even liberal pundits were critical of the president. a lot of the post and headlines today will say mitt romney won this debate. they are both going out on the road today, they are back in campaign mode, there s another vice presidential debate before they go head-to-head, what does the president say today? does he sort of reset? the president just needs to be the president. he needs to remind the american people that last night mitt romney doubled down saying he would not except $10 of spending cuts if it came with a dollar of increased taxes on a millionaire. he has to continue to remind the american people about his priorities, focusing on the middle class and mitt romney s priorities focusing on the rich. the final piece, this is one debate. mitt romney went through a republican presidential debates where he got clobbered and there were headlines he lost the debate and his campaign was over. one debate does not define an