Tweets From The Dark Side

As a policy wonk is apt to do, we were following some fun tweets during the first Presidential Debate of 2012 between Romney and Obama this evening. Social media creations are often lively and informative. Here's some of the flotsam and jetsam:

Boone Pickens TWEET:
is happy Romney's #1 worry is energy independence. #Debate
Geek Translation:
That means more money for oil companies like BP.

A fun Karl Rove TWEET: 
Who woulda thunk Obama would suggest Lehrer move on to another topic after Mitt pounds home tax reform? #Debate
Geek Thought:
Now there's a sound bite you can sell, Rove. Not!

*NICE DETAIL
Obama when discussing Medicare and Medicaid, said that 'the name lends one to think of people who are dependent, but in reality the money comes from people who have worked hard, hard all their lives, and paid into Medicare/Medicaid.'
Geek Reflection:
Lovely soft comment Mr. President, but in 90 minutes there were so many more important things the lefties would have loved for you to have hammered home.

*FUN FACT: 
In an effort to bring down Medicare costs, $716 Billion was saved in the costs of the Medicare program by no longer overpaying for things.  This resulted in a $600 average drop in prescription costs to seniors on their medications each year.
Geek Timeline Note:
Lots of trending comments about how Romney is interrupting and bullying Lehrer at this point.

*MOST TWEETED ABOUT AND MENTIONED ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Romney says, "I love Big Bird" as he notes he would cut PBS subsidies to address national debt.
Wonkathon Finds:
This post going viral on Facebook and Twitter...

 
Neal deGrasse Tyson @nealtyson TWEET:
Cutting PBS support (0.012% of budget) to help balance the Federal budget is like deleting text files to make room for a 500Gig hard drive.
Geek Reflection:
Said as only Neal deGrasse Tyson could phrase it.  Gotta love facts and brains.

Twitter Government TWEET and *FUN FACT Combo:
17,000 Tweets per minute for "Big Bird" and 10,000 Tweets per minute for "PBS".

Here's a video clip of that moment courtesy of ABCNews and You Tube:

Nuff said.

Moving on, Romney says that: 50% of doctors say they won't take any medicare patients.
Geek Note To Self:
We have to do a #FactCheck on that one.
 
*DEBATE MOMENT:
 Romney proposes voucher program which eliminates the collective buying power of Federal Medicare and Medicaid as it determines costs and co-pay amounts. During his flashy vouchery-states-rights talk, Romney interrupts POTUS a few times and bullies Lehrer.  Oh yeah, and when Mitt No-Apologies Romney apologized to the President for saying "Obamacare," he also dropped a "bro" in there, as in "Ok, bro."  Seriously.

Jenny Johnson TWEETS:

Y'all stop making fun of Jim Lehrer, this is his Make-A-Wish.

Chris RockOz TWEETS:
I wish Mitt Romney could figure out how to smile without looking like he's at his mother-in-laws house for xmas dinner.
and later
Obama is waiting for the right moment to pull out Bin Laden's skull from behind the podium. Wait for it. Wait for it. 
Geek Fun Fact:
This Chris Rock "Bin Laden's Skull" #debate joke was retweeted over 7770 times & faved 1400 times in first hour, according to a tweet from Mark Silva. There is also a discussion on whether or not this is even Chris Rock's twitter account.

@Imagination TWEETS:
"As President, I will sit down on day one" -- Mitt Romney, man of leisure.

PoliticsUSA.com tells us which top 5 lies Romney drops in the first half of the debate: "Mitt Romney is telling so many lies at the first presidential debate with Barack Obama that we had to take a half time break." www.politicsusa.com

The Washington Post TWEETS:
[Romney's] math on green energy does not add up.

Andy Borowitz ‏@BorowitzReport TWEETS

Paul Ryan on Romney's performance: "I was proud of him. He said all the things I wanted to lie."

CNN's Gergem TWEETS:
Romney was "sort of flat out lying."
 
HuffPost Politics‏@HuffPostPolTWEETS:

No mention of #47percent remarks. Why? http://huff.to/RC6QaX

 

*DEBATE MOMENT:
Romney tonight:  "I have five boys, I know what it's like to have a lie told to me over and over hoping I believe it's the truth."

@AngryBlackLady (who we love) TWEETS:
#Debates: Ultimately, It’s Not Good News for Mitt Romney. At her site, she adds, "The media has been building up this debate as if it was going to be a game-changer. Folks expected Romney’s debate performance to be as much of a clusterfuck as his campaign is. It wasn’t. Romney stood up on two feet, with a weird grin that made him look like he was in gastrointestinal distress, and he lied. HE LIED. He exuded confidence when he did it, which, hooray!, I guess. But he lied."

Our general takeaway?  This policy geek thinks the main problem was that POTUS looked down sometimes, didn't call Romney out on bending the debate rules, and didn't call Romney out on ANY of his lies really.  We couldn't see the President's hands during the debate so  most viewers didn't realize he was taking notes to respond.  Lastly, we want sound bites.  Loud, angry, I-welcome-their-hatred type of speech regardless of what Romney says.  Romney's not debating.  His dropping propaganda nonsense and campaigning still.  POTUS should be angrily and dismissively defending his legacy of legislation, and look and sound like he's out there campaigning.  This isn't a final exam.  It's an American election, by golly!!
 

 Here's a video of the whole debate, so you can watch it yourselves.  Let's just hope Potus gets sharper and angrier and fights more in the next ones. Mentions the filibuster abuse, mentions the blocked legislation list (not even allowed to come to the floor for debate let alone a vote). 'Cause the main consensus on the evening is, "Wah?"
 

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The Policy Geek