The US Presidential Debates Begin This Week

It's presidential debate week in the US. President Barak Obama and Governor Mitt Romney will face off on Wednesday evening in Denver. The media and polls have been favoring Obama to win the election and believe that the best hope of Romney turning the polls around will be by doing well in the debates - a series of three that will end in late October. The first debate will focus on domestic issues -- the budget deficits and national debt, health care, tax policy, and energy independence should be on the menu. It is difficult to imagine Mr. Obama saying anything that will be unanswered by Mr.Romney. The Obama administration has never even passed a budget (not even in his first two years when his Democrat Party controlled both houses of Congress). Obama's suggestion on lowering the budget is to tax the top 1% of American taxpayers at a higher rate. This would increase tax income by about $40-80 billion per year at a time when budget deficits are at $1 trillion per year. Obama has said nothing about paying down the national debt except to blame Republicans...his favorite ploy when he has no answer for a failure of his team. Obama has never articulated a position or a proposal for revising the mare's nest that is US tax policy. So Romney should, if he decides to set out his ideas about revising US tax policy, have a clear win in this area. As for health care - the President's Obamacare was rejected by 60% of Americans when it was forced through Congress and it is now opposed by more than 50% (what % depends in which poll you believe). Obama has dragged his feet so often on energy - from no offshore drilling to no Canada-US pipelne - that anything Romney offers should be better. SO, dear readers, Mitt Romney should win the first debate. What he will need to do is speak clearly about his own ideas, remind Mr. Obama of his multiple failures as President, and hold his factual solid ground when Obama begins selling smokey hope and glory.