Day: October 12, 2012

If you want to know why Brendan Doherty didn’t want to participate in a debate his fellow CD1 candidates on civil rights issues, try reading the first paragraph of the ProJo’s story.

“The 1st Congressional District candidates who attended this forum agreed on just about everything — that Republicans want to ‘roll back’ reforms that have helped women, that “Obamacare” should be defended, that voter ID laws can discourage people from exercising their right to vote.”

House Speaker Gordon Fox squared off with his opponent Mark Binder, a children’s book author and RI Future contributor, in a taped debate to air later this month. It’s unlikely Binder will knock Fox out of office, but he could help move him back toward the left side of the political spectrum. Or he could do just enough political damage to make it hard for him to retain the Speaker’s gavel, which might not be a good thing for progressives…

How Walmart Workers Could Save the U.S. Economy

Rhode Island should be very concerned about how seemingly imminent layoffs at the Providence Journal will affect our state. Cutting the staff will only help corporate profits in Dallas; it will be an all-round bad thing for us.

Interesting that a states’ rights group from Colorado is backing Gov. Chafee’s fight to return Jason Pleau to Rhode Island custody. As I’ve said before, local small government advocates seem only to want small government when it comes to protecting the trickle down economy.

Here’s a great Joe Biden moment from last night:

And a great exchange that sums up if not last night’s veep debate, perhaps this latest chapter of the POTUS campaign:

JOE BIDEN: This is a bunch of stuff. Look, here’s the deal.

MARTHA RADDATZ: What does that mean, a bunch of stuff?

BIDEN: Well, it means it’s simply inaccurate.

PAUL RYAN: It’s Irish.

BIDEN: It — it is. We Irish call it malarkey.

And here’s the Huffington Post’s takeaway on the debate:

Joe Biden did everything President Barack Obama did not last week, and a good bit more.

The vice president dominated the spotlight in the only debate between himself and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), charging at Republican Mitt Romney’s running mate from the get-go and bombarding him with a flurry of eye rolls, interjections and accusations.

What it accomplished among undecided voters, if anything, is hard to tell and will take days to sort out. Two instant surveys of Americans watching the debate — one by CBS, one by CNN — showed mixed results. But since vice presidential debates often have a negligible impact on the overall race anyway, Biden’s sometimes over-the-top performance probably accomplished what he appeared intent on doing: rallying the Democratic base after Obama’s woeful debate performance last week.