Scarey Polls Today

This is a scarey time in our history. Romney is one of the most scarey candidates we've had in years. His plans for the economy are some some of the most secret. He doesn't seem to be ever to give us any specifics but just expects up to vote for him with little information. This morning on NPR, they announced he had pulled out in front of the president in the polls following the president's pitiful performance in the debate. NPR listed what few specifics Romney listed yesterday and most of it was a duplicate of the president's, except it seems he just might get us in the middle of the fray in Africa and the middle east. Just what we need after 11 years of unfunded war.

The Associated Press and factcheck said this:

A closer look at some of the Republican presidential nominee's statements in his foreign policy speech:

ROMNEY: "I will roll back President Obama's deep and arbitrary cuts to our national defense that would devastate our military."

THE FACTS: "Arbitrary" defense cuts do not belong to Obama alone but also to congressional Republicans, including his vice presidential running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan. The first round of cuts in projected defense spending is the result of a bipartisan deal in August 2011 between Congress and the White House to wrestle down the deficit. Unless a new budget deal is reached in time, additional spending cuts will begin in January across government, and the cost to the Pentagon would be $500 billion over a decade. Lawmakers are working to avoid that. Separately, Obama wants to slow the growth of military spending, now that the war in Iraq is ended and the war in Afghanistan is drawing to a close. The Pentagon's budget, including war costs, is $670 billion this year, or about 18 percent of total federal spending. Even setting aside the costs of the wars, military spending has more than doubled since 2001.

At its heart, Romney's statement marks a disagreement with Obama over the proper level of military spending but also skips past a deficit-reduction deal that he recently criticized Republicans in Congress for negotiating.

___ ROMNEY: "The president has not signed one new free trade agreement in the past four years."

THE FACTS: Obama hasn't opened new trade negotiations, but he's completed some big ones, overcoming opposition from fellow Democrats to do so. After taking office, he revived a free-trade deal with Colombia that had been negotiated by his Republican predecessor but left to languish without congressional approval and sought similar progress with South Korean and Panamanian free-trade pacts. The president delayed submitting the three deals to Congress while he tried to placate Democrats who opposed some of the terms, but finally submitted them in 2011, and Congress approved them.

___ ROMNEY: "I will recommit America to the goal of a democratic, prosperous Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with the Jewish state of Israel. On this vital issue, the president has failed, and what should be a negotiation process has devolved into a series of heated disputes at the United Nations. In this old conflict, as in every challenge we face in the Middle East, only a new president will bring the chance to begin anew."

THE FACTS: With this statement, Romney has moved toward the balance enshrined in U.S. policy from one administration to another on the question of Israelis and Palestinians and away from his provocative remarks to a May fundraiser that recently came to light.

In those remarks, he said "the Palestinians have no interest whatsoever in establishing peace," `'the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish," Palestinians are "committed to the destruction and elimination of Israel" and it would be "the worst idea in the world" to put pressure on the Israelis to give up something in hopes Palestinians would respond accordingly.

Now he is appearing to put faith in a negotiation process he all but dismissed before.

Scarey, scarey, scarey....

Today will be a nightmare of activity. I never would have chosen this evening for the local political forum. I already have the library board meeting and the library foundation meeting after work. My choice was tomorrow or Thursday but the candidates were already busy on those evenings. So I will be juggling my meetings this evening.

I baked cookies for the meeting and others will have to get the key and set up chairs for the meeting. I will be working this afternoon. I also have to pick up my thyroid prescription on my lunch hour.

Bob and I have haircut appointments in Independence this morning. We will have lunch there in Independence at Big Cheese after that. I will pick him up at 9:30 this morning.