What I would have said during the debate ... Number Three

Many of us who support Mr. Obama in the upcoming election may have been disappointed in his performance last night. While I'm unqualified professionally to offer debating advice, I'll offer some anyway. Feel free to add your own to the comments section on this series of posts.

Some possible retorts for the president to use in the remaining debates:

NUMBER THREE:

I respect, Gov. Romney, and think most of voters do, that you are someone with strong business credentials, that you have excellent analytic and planning skills. You and your running mate are regarded as having a deep understanding of the economy, policy, budgets and the like. I know that you've been thinking deeply about these issues and that you have a great many experts working on your team. So, I think this should be a very easy question for you to answer, especially in light of all the time and energy I know that you have put into this topic. Can you tell us, item by item, exactly which loopholes and deductions you plan to close or eliminate? Can you also tell us how much revenue you calculate these will generate? Shall we start with mortgage interest deduction? Does that one stay or go? How much revenue will it generate? Oh, and by the way, can you tell on which segment of the population this will impact most? . . . Okay, let's move on. How about capital gains taxes? How much and who will be affected? Charitable deductions ... how much and who? If you can't answer this, I have to ask, on behalf of all our citizens, can you tell us why? If it's because you don't know, I think the American people will accept you saying something like "I just don't know." If it's because you think it will cost you votes, I think you trust our fellow citizens to be fair in judging you when they enter the voting booth. I think they expect you as a good and decent person to simply be straight with us and tell us the answer.