The Democrats should not be defensive

[Onlooker]

On taxes, I think Obama should call for a 25% tax cut for the middle class, and declare he'll explain the economics of if when Mittens does the same. For Obama, it would probably mean increased taxes on the wealthy, on Wall Street, ending the war if Afghanistan, restoring the death tax to former levels, and positioning the tax cuts so that people are encouraged to spend. I think by doing that, they would call Romney's bluff.

On Libya, Obama should say that the Ambassador's life was a high price to pay for the ending of the Quadaffi regime. The region remains unstable, but American interests are better off.

On unemployment, Obama should say thank God we had Democrats who stood up to protect our safety net. Those hit hardest by the recession were not only protected by Social Security and Medicare, they were also protected by unemployment insurance, crackdowns on banks, and crackdowns on mortgage lenders.

I think for each issue, rather than get defensive, he should focus on how the American people were protected and how far we've come, and then simply point out without explanation that Romney's economic plans are what caused the recession we are now trying to get out of.

Obama needs to keep it simple, and the Democrats need to stop responding to the Romney's b.s. attacks and focus on instead on the achievements made over the last four years.

[demwing]

1. Agreed, defend the truth with a good offense

against the bullshit

[Live and Learn]

2. Exactly, I think Obama has done a great job.

He accomplished quite a bit despite the Republicans in Congress tying his hands at every opportunity.

I usually ask people exactly what it is they dislike about him and 99% of the time they really don't have an answer. I push his accomplishments on health care and point out that most of the people I know have been helped by them and tell them how.

The market is up, the unemployment rate is down, Medicare and Social Security are safer, troops are out of Iraq and there is a plan to withdraw from Afghanistan, what is not to like?

[Teamster Jeff]

3. What is the "death tax"? n/t

[Onlooker]

4. The estate tax

The Republicans called the death tax in order to protect the estate of wealthy people. It used to be that anything under $600k of an estate wasn't taxable, but the Republicans changed it so that now it's anything under $3 million isn't taxed. That decision by the Republicans, along with cutting taxes for the wealthy, helped increase our deficit.