Washington Informer

Vice President Joe Biden was the clear winner in Thursday's debate with GOP contender Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan -- and, in a sometimes heated exchange -- he did what President Barack Obama failed to do in last week's match with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Biden, 69, came to the table that was aggressively moderated by ABC News' Martha Raddatz, armed with plenty of heart, whereas Ryan, 42, didn't display much muster until the ending rounds of the 90-minute nationally televised debate. On the real side, Biden had a lot to say, and he was eager to say it, effectively reassuring voters that as a team, he and Obama understand what the American people deeply care about.

However, while the Biden-Ryan debate solidifies the position Obama assumed prior to the Oct. 3 square-off with Romney, the real fight won't be won until voters flock to the polls on Nov. 6.

In a feisty showdown where there were real clashes and exchanges from the start, Biden often flashed a toothy grin as if to brush off many of Ryan's non-detailed responses to a host of pointed questions by Raddatz.

Ryan who on the other hand, repeatedly harped on the Obama-Biden record of the last four years, was mostly intense and super sensitive. He expounded on the administration's policies – such as those he said have hindered economic recovery and weakened the country's standing and influence on issues that include ensuring American military forces will pull out of Afghanistan by 2014.

"[Americans] are going bankrupt," Ryan said about the future of programs like Medicare and Social Security. "Medicare was there for my grandmother and mother . . . [but in order to ensure] it for my generation, we must reform [those] programs."

He also accused the Obama administration of not having "any credible solutions [for Medicare and Social Security] on the table."

Biden, who insisted the GOP was never big on Medicare -- even from its beginning -- said the Obama administration wouldn't be part of efforts to privatize Social Security or to engage in a vouchers program.

Ryan in turn, took a shot at reviving the economy, noting that like Democrats, the promise of the Republican tax plan is to grow the economy and to create jobs.

"We want to lower tax rates across the board," Ryan said, to which Biden reasoned, "the only way we can close [any] loopholes, is to focus on efforts aimed at helping the middle class."

Have you ever known that something was going to happen, but still was shocked when it actually happened? Well, to my dismay, I have just had that happen to me. I have been telling my fellow Republicans for months that by October, our party would start playing the race card in an effort to gin up the White vote. Romney's campaign co-chair and former New Hampshire Gov. John Sununu, is the personification of this.

Last Thursday, he appeared on MSNBC with Andrea Mitchell. She asked him to give his post-debate analysis on Romney. Sununu immediately digressed into this tirade about the president. Mitchell was visibly stunned when Sununu said, "What people saw last night, I think, was a president who revealed his incompetence – how lazy and detached he is and how he has absolutely no idea how serious the economy problems of the country are and how he has failed to even address them."

Mitchell tried to give Sununu a chance to correct his statement by asking him, "Governor, I want to give you a chance to maybe take it back. Did you really mean to call Barack Obama, the president of the United States, lazy?" Sununu replied, "Yes. He didn't want to prepare for this debate. He's lazy and disengaged." A stunned Mitchell responded, "I think there certainly was a performance issue there and whether or not he was in his best form last night, a lot of people are questioning that," said Andrea. "But I think to call the president lazy and disengaged is another whole question." Sununu's response was, "Whatever, Andrea. Whatever you want."

This is not an isolated incident with Sununu; he has a history of being a blowhard, especially when it comes to Obama. A few months ago on a campaign conference call about small businesses, Sununu stated, "I wish this president would learn how to be an American."

Sununu said on Fox News that Obama. "has no idea how the American system functions, and we shouldn't be surprised about that, because he spent his early years in Hawaii smoking something, spent the next set of years in Indonesia."

On another Fox News Channel program, Sununu said, "When you're not that bright you can't get better prepared."

If Sununu was speaking as a private citizen, I would just ignore his ignorance and hatred. However, because he is functioning as one of Romney's national co-chairmen, I hold him to a higher standard and level of scrutiny. And Romney should, too. Therefore, Romney should demand that Sununu to step down from any involvement in his campaign. If Romney has any modicum of decency and principles, this should be non-negotiable.

To his credit, even John McCain took a principled stand in his 2008 presidential campaign when a woman, Gayle Quinnell, crossed the line. During the Q & A session at a McCain rally in Minnesota, Quinnell accused Obama of being an "Arab." McCain quickly snatched the microphone away from her and said, "No ma'am." "[Obama's] a decent family man, citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues."

McCain was roundly applauded for taking this principled stand. Will Romney do the same? I strongly doubt it. Romney doesn't have the spine to take such a principled stand. I challenge all Republicans to denounce Sununu and demand his immediate removal from any involvement in not only the Romney campaign, but any other Republican activities.

Sununu's rhetoric is not what the Republican Party should be about and if my party cannot or will not take a principled stand, then I cannot and will not support our nominee for president.

Raynard Jackson is president & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a D.C.-public relations/government affairs firm. His website is: www.raynardjackson.com

The origin of the "Rope-a-Dope" was the successful boxing technique employed by Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali, when he knocked out his bigger and stronger opponent George Foreman to regain his title during their 1974 match. In that fight Mr. Ali was literally beaten for the first four rounds, before rallying, taking charge and then knocking out his opponent in the eighth round.

Many supporters of President Barack Obama suggested after his anemic performance in his first debate with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney that Obama's showing was part of his "Rope-a-Dope" scheme. At least they hope it was.

Going into the debate Oct. 3, the president enjoyed across-the-board leads both in national public opinion polls, and in polls in key Electoral College battleground states and Gov. Romney needed a proverbial "knock-out" of the incumbent in order to revive his failing chances for victory on Nov. 6. Using tricks and lies, and stage presence, Romney didn't get a clear knock out per se, but he seemed to get what he needed.

The Rasmussen poll found an approval "bounce" for Romney after the debate. Their tracking poll of the national race, released Oct. 6, showed Romney with 49 percent to Obama's 47 percent, a reverse from just one day earlier.

"These U.S. presidential elections are in part an exercise in psychological warfare," Dr. Gerald Horne, professor of history at the University of Houston told me. "There are countless voters in this country who have not [made up their minds as to who they're going to vote for or vote against], in part because they look at elections like sports. They want to be on the winning team."

"Political operatives see it as their mission to create this psychological atmosphere that makes it seem as if their candidate has momentum. I think that the Romney team and the Republican Party operatives did a masterful job in terms of creating this impression that Romney has triumphed in this debate, although if you look at a lot of what he said with a close eye, there are a number of misstatements, there are a number of evasions, some might even say outright prevarications," said Dr. Horne.

Many of Obama's supporters expressed surprise, even disappointment that he never mentioned several of the Republican's glaring weaknesses, including his record at the private equity firm Bain Capital, his vast personal wealth and offshore investments, and most especially his remark that 47 percent of Americans are government dependents who support the president's welfare-state-like policies and who are unwilling to even attempt to take "personal responsibility" for their own lives.

"The president missed an incredible opportunity to 'close the deal' as far as the American voters are concerned," Dr. Wilmer Leon, assistant professor of political science at Howard University told me. "This was, by many accounts, gonna be Romney's last stand, his opportunity to re-re-re-start his campaign, and unfortunately the president allowed him to do it."

"Romney did bring his 'A-game,' for as good as Romney's game could be. The president allowed Romney to lie repeatedly, [and] did not forcefully challenge a lot of the assertions that Romney was making that have repeatedly been proven to be false," Dr. Leon said.

Some said that Obama was intentionally deferential to Romney out of concern that he might otherwise come off as an "angry black man."

"Within a certain segment of the U.S. population, there were those who were willing, and were hungry, for this idea that Mr. Obama would be put in his place, and of course I'm choosing my words carefully, because I do think there was a kind of antebellum overtone to that kind of notion," Dr. Horne said of the debate.

"Obama always has to walk a tightrope. If you look at recent history, you may recall that one of his calling cards as he was being catapulted into prominence as a national figure, was that he was a Black man who was slow to anger, who was not aggressive in the way that Black men are perceived to be aggressive, and that he has created this persona of likeability which in the end I think, will serve him well."

"So, I would imagine that Mr. Obama's handlers are quite sensitive to this perception of being overly aggressive against Mr. Romney's charges, but I would imagine that in this second and third debate that Mr. Obama is going to re-calibrate because the publicity has been so negative with regard to his performance ... that it's going to force a change in how he approaches these upcoming debates, and he's going to probably risk his likeability quotient in order to challenge Mr. Romney's evasions and misstatements and prevarications," Dr. Horne said.

That would be "Rope-a-Dope" parts two and three ... maybe.

As all the hype over debate performances between President Barack Obama and challenger Mitt Romney continues, Black voter mobilization and election protection activists remain focused on a 'state of emergency' in preparation for Nov. 6 polling precincts where the real showdown will take place.

"I think this is the worst civil rights battle that I've seen in my lifetime," says Barbara Arnwine, executive director of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. "And I think it rivals the 1960s and the 50s actually. People have really decided that the only way to win elections is to suppress the Black vote. This is a purposeful, deliberate strategy. And the only thing we can do is to fight back and make sure they don't win."

Over the past two years, Republican administrations have moved to enact new legislation that require voter identification cards, photo identifications, cut backs on voting days and times, erroneous purging of voters from rolls and other rigid registration and identification requirements. Those most affected will be racial minorities, senior citizens, veterans, youth, low-income people and previously convicted felons. Though the supporters claim the new laws are to prevent voter fraud, there is little or no evidence of a voter fraud problem in U. S. politics.

Therefore, election protection activists by the millions will dispatch across the nation or monitor telephone lines before and on Election Day Nov. 6 in order to protect the sanctity of the vote. Having proclaimed the situation a "state of emergency", Black civil rights groups have initiated a a unified voter registration, get-out-to-vote and election protection campaign.

"It's as bad as we allow it to be," says Melanie Campbell, president/CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. "We know what we're up against. Everybody's exposed. No matter what the barriers are. Our history in this country, we've had barriers before."

Campbell continues, "The legal groups – the Lawyers' Committee, the Advancement Project, the ACLU – all of our legal groups have been doing a great job in pushing back from a legal perspective and winning in a lot of cases because it's egregious and it's obvious that these laws that have been passed over the last two years were based on a partisan advantage. We all know that and the public knows it more. Now people need the tools to know what to do about it."

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies recently released a statement reporting that a broad coalition of civil rights, social justice and faith-based and other organizations representing communities of color has "declared a state of emergency on voting rights in the U.S. and said that millions of people could be disenfranchised by restrictive voter laws."

The coalition has called for voters to take steps to ensure that they are aware of any new laws in their states and how to assure that their votes will be counted. Among the steps:

◦Check your registration status

◦Check the documentation needed to register and to vote

◦Check the deadlines for registration and early/absentee voting

◦Check your state voter laws

◦Check your polling location and hours

Among a number of community resources to assist with voter registration, information and problems with voting on Election Day are as follows:

◦NAACP – This is My Vote www.thisismyvote.org/

◦Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law - http://www.866ourvote.org/ 1-866-OURVOTE (To report voting problems)

◦National Council of La Raza – Mobilize to Vote www.nclr.org/register www.nclr.org/challenge.

◦National Urban League – Occupy the Vote www.iamempowered.com/occupythevote

◦PICO Network – Let My People Vote www.piconetwork.org/tools-resources/let-my-people-vote-resources

According to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York Law School,http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/2012_summary_of_voting_law_changes/, at least 180 restrictive bills have been introduced since the beginning of 2011 in 41 states*:

◦Twenty-seven restrictive bills are currently pending in six states.

◦Twenty-five laws and two executive actions have passed since the beginning of 2011 in the following 19 states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Main, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin

◦Seventeen states, which account for 218 electoral votes, or nearly 80 percent of the total needed to win the presidency, have passed restrictive voting laws and executive actions that have the potential to impact the 2012 election; Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginal, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

◦At least 34 states introduced legislation that requires voters to show photo identification in order to vote. An additional four states introduced into legislation request that voters show photo identification just to register to vote.

◦Virginia passed a law which eliminates the execution of an affidavit of identity to replace the voter ID requirements when voting at the polls or applying for an absentee ballot.

◦At least 17 states introduced into legislation requirements for proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, in order to register to vote. Proof of citizenship laws passed in Alabama, Kansas and Tennessee.

◦At least 16 states introduced bills eliminating Election Day and same-day voter registration. Florida, Illinois and Texas passed laws restricting voter registration drives, as well as Florida and Wisconsin passed laws making it more difficult for people who move to stay registered and vote. Ohio eliminated their week long same-day voter registration, and Main passed a law eliminating Election Day registration.

◦At least nine states introduced bills that reduce early voting period, four tried to reduce absentee voting opportunities as well. Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Tennessee, and West Virginia were successful in reducing early voting.

◦Two states, Florida and Iowa, reversed prior executive actions which made it easier for citizens with past felonies to restore their voting rights. South Dakota passed a law imposing further restrictions on citizens with felony convictions by denying voting rights to persons on probation.

◦*Updates may apply based on recent court rulings. Please see http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/2012_summary_of_voting_law_changes/ for updates and more details.