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Books by and about 2020 presidential candidates
Crippled America,
by Donald J. Trump (2015)
United,
by Cory Booker (2016)
The Truths We Hold,
by Kamala Harris (2019)
Smart on Crime,
by Kamala Harris (2010)
Guide to Political Revolution,
by Bernie Sanders (2017)
Where We Go From Here,
by Bernie Sanders (2018)
Promise Me, Dad ,
by Joe Biden (2017)
Conscience of a Conservative,
by Jeff Flake (2017)
Two Paths,
by Gov. John Kasich (2017)
Every Other Monday,
by Rep. John Kasich (2010)
Courage is Contagious,
by John Kasich (1998)
Shortest Way Home,
by Pete Buttigieg (2019)
The Book of Joe ,
by Jeff Wilser (2019; biography of Joe Biden)
Becoming,
by Michelle Obama (2018)
Our Revolution,
by Bernie Sanders (2016)
This Fight Is Our Fight,
by Elizabeth Warren (2017)
Higher Loyalty,
by James Comey (2018)
The Making of Donald Trump,
by David Cay Johnston (2017)
Books by and about the 2016 presidential election
What Happened ,
by Hillary Clinton (2017)
Higher Loyalty ,
by James Comey (2018)
Trump vs. Hillary On The Issues ,
by Jesse Gordon (2016)
Hard Choices,
by Hillary Clinton (2014)
Becoming ,
by Michelle Obama (2018)
Outsider in the White House,
by Bernie Sanders (2015)
Book Reviews

(from Amazon.com)

(click a book cover for a review or other books by or about the presidency from Amazon.com)

Second Obama-Romney 2012 Presidential debate (at Hofstra University)


    Second Presidential debate, Oct. 16, 2012:
  • Held at Hofstra University on Long Island, New York.
  • Moderated by Candy Crowley of CNN.
  • Sponsored by the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates.
  • 90 minutes on domestic issues in Town Hall format.

  • "Democracy Now!" aired a live commentary called Expanding the Debate, including three 3rd-party candidates, the Constitution Party's Virgil Goode, the Green Party's Jill Stein and the Justice Party's Rocky Anderson.

  • Commentary: Obama recuperated in this second debate after Romney "won" the first debate.
  • On the issues, Obama responded to all of Romney's key points, but Romney managed to connect to the audience, addressing his most significant weakness.
  • The pundits and talkshows all focused on just two non-issues (as usual). Both of these "issues," we predict, will be ignored in a week, and forgotten in a month:
  • Romney said he had "binders full of women" when he attempted to gender-balance his gubernatorial cabinet. He meant "binders full of women's résumés," which was obvious in the full context, but the mainstream media played and replayed the excerpt out of context.
  • Romney noted that his cabinet and his adminstration were nationally recognized as leaders in gender-balance, but that was forgotten in the wake of the replayed out-of-context phrase. Romney also neglected to mention that his running-mate, Kerry Healey, was also female (she served as Lieutenant Governor and then ran for Governor in 2004 and lost to Deval Patrick; Romney legitimately did push gender balance, and deserves recognition for it, binders full of women or not.
  • Romney's second gaffe was pushing Obama on whether he referred to the attack on 9/11/2012 which killed the American ambassador to Libya as an "act of terror." Obama asserted that he did refer to it as an "act of terror" in a Rose Garden speech on 9/12/2012, and Romney pushed hard to get Obama to say that "on the record," i.e., Romney thought Obama had the facts wrong. The moderator pointed out that Romney had the facts wrong.
  • Romney was correct in pointing out that Obama downplayed the terrorism aspects while focusing on the surrounding riots protesting a video demeaning the prophet Mohammed. But Romney's point was lost because of the hyperfocus on what exactly Obama said on 9/12/2012.
  • Romney was prepared poorly for that point -- his staff should have researched the original statement and Romney should not have pushed the point so hard without the proper research in advance. But Romney's lack of preparation is not what the talkshows talk about -- they get caught up in the buzz about fact-checking Candy Crowley -- so enjoy the buzz but recognize its meaninglessness.
 OnTheIssues.org excerpts:  (click on issues for details)
Abortion
    Barack Obama: ObamaCare asks insurance companies to provide contraceptives.
    Jill Stein: Birth control should not be up to your employer.
    Mitt Romney: Every woman in America should have access to contraceptives.
    Rocky Anderson: Contraceptive services comprehensively provided, and free.
Budget & Economy
    Barack Obama: Romney's plan will blow up the deficit or raise your taxes.
    Mitt Romney: My five-point plan will get this economy going again.
Civil Rights
    Jill Stein: Pay equity for women remains critical, despite some programs.
    Mitt Romney: Recruited women for gubernatorial staff.
    Rocky Anderson: Lilly Ledbetter was a great beginning; now enforce it.
    Virgil Goode: Equal pay for equal work, regardless of sex.
Corporations
    Barack Obama: Letting Detroit go bankrupt the Romney way wouldn't work.
    Jill Stein: Enormous bipartisan collaboration on deregulation.
    Mitt Romney: OpEd: Romney at Bain Capital sent jobs to China.
    Mitt Romney: Bankruptcy would have allowed Detroit to come out stronger.
    Rocky Anderson: Break up too-big-to-fail banks & prosecute Wall Street fraud.
Education
    Jill Stein: Bail out the students instead of bailing out the banks.
    Mitt Romney: Free college for the top quarter of high school graduates.
Energy & Oil
    Barack Obama: Invest in clean energy because China & Germany will.
    Barack Obama: Lowest oil imports and highest oil production in 16 years.
    Barack Obama: Gas was cheap in early 2009 because the economy collapsed.
    Barack Obama: Oil companies had leases on public lands they weren't using.
    Jill Stein: Weatherizing homes creates jobs & addresses climate change.
    Mitt Romney: Obama cut in half the number of drilling permits/licenses.
    Mitt Romney: Energy prices have gone up since Obama took office.
    Virgil Goode: Drill for oil & gas so US becomes an exporter.
Families & Children
    Mitt Romney: Two-parent families reduce violence on the streets.
Foreign Policy
    Barack Obama: We pushed China hard to raise currency exchange by 11%.
    Jill Stein: Get tough policy has opposite effect of what was intended.
    Virgil Goode: No embassies in Libya; no dictating by the UN.
Free Trade
    Jill Stein: International trade boards compromise American sovereignty.
    Mitt Romney: Make sure people we trade with play by the rules.
    Virgil Goode: Renegotiate trade agreements focusing on US jobs.
    Virgil Goode: Super PACs benefit from jobs being sent overseas.
Government Reform
    Virgil Goode: Stop the super PACs from controlling our federal election.
Gun Control
    Barack Obama: I believe in 2nd Amendment, but not war weapons on streets.
    Jill Stein: More local regulations; more background checks.
    Jill Stein: Reduce culture of violence via mental health & legal drugs.
    Jill Stein: Address community violence with more mental health services.
    Mitt Romney: No new gun legislation; enforce the existing laws.
    Mitt Romney: Fully investigate "Fast and Furious" program.
    Rocky Anderson: Only reason for assault weapons is to kill people quickly.
    Virgil Goode: Veto any ban on assault weapons.
Health Care
    Jill Stein: 75% of expenditures are sick care system, not healthcare.
    Mitt Romney: I care about 100% of people; & insured 98% of adults in MA.
Homeland Security
    Gary Johnson: Why were we in Benghazi or Libya at all?
    Rocky Anderson: Bipartisan corporatism and militarism expands war budgets.
Immigration
    Barack Obama: Kids who think of themselves as Americans--they should stay.
    Jill Stein: Undocumented immigration massively spiked after NAFTA.
    Jill Stein: Extend DREAM Act beyond age 30.
    Mitt Romney: Obama said he'd reform our immigration system but he didn't.
    Mitt Romney: Support the E-Verify portion of the Arizona immigration law.
    Rocky Anderson: Government and corporations have colluded on immigrant jobs.
    Virgil Goode: Moratorium on green cards until unemployment is under 5%.
    Virgil Goode: Illegals' presence here steals jobs from American citizens.
    Virgil Goode: Use entire AZ law as model for US, not just E-Verify.
    Virgil Goode: No green cards for foreigners diplomas; US citizens first.
Jobs
    Barack Obama: We were losing 800,000 jobs each month when I started.
    Barack Obama: Change offshore tax rules to bring back outsourced jobs.
    Barack Obama: Create 600,000 jobs in the natural gas industry.
    Barack Obama: Wind energy jobs are not imaginary jobs.
    Jill Stein: Directly create jobs, not via tax breaks.
    Mitt Romney: Obama said by now we'd have unemployment 5.4%, not me.
    Rocky Anderson: Trade agreements responsible for sending jobs overseas.
    Rocky Anderson: Raise minimum wage to $10.55 an hour, to stimulate economy.
    Rocky Anderson: Strong labor movement crucial to thriving middle class.
Principles & Values
    Jill Stein: Petition to open up debates to more than two candidates.
    Barack Obama: Romney thinks 47% consider themselves victims, I disagree.
    Mitt Romney: All my foreign investments are managed by a blind trust.
    Virgil Goode: Not much difference between Obama, Romney and Bush.
Tax Reform
    Barack Obama: I've cut taxes for middle-class families & small businesses.
    Barack Obama: Bring back the Clinton tax rate for income above $250,000.
    Barack Obama: It's unfair for a nurse to pay a higher tax rate than Romney.
    Mitt Romney: We need to cut taxes and reduce regulations for businesses.
    Mitt Romney: Limit the number of tax deductions for everyone with a cap.
Technology
    Barack Obama: We need to train for the next generation of Apples.
    Mitt Romney: China counterfeits our electronics & steals our technology.
War & Peace
    Rocky Anderson: We went into Libya without authorization from Congress.
Welfare & Poverty
    Rocky Anderson: There is so much more work to be done onpoverty.


The above quotations are from Second Obama-Romney 2012 Presidential debate (at Hofstra University).

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