Scraps of Paper

This is a story from NPR’s On The Media. It’s a great story that highlights one very important point about modern presidential campaigns. It’s not about convincing undecided voters any more. 

It’s all about turning out the base. 

When the question of gas prices came up, it raised the future of energy production in America and how we’re going to get the next century’s worth of power. While I give the President credit for mentioning renewables, when push came to shove we saw that dirty power isn’t going anywhere. 

Here’s the President:

Natural gas production is the highest it’s been in decades. We have seen increases in coal production and coal employment. But what I’ve also said is we can’t just produce traditional source of energy. We’ve also got to look to the future. That’s why we doubled fuel efficiency standards on cars. That means that in the middle of the next decade, any car you buy, you’re going to end up going twice as far on a gallon of gas. That’s why we doubled clean — clean energy production like wind and solar and biofuels.

And all these things have contributed to us lowering our oil imports to the lowest levels in 16 years. Now, I want to build on that. And that means, yes, we still continue to open up new areas for drilling. We continue to make it a priority for us to go after natural gas. We’ve got potentially 600,000 jobs and 100 years worth of energy right beneath our feet with natural gas.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/16/transcript-second-presidential-debate/#ixzz29YJmk42J

Romney got right to the point. He wants more drilling and he wants the Tar Sands pipeline from Canada. 

Let’s take advantage of the energy resources we have, as well as the energy sources for the future. And if we do that, if we do what I’m planning on doing, which is getting us energy independent, North America energy independence within eight years, you’re going to see manufacturing jobs come back. Because our energy is low cost, that are already beginning to come back because of our abundant energy. I’ll get America and North America energy independent. I’ll do it by more drilling, more permits and licenses.

We’re going to bring that pipeline in from Canada. How in the world the president said no to that pipeline? I will never know.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/16/transcript-second-presidential-debate/#ixzz29YIzaRBc

For those who have criticized Jim Lehrer, take a listen to this interview. It gives great perspective on Presidential debates.