Presidential debate brings surprises

I received two surprises recently, shocks really!

The first was the candidate who showed up to debate President Obama Tuesday night:

I never saw this fella before, he clearly wasn't the one who has 17 of George Bush's neo-cons on his advisory staff, you know, the ones who counseled Bush into a war with Iraq.

This wasn't the Mitt Romney who in recent weeks has made foreign policy statements 180 degrees away from the ones he made in the debate. This was some new guy who seemed to agree down the line with Obama.

Some say his handlers advised him that in order to get the womens' vote, he must appear as a man of peace, as a man of conciliation. Others say he is moving away from the Bush neo-cons, and his present stance is coincidental to that. I hope it's the latter.

The second surprise-shock was, I googled to see who signs Rush Limbaugh's paycheck. Would you believe, Bain Capital, the company Romney founded and still has eight millions dollars invested in? Yes, they own 51% of Clear Channel who owns the gazillion radio stations Limbaugh and Shawn Hannity broadcast on.

They pay Limbaugh $40 million dollars a year, an amount that doesn't go very far buying ads on TV. Hence Romney is getting virtually free advertising on every station that carries the magnificent duo, plus those who carry Laura Ingraham and Glenn Beck.

I thought, wow, going in, he had the deck stacked! He could run out of Pac money, his own campaign money, and still get nation-wide advertising for free.

I still have to vote for Obama. He's a known quantity, and he was the one Romney was agreeing with. Plus he's seriously outgunned on the airwaves, and I'm a sucker for the underdog.

Darrell Moss

Moses Lake