(Welcome to the first installment of Cats & Dogs, an ongoing political debate between Daisy the dog and Pancho the cat.) By: Daisy and Pancho
DAISY: Good afternoon, everyone! Today my good friend Pancho and I are discussing the performance of Democratic President Obama in his first debate with GOP challenger Mitt Romney in Denver last Wednesday. Pancho, am I the only one who thinks the president did a good job?
PANCHO: Yes, you are! Mitt came out swinging his sword like Puss in Boots, and Obama had no counterstroke. My fellow felines know that to win a catfight, you need to get your swipes in. I don't understand why Obama didn't dig out the claws about Mitt's many weak points: his dismissal of the "47 percent" who don't pay taxes, his own reluctance to pay taxes ...
DAISY: And what I consider the cardinal sin: His driving with his dog atop the family station wagon on a cross-country trip back in the early 1980s. But where you see this as too much Mr. Nice Guy, I see it as taking the high road. And isn't this a good thing? Haven't we had enough of negative campaigning?
PANCHO: It's OK for you and me to be warm and friendly when we're lobbying for morsels at the dinner table. But to return to the catfight comparison, when the enemy starts to growl, you gotta growl back. Mitt showed the feistiness of an alley cat, telling Obama, "You've been president four years. You said you'd cut the deficit in half. It's now four years later. We still have trillion-dollar deficits." I would have arched my back on this, but Obama didn't take up this challenge, and looked weak.
DAISY: Don't cats prefer subtler tactics? As for me, I'm not one for a dogfight, but I did think that Obama used a more graceful style. Mitt came barking at the president over "Obamacare," woofing it up over how he would repeal it on his first day in office. And then Obama came right back and said Mitt created the original "Obamacare" back when he was governor of Massachusetts! Mitt was cornered like one of the squirrels I chase on the North Cambridge bike path!
PANCHO: Your shaggy Westie winter coat is pulling the wool over your eyes. Obama was the one who walked into a trap. I mean, the two of us live in Massachusetts and it's a great state, but I don't think Obama will bring it up again. Mitt made himself look bipartisan, saying how he worked with an 87 percent Democratic legislature to pass health care ... and telling Obama: "What you did instead was to push through a plan without a single Republican vote." Then he kept up the attack and scored this double whammy: "As a matter of fact, when Massachusetts did something quite extraordinary, elected a Republican senator to stop 'Obamacare,' you pushed it through anyway."
DAISY: To which Obama could have said that the senator Mitt mentioned, Scott Brown, has turned increasingly friendly with the president. But you have a point. We canines have a saying: "It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." And Mitt showed in Round One that his appetite for a fight is at least as big as Obama's. The president's lead has shrunk. What can he do to make up for it?
PANCHO: That sounds like a subject for a separate debate. I think we've unearthed quite a bit of discussion about this issue.
DAISY: As an expert in digging -- remember, I'm a terrier -- I agree. It was good debating with you, Pancho.
PANCHO: You too, Daisy.
DAISY: Until next time ... this is Daisy and Pancho, signing off!
Who do you think won the debate -- Daisy or Pancho? Leave your comments here.
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