Th' N'Yawka on the 'Ungreat Debate' and Romney

...By the end of the ninety minutes, Romney had retrofitted himself as the defender of Medicare, the advocate of Wall Street regulation, the scourge of the big banks, the enemy of tax cuts for the rich, and the champion of tax relief for the middle class. All these claims are spectacularly false; all went entirely, or mostly, unrefuted. A small example. After Obama noted that “Obamacare” (he has embraced the shorthand, just as the L.D.S. church eventually embraced “Mormon”) saves Medicare seven hundred and sixteen billion dollars in overpayments to insurance companies and providers, Romney accused him of cutting that amount in benefits “for current recipients.” Obama let it go, and Romney taunted him by repeating the charge—not once but five more times. In reply, Obama said little. He did not stress that there are no cuts in benefits to patients, current or future. He failed to point out that these identical savings, to the dollar, are included in the House-passed Republican budget, endorsed by Romney and authored by his running mate, Representative Paul Ryan—and that, while Obama uses the money to expand health-care services for seniors, Romney and Ryan would divert it to high-end tax cuts...

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2012/10/15/121015taco_talk_hertzberg#ixzz28jhziDY0

The Pew Research Center now shows Mitt Romney leading by 4 points - 49% to 45%