Presidential debates are just job interviews

Imagine having a job interview with your number one competitor. Wouldn't that be a game changer. The interviewer could ask questions you could both answer and reply to and you could have a copy of their resume to boot. While watching last night's Presidential Debate at the Dublin Library with thirty other interested guests my thoughts drifted to if I was sitting in the cozy lounge asking questions of Obama and Romney. Several comments stood out, with the moderator opening the "interview" with the comment it was 50 years ago that the Cuban Missile Crisis was happening. With such limited media access then, I wondered what Wolf Blitzer's role would have been. President Obama had two comments that he repeated three times. One was the "all over the map" and the second was "giving money to the military that they are not asking for. Hey, if someone wants to hand you a couple of zillion dollars who is going to say no. Mitt Romney for his part had to throw in a line about Solyndra and also echoed Clint's comment about 23 million people struggling to find a job. He also talked about "going after the bad guys".Was he talking about......Dirty Harry ? Obama did make a reference to John Kennedy, a former Democratic President and took some shots at W. Bush. Surprisingly Romney never mentioned Reagan or Lincoln, two former Republican Presidents, especially since a major movie about Lincoln is due out soon. There were the usual interruptions as the other was speaking. I guess courtesy matters little if the interview is for the most powerful position in the world. The eyes rolling around lines go to Romney for saying once again he was going to get rid of Obamacare and to Obama for bringing in bayonets and horses into the military reductions and explaining that an aircraft carrier is a landing zone for planes. Other comments including thoughts on the cold war which was over 20 years ago, cyber security, squabbling on the number of troops in Iraq, attacking me or attacking you, biggest whopper, (either a lie or a hamburger), moving heaven and earth to get Bin Laden and air brushing history. Well, the moderator did come up with a closing line that they BOTH agreed on. We all love teachers. Anyway if I was the hiring manager I may have to review my notes with a couple more managers before making a decision who gets the job. The hosts for the evening were former Dublin Mayor Janet Goodhart and Library Manger Lee Jouthas. A thirty minute discussion followed the debate and special thanks to Dublin High School's Gourmet Gaels Catering Program who provided refreshments with funding from the City of Dublin and Dublin Partners in Education.