As for Baba, all I know is she did a joint interview with Begin and Sadat. My guess is that Begin and Sadat initiated that as a way of pressuring Carter on the bilateral approach. Government leaders often use big name TV news people in that manner. But to suggest that Baba somehow instigated the Egypt/Israeli peace process or had any role whatsoever in getting a deal done strikes me as a pretty wild claim.

“Camp David owes as much to Baba Wawa as it does to the Sage of Plains.”

Would you care to elaborate?

My recollection is that Israel and Egypt started the process with secret bilateral talks but that it took 13 days at Camp David, with Carter relentlessly shuttling back and forth between Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat to get the deal done.

That case can be made. Getting rid of 70% marginal tax rates was a good thing. I was paying a 49% marginal rate when my income was only about $50k. He went too far, and Bush and Clinton had to fix it, but it’s still good that we broke the back of those high rates.

Under Reagan’s 1986 tax reform, capital gains and dividends were taxed at the same marginal rates as ordinary income, topping out at 28%. Mitt would have paid nearly double his 2010 and 2011 taxes under Reagan.

The recession during Reagan’s first term was not as bad as the recent Great Recession in terms of its causes, structure and global economic headwinds. Also, Reagan still had the Baby Boom generation as a driver of economic growth. Even so, the unemployment trajectory was remarkably similar to Obama. It was 7.5% the month he took office, grew to 10.8% by December 1982 and declined from there to 7.3% by September 1984 (the last year of his first term). For Obama, it was 7.8% the month he took office, rose to 10% by Oct. 2009 and declined from there to 7.8% by September 2012. Why didn’t it get as high or even much higher under Obama? Hmmm. Could it be the auto bailout and the “it failed” stimulus?

Paul Volcker and the Fed get as much credit for long-term economic growth as anything Reagan did, using monetary policy to break inflation. Volcker was appointed by Carter late in his term and began the monetary tightening while Carter was still in office.

Reagan was a big spender and piled on the debt due to the Defense build-up.

Reagan talked a good game on de-regulation, but can you think of anything he actually did on that front? For better or worse, the de-regulation movement began under Carter in the transportation and telephone industries.

They’ll be talking about that debate 25 years from now when Chelsea Clinton or Joseph Kennedy III and George P. Bush are running against each other.

Romney lobbed slow and easy pitches, and Obama did’t even swing the bat.

Republicans had given up on Michigan and Pennsylvania and taken their ad dollars elsewhere. Now, they are virtually tied in those states. Romney had almost no electoral map path to victory. Now, it’s wide open. When undecideds break, they usually break in favor of the challenger. Seems to be what has happened here.

http://themoderatevoice.com/163305/report-president-obama-thought-he-won-denver-presidential-debate-despite-ignoring-debate-preparation-advice/

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!