REAP: U.S. vice-presidential debate

Visitors walk under a relief bust of vice president Joe Biden and republican congressman Paul Ryan at Centre College in Danville, Kentucky Oct. 10. (Reuters/Matt Sullivan)

 

The Star's team of reporters - Mitch Potter, Tim Harper, Daniel Dale, Robert Benzie and Andrew Livingstone - live-blogged the U.S. vice-presidential debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan.

Click here for full coverage of the U.S. election.

Obama and Romney to face lie detector test tonight. Yep, that's going to happen

 

While the 2012 U.S. Election is being viewed as the first full-on social media election (both Twitter and Facebook were at pre-mass popularity levels in 2008), it's also the first election where presidential candidates will face the lie detector test.

Wait, what?

No, they won't be sat down in a grimy chair with a beaming lamp shoved in their faces while they answer questions about what they'll do for the economy, to increase jobs, or with foreign policy — although, it would make for good television.

It’s less Hollywood movie-esque, but interesting nonetheless.

A non-partisan group in the United States in favour of limited government will put Obama and Romney to the test off-camera. Employing a new truth-detecting technology, Americans for Limited Government says they will measure voice patterns to determine whether Obama and Romney are telling the truth or not. The analysis also measures stress levels and level of concentration, the group says.

Unlike a traditional polygraph which requires a suspect’s cooperation and numerous probes on the person’s body voice analysis studies the words and speech pattern of the individual and determines if the statement was the truth “with a high degree of accuracy.”

Bill Wilson, president of Americans for Limited Government, said the technology is a “breakthrough for the American people.” In a statement posted on the group’s website, Wilson wrote the results of the tests will be made public and voters will “better be able to judge what promises are real, and which ones are nothing more than political pandering.”

The statement also said “with words like inaccurate, person uncertain, false statement, highly stressed and truth, the user’s computer screen literally explodes with data related to the veracity of the subject’s assertions.”

The company behind the technology, Voice Analysis Technology, has been used by over six law enforcement agencies, including the U.S Department of Defense and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department to interrogate suspects.

 “The near real time analysis that Americans for Limited Government will be able to provide the public on the veracity of the statements made in the debate is a game changer in how people relate to politicians. The operating assumption by the general public is that if a politician’s mouth is moving, he or she must be lying, by putting Obama and Romney to the test, we will find out if this is true,” Wilson wrote.

It’ll be interesting to see what the results of this testing will prove – if anything.

- Andrew Livingstone, Staff reporter

RECAP: U.S. Presidential Debate

The Star's team of reporters live-blogged the first U.S. presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Read a recap of the debate here.

DNC schedule for Thursday night

A woman wipes her eyes during the final day of the Democratic National Convention at Time Warner Cable Arena on Sept. 6 in Charlotte, North Carolina. ( Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The Democratic National Convention ends tonight in Charlotte, North Carolina. Here's the schedule:

6:00 PM – 7:00 PM (EST)

 

The Honourable John Lewis

Member of the US House of Representatives, Georgia

 

Stronger Together Video: Don’t Ask Don’t Tell

American Voices

Jason Crow

 

Live Performance

Mary J. Blige

Singer/Songwriter

Remarks

The Honourable Debbie Wasserman Schultz

Chair of the Democratic National Committee

Member of the US House of Representatives, Florida

The Honorable Antonio R. Villaraigosa

Chair of the 2012 Democratic National Convention Committee

Mayor of Los Angeles, California

The Honourable Tammy Baldwin

Candidate for US Senate, Wisconsin

Member of the US House of Representatives, Wisconsin

The Honourable Michael Nutter

Mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 

Paul Ryan praises Bill Clinton

(AP Photo/Bryan Oller) Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan heaped praise on Bill Clinton Wednesday, holding him up as a model of reform and Barack Obama as his opposite just hours before the former president's speech to the Democratic National Convention. Campaigning in Iowa, Ryan lauded Clinton administration action on welfare reform and spending reductions — areas where the GOP ticket has aimed some of its sharpest critiques of Obama, the incumbent Democrat. Clinton, once an Obama critic, has become one of his biggest assets as the president scraps with GOP nominee Mitt Romney for re-election. Clinton, whose two terms ended on an economic high note, appears in a television ad where he likens Obama's agenda to his own. Void of a single reference to Clinton-era scandals, Ryan's praise was a way to paint Obama as a failure on the GOP ticket's terms. "Under President Clinton we got welfare reform," Ryan told an audience outside a small-town courthouse west of Des Moines. "President Obama is rolling back welfare reform. President Clinton worked with Republicans in Congress to have a budget agreement to cut spending. President Obama, a gusher of new spending." - The Associated Press

Michelle Obama asks Democratic women to call the nephews they detest

Michelle Obama, Base-Rallier-in-Chief, made an impassioned speech Thursday morning in which she asked female Democrats for both their time and money.

"Make sure that every single person that you know - I mean everybody that you know - everybody within the length of your influence, the touch of your hand, the sound of your voice, your friends, your neighbours, that nephew you haven't seen in a while, that college roommate you haven't spoken to in decades: now is the time. Pick up the phone," she said to hundreds of women at a ballroom meeting of the party's Women's Caucus.

Here's how the women reacted when she was introduced with Joe Biden's wife Jill:

 

And here's the "Fired Up, Ready to Go" chant that immediately preceded those cheers:

 

"This one could come down to those last few thousand votes in a single battleground state," Obama said. She added later: "If you don't live in a battleground state: get to one!" And: "If you can afford it, write a cheque. And if you haven't maxed out: max out!"

Michelle is more popular than Barack. As per usual, her speech drew roars from the faithful. After she was done, dozens of people approached the stage to try to snap a photo of her. A few stood on chairs, holding iPads above their heads.

Michelle praised Bill Clinton's Wednesday convention speech and the convention itself. Employing the faux-stammer she also used in her own convention speech - do do do you hear me on this one? - she returned to the themes she emphasized on Tuesday, such as her husband's understanding of the value of hard work, her husband's non-sexism, and the general awesomeness of her husband.

She goofed once: "By taking part in the democratic process," she said, "that for more than 200 centuries has made America the greatest country on Earth..."

Malia and Sasha Obama to make an appearance

U.S. President Barack Obama and his daughters Malia (L) and Sasha, watch on television as FirstL ady Michelle Obama takes the stage to deliver her speech at the Democratic National Convention, in the Treaty Room of the White House in Washington, Sept. 4.  (REUTERS/White House/Pete Souza)

Malia and Sasha Obama will be coming on stage tonight, a rare live appearance for the two girls who are often talked about, but are kept at arms-legnth from the day-to-day activities of the campaign.

The New York Times looks at what role the girls have played in the 2012 race.

"The first couple clearly choose the stories they tell about their daughters carefully. The anecdotes are rarely about the celebrities the girls meet or their glamorous trips on Air Force One.

If Malia and Sasha have felt anxiety or distress about the scrutiny and security they live with, the Obamas do not say so.

Instead, the president and the first lady share upbeat anecdotes that reflect the rhythms of an ordinary American family: the end-of-season basketball tournament that Sasha’s team won, her discovery that she liked tomatoes, the girls’ enthusiasm for the television show 'Modern Family.'"

J. J. Abrams, the Hollywood writer-director and Obama donor, describes the girls as a "mystery."

"But they’re authentic, and we’re starving for that," he says.

According to the article, the girls follow a disciplined life. No TV or computer for anything but homework during the week, they have to do two sports, write reports on trips (even if the school doesn't assign them), and Malia must learn to do her own laundry before she leaves for college.

PHOTOS: Preparing for the big night

Actress Eva Longoria is interviewed on the floor of the Democratic National Convention. (Charles Dharapak/AP Photo)

Musican Dave Grohl (C) of the Foo Fighters performs for a soundcheck during the final day of the DNC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Vice President Joe Biden smiles during a soundcheck. (Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)

Singer James Tayler performs with his band during a soundcheck. (Lynne Sladky/AP Photo)

Sheriff Michael Johnson of Clayton County, Georgia directs traffic near the Time Warner Cable Arena. Johnson and his fellow sheriffs use humour in their moves as they direct traffic and pedestrians. (Stan HONDASTAN/GettyImages)

Renee Watson of San Antonio, TX wears a cowboy hat decorated with campaign buttons during the final day of the DNC. (Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

 

Disillusioned woman in new Republican ad a party staffer

Bettina Inclan, Republican National Committee Director of Hispanic Outreach, posed as an ordinary American in an ad.

Think of this like as the Republican version of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's phony citizenship ceremony.

Republicans debuted a new ad Thursday starring a frustrated Hispanic woman who is disillusioned with Obama.

Turns out she's Bettina Inclan, Republican National Committee Director of Hispanic Outreach.

“You’re just not he person I thought you were,” Inclan says to a cardboart cut out of Obama in the ad. “It’s not me, it’s you. I think we should just be friends.”

Republicans say the ad is "light-hearted" and not dishonest.

 

Obama camp releases 'Promises Kept' video

In anticipaton of Obama's speech tonight, the Democrats have released a video called "Promises Kept" which uses clips from the president's 2008 speech to demonstrate how he has kept his promises.

 

The video highlights Obama signing 18 tax cuts, creating 4.5 million private-sector jobs, ending the war in Iraq and signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

The video also credits Obama for saving the U.S. auto industry, passing the Affordable Care Act and investing in alternative energy.

“It will be clear where he thinks we need to go," his senior adviser said. "This whole week has also laid out a choice, which is — it’s a question for the American people: Who can you trust to build a kind of economy that’s going to work for the middle class?”