On Tuesday night (Wednesday 9 a.m. Manila time) Americans saw a more aggressive President Obama in his second debate with Republican Mitt Romney. These presidential debates have been an example of good democratic electoral practices to us Filipinos. Our system is a legacy of our experience as an American colony.

Filipinos tired of the weaknesses of our democracy often wish our elections were more like the comparatively more honest and orderly ones of the United States.

Thinking Filipinos have been pining for the return in our politics of the intellectual, old-school style of debating that we had during those periods in our history when we were the US Commonwealth of the Philippines and after the Second World War up to the pre-Martial Law years. In those periods, congressmen and senators and aspirants for the presidency presented, in well-reasoned speeches, their personal or party positions on national issues. Among these were Claro M. Recto, Vicente Sotto, Jose P. Laurel, Lorenzo M. Tañada, Diosdado Macapagal, Ferdinand Marcos, Benigno Aquino Jr. and dozens of other brilliant statesmen and scholarly persons engaged in politics.

From their speeches, orations really, the people learned profound lessons in governance, domestic and international politics and Philippine social and economic conditions. These statesmen spoke the truth, quoted correct statistics and followed high moral standards. Only later—since the years approaching the declaration of Martial Law—did demagoguery, character assassination and the incessant repetition of lies (a technique of Hitler and his Nazis and the worst proponents of Soviet Communism) become acceptable.

Don Claro M. Recto and his generation of political figures were admirable for being “gentlemen of the old school.” And so did Filipinos admire many great American leaders for being similarly gifted and virtuous.

Alas, these days America as an example of the political virtues seems to have reverted to the days when “Tammany Hall” and “Chicago” politics ruled.

Debate moderator and media side with Obama
“This was a boxing match,” said conservative columnist (The Manila Times publishes his columns) and Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer of yesterday’s Obama-Romney debate. “This was Frazier vs. Ali…”

But the most dismaying event in the debate was the perpetuation of a lie by President Obama—a lie that the moderator declared was the truth.

The moderator is supposed to be neutral. But CNN’s Candy Crowley was not. She allowed President Obama to speak a total of about three minutes more. And to former governor Mitt Romney’s appeals for a chance to refute lies spoken against him, she promised to allow the
Republican time to speak later—but never did.

Her most egregious act of bias happened when Romney was about to give the lie to an Obama claim about the killing by al-Qaeda-linked terrorists of the US Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. Obama claimed to have referred to the killers as terrorists when he appeared at the White House Rose Garden to talk about Ambassador Christopher Stevens’ death. Romney tried to set up his checkmate move, and asked Mr. Obama to say again if he called the murder of Stevens “an act of terror” or just “spontaneous violence.”

ROMNEY: I think (it’s) interesting the president just said something which—which is that on the day after the attack he went into the Rose Garden and said that this was an act of terror.

OBAMA: That’s what I said.

ROMNEY: You said in the Rose Garden the day after the attack, it was an act of terror. It was not a spontaneous demonstration, is that what you’re saying?

OBAMA: Please proceed governor.

ROMNEY: I want to make sure we get that for the record because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror.

OBAMA: Get the transcript.

CROWLEY: It—it—it—he did in fact, sir ... call it an act of terror.

Moderator Crowley effectively silenced Romney with her interpretation that both Romney and President Obama were partly right.

The transcript of Mr. Obama’s Rose Garden speech on Sept. 12, following the death of Ambassador Stevens and companions, shows clearly that he did not call the assassination of Ambassador Stevens “an act of terror.”

The transcript shows that in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth paragraphs of the speech he has not mentioned terrorist or terrorism and says:

“The United States condemns in the strongest terms this outrageous and shocking attack.

We’re working with the government of Libya to secure our diplomats. I’ve also directed my administration to increase our security at diplomatic posts around the world. And make no mistake, we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people.

“Since our founding, the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths. We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others.

“But there is absolutely no justification for this type of senseless violence. None. The world must stand together to unequivocally reject these brutal acts…”

It is not till the 13th paragraph that he mentions terror in a general sense. “No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for.”

The 14th to 17th paragraphs are all platitudes.

Never in the Rose Garden speech did he refer to the killing of Ambassador as an “act of terror.”
And this is consistent with the cover-up of these al-Queda murders as the result of the video
“The Innocence of Muslims.” Someone assigned US Ambassador to the UN to appear on TV talks shows to say the Benghazi tragedy was caused by the video. President Obama himself said so in several speeches, including the one he gave at the UN General Assembly.

The fact is that the White House had been told the truth immediately by, among others, the President of Libya, American intelligence people on the ground in Benghazi and some media personnel.

That the American mainstream media acquiesced in the cover-up makes this sorry episode in US history sadder—and worrisome for the rest the world.