The Character Test in the 2012 Election
The Romney the world saw at last night’s debate — confident, enthusiastic about his ideas, hopeful and articulate — is no stranger to those fortunate enough to have heard him speak in person during the past year. I reported in this space on a primary campaign breakfast in November 2011 where Romney won me over. What changed last night emphatically was not Mitt Romney. What changed is that we finally got to see the real Mitt Romney. The Republican candidate, that is, defined himself against Barack Obama, rather than allowing an overwhelmingly hostile media to define him. And Barack Obama, alone on the stage with his opponent, stripped of teleprompter and fawning media, revealed himself to be a fearful, petulant, petty man. Not only did Romney win; Obama lost.
There has never been a presidential candidates’ debate on national television where the instant polls declared such a lopsided victory (3 to 1 in Romney’s favor according to CNN) — not Kennedy-Nixon, nor Reagan-Carter. Response to televised debates in the past split neatly down partisan lines, so much so that conventional wisdom states that presidential debates simply weren’t a factor in the election. The voters watched the debate and assigned a better performance to the candidate they liked beforehand. Al Gore’s sighs or Richard Nixon’s sweats influenced the electoral outcome in legend more than in fact.
Just because debates weren’t decisive in the past doesn’t mean that this one won’t be decisive now. The most lopsided factor in this election is the character of the candidates. What we saw last night is a unique and unprecedented event in American political history. We have never had a president like Barack Obama, and the American public got its first peek at the man behind the curtain.
Barack Obama is a narcissist and a sociopath, with the skills of persuasion that children abandoned by their parents learn as a survival mechanism. In the adoring light of the liberal media, Obama reflected power and self-confidence — so long as he was in control, and stood in front of the teleprompter. The real Barack Obama is the one who cowered in the Oval Office protected by his Praetorian guard, who declined to hold cabinet meetings or meet with Republican leaders: McBama surrounded by the weird sisters, Valerie Jarrett, Susan Rice and Michelle. Obama’s greatest strength always has been his greatest weakness, potentially a catastrophic one: he manipulates so effectively because he has a compulsion to be in control. When he knows that he is not in control, Obama is paralyzed. Absent last night were the easy rhetorical flourishes and rock star pose of 2008.
When he is not in control, as in last night’s debate, he freezes. Obama’s stumbling delivery and poor body language betrayed a frightened and enraged man who desperately wanted to be somewhere else than on a public stage, mano a mano with Mitt Romney. The most pertinent question to ask the Obama campaign now is which psychiatrist they have put on retainer.
I believe that last line is a burn.
Before the party begins and the champagne bottle is popped open, let me ask one simple question – who is the real Mitt Romney?
Are we to believe that he’s not going to lower taxes for the well to do now? Are we to believe that he’s only lowering taxes for the middle class? Are we to believe that he has all of a sudden completely moved to the middle? Is America that naive? How can you clearly come out as the winner when you literally reinvented yourself yet again right before America’s eyes? Which Mitt Romney is America voting for? Will the real Mitt Romney please stand up?
Mitt Romney is so quick to chastise Obamacare yet he implemented the exact same healthcare system as governor of Massachusetts. Now, he wants to appeal the same healthcare system that he previously enacted himself. Who is the real Mitt Romney? Originally, he wanted to extend the Bush Tax Cuts for everybody without an end date. Now, he claims that he won’t lower the tax for the well to do but only for the middle class. Who is the real Mitt Romney?
Mitt Romney has claim that his tax cut will be completely paid for with lowering deductions, exemptions, and credits being claimed. Please, oh please, on the next debate, tell us all how you will accomplish that in details rather than, “You’ll just have to trust me on this.”
So let me say this, the biggest problem with reinventing yourself is that nobody on this God’s green Earth will ever, ever know who you really are.
Yep.
It might be less bad for Romney to win this election rather than Obama, but it will NOT be good.
Why the sour grapes? Obama still gets two more chances to win a debate. But first, Joe Biden must take his shot at schooling Paul Ryan. ABO2012
Whichever puppet wins I prophecy that in four years
There will be $20 + trillion debt.
3+ unnecessary wars
3 million Americans in cages
A lower participation rate in the male workforce
A greater police State
Lower median net worth.
Who cares? Pee Wee Herman would be a vast improvement.
My sentinments exactly. Obama is terrible. Even “lousy” would be a step in the right direction. Romney’s record proves he has the capacity to get things done in the real world; the odds are good that he can be better than “lousy.” The odds are small that he will be worse than Obama. Nuance.
Ironically, that fact that Mitt Romney is a political flip-flopper is profoundly attractive to me. A man that is responsive to the will of the people might be a nice change, no?
On a more serious note… I honestly don’t care. The perfect is the enemy of the good, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater, etc, add any other hackneyed phrases you can think of. As far as I can tell, Mitt Romney is a pleasant, extremely generous man in private, and supposedly mean as hell in public. He also appears to be a capable administrator and businessman. That doesn’t mean a damn thing when it comes to ideology, but I’m at the point where I remember George W. Bush with a fond, rose-colored patina of light, and I suspect I’m not the only one.
Lastly – are you seriously arguing in a representative democracy with separated powers, we need to look for a cult of personality? ICK! That’s half the reason I voted for McCain the last time around. You need to seriously look at the down-ticket races in your home state (if you aren’t already), as well as involving yourself in city/county government.
Rob, the Eminem crap is tiresome. Grow up…
It’s hard to tell if Rob is a scared shiteless Republican, afraid that Romney will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by being so malleable and etch-a-sketchy or if he’s a deluded Obama supporter convinced of our dear leader’s mythic charisma. Either way I would counsel Rob to put aside fear or delusion and realize that Spengler’s point is valid. Romney has stolen a march on our dear leader and reduced him to a hapless looking politico. This is no small feat given the prevent defense put up by the legacy press to stop Romney and push Obama.
Romney isn’t the perfect candidate, but then neither is Rob nor anyone we can think of. Romney is better than our dear leader by every meaningful measure.
I don’t know who Rob is, or what his beliefs are, but many people have issues with Mitt Romney. I’ll be happier if he is elected, but not because I have any faith he’ll do things appreciably differently; after all, the policy differences between Obama and Bush are pretty marginal. I’ll be happier because Romney *might* be better. He might be exactly like Obama, or worse.
I don’t think Obama is particularly narcissistic or sociopathic. Any such tendencies he has exist in all politicians. I’d say it is a cinch that Bill Clinton had more such tendencies, and was a more effective politician and leader.
He’s a Dem troll
You may have watched the debate, but, clearly, you did not listen. Romney made very clear what he would and would not do as president. And yes, we are to believe him.
Hey, Rob!
You’re an obvious Downgrade troll. Give it up already, unless you want to open up about how much Axelrod’s paying you per post. You’d be smart to take your pay in cash because it’s a good bet that if Bama loses Axelrod’s check will bounce higher than a Choom Gangster.
Rob, Rob, Rob. What you and almost 70 million other people saw on the debate stage WAS the real Mitt Romney, not the one manufactured and projected by the MSM and the liberal elite. The same can be said of our current president. The man that showed up to debate for the Democrats WAS the real Barack Obama, not the one manufactured and projected by the MSM, etc. Sorry.
How well do we know any presidential candidate before we all get to see them in action (referring to those who are elected, of course)? All we have to go by is what they say on the public square. Fortunately though, we have our hands on many pertinent aspects of Romney’s history to know a few things for sure: He is a successful businessman, a stable family man, someone who loves this country, someone who is moderate on the political spectrum who is smart enough to keep his nose out of the social issues (at least for now). He strikes me as someone who has the capacity to be not just a good POTUS but a great one. Who knew back in 1980 that Reagan was going to be so great?
Rob,
Do you really know who Obama is????
Here’s my question to Rob and other Obama acolytes trying to turn lead into gold: How many details of the 2,700 page ObamaCare bill and the monstrous Dodd-Frankenstein bill did Obama spell out before the November 2008 election? None. He told us he was going to fundamentally transform America, and since that’s what a majority of the electorate told us they wanted, it was all “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” from the Democrats and their media auxiliaries. End of story. Romney is much, much more detailed in telling us what to expect from his presidency than Obama ever was, in 2008 or in 2012 (just ask Medvedev).
I am more TEA Party than I am Republican anymore. Mitt Romney is not my first, second, or third choice to run against Obama. If he wins I do not expect him to do everything he has promised, and in fact I expect to be fighting him politically within a year; and for the TEA Party to be separate from the Institutional Republicans before the 2014 election. But if he wins, there is a statistically far better chance that my children will have an opportunity for a better future in a freer nation. If Obama wins, there is nothing but poverty and civil disorder in the future. And the odds of there being a 2014 election will be minimal.
So, I will vote for Romney, and I will campaign for him. And try to be ready for either result. Romney is not perfect. He is acceptable, while Obama and his followers have proven themselves to be active enemies of this country and the Constitution.
Subotai Bahadur
“the biggest problem with reinventing yourself is that nobody on this God’s green Earth will ever, ever know who you really are.”
Oh gee, but I don’t care as long as who Romney is is not-Obama. How hard can that be?
Who is Barack Obama? Why are all school records from grammar school through Harvard sealed?
David, Wait. We have three more acts to this drama.
Each of declining import.
It’s over.
Live with it.
Chickens. Eggs. Counts.
Oh, and fat ladies.
Next week Biden faces Ryan. That should be some must-see TV.
The following week Romney and Obama have a town hall style debate. Obama may do a little better in that format, but if Romney does as well as he did last night it won’t matter. Obama will be the community organizer who loves everybody and wants to right all the wrongs. Romney will look presidential.
The final debate is on foreign policy. I would think there are too many questions that Obama will not want to answer to make him look comfortable.
I’m wondering what excuse Obama will use so that he doesn’t have to do any more debates. Conflicts with fundraisers, golfing and partying with Hollywood A-listers just won’t cut it.
A few days ago, several Regressive Socialist media types (MSNBC, I’m looking at you…) were saying that Obama might lose to Romney in this debate, but he’d smear Romney on foreign policy.
That’s simply not true. Obama has a record now. He has a domestic record and a foreign policy record:
* Leading from behind (I could stop right here, but why…?)
* Lybia, Part I
* Lybia, Part II
* Arab Spring
* Russia (FLEXIBILITY)
Obama is going to tout all of those successes to America as he stands next to Mitt Romney?
Mitt Romney simply has to promise to stop allowing Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood operatives into the Whitehouse and they can turn off the lights and go home.
Making Russia a major election issue is a big winner. Just ask President McCain.
Wait… you forgot Israel, Iran, China, Great Britain, North Korea, the Czech Republic, Poland, bowing to the Saudis, and on, and on, and on.
Regarding questions of foreign policy and how he will do better than Obama, all Romney has to say is, “The US Ambassador to Libya was raped, murdered and his dead, bleeding body was dragged through the streets by al-Quaeda operatives on Obama’s watch. Nuff said.”
We can only look up now.
David,
“Barack Obama is a narcissist and a sociopath, with the skills of persuasion that children abandoned by their parents learn as a survival mechanism.”
I found this comment very interesting. I suspect that there is some truth in all this but I would like to know if you are just throwing this out or if you have substantial evidence for it. This could explain alot.
In 2009 I heard an interview with an Israeli psychiatrist who’d literally written the (or at least “a”) book on Narcissistic Personality Disorder. In his view Obama exhibited “classic” symptoms of NPD.
That would partly explain Obama’s behavior and body language at the debate. It’s reported that Obama has only disdain, even contempt, for Romney. It can’t be their respective achievements, of which Romney has many and Obama has few (beyond achieving ever higher office). So one can imagine Obama thinking to himself, “Who is this guy to challenge ME!”
No advanced degree is required to see to the heart of Obama. You simply need to have lived life. His psychological dysfunction is worn like a cheap suit for the world to see.
Read “Dreams From My Father” and “The Audacity of Hope”. For a person who has assiduously protected himself from exposure, Obama pretty well explicates the roots of his pathology in both books (or at least Bill Ayers does it for him). You don’t need to be a psychiatrist to figure out the man has a lot of issues.
The Oedipus complex.
Last line of this article is pure gold.
Obama, himself, is the evidence. Watch/listen to everything Obama does/says, as many of us did, from the moment he announced his candidacy – and tried to warn the public. Read Woodward’s book.
DD, I was a returning student (oddly enough, at DU!) in 2008, finally finishing my degree in Cognitive Neuroscience (part of the psych dept.), minoring in Human Communications. As such, I was given the “homework” by my rhetoric prof. to go see Obama when he came to campus the 1st time in 2008. I was also enrolled that year in Abnormal Psychology. Perhaps it’s the fact that I’m middle-aged, but at the cross-section of these two disciplines, I became enormously worried about what was more clearly all the time a cult of personality with nothing substantive behind it.
My darlin’ hubby has been a conserv. for quite some time; I’m more lately-come (altho that’s how I was raised). After seeing Obama, I could voice my dissatisfaction on a number of ideological points — more on what he didn’t say than what he did, which was always empty slogans. But there was something very disturbing I couldn’t nail down, put my finger on … until I started *really* studying for mid-terms. From Mayo Clinic, list of Narcissistic personality disorder symptoms:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/narcissistic-personality-disorder/DS00652/DSECTION=symptoms
* Believing that you’re better than others
* Fantasizing about power, success and attractiveness
* Exaggerating your achievements or talents
* Expecting constant praise and admiration
* Believing that you’re special and acting accordingly
* Failing to recognize other people’s emotions and feelings
* Expecting others to go along with your ideas and plans
* Taking advantage of others
* Expressing disdain for those you feel are inferior
* Being jealous of others
* Believing that others are jealous of you
* Trouble keeping healthy relationships
* Setting unrealistic goals
* Being easily hurt and rejected
* Having a fragile self-esteem
* Appearing as tough-minded or unemotional
I could also list socipathic traits/symptoms, but you get the gist. Now, if a college senior (albeit 48 yrs. old) could pick this up before the teleprompter suit was elected, I have a very strong tendency to believe it now. Still not convinced? Go here for a reprint from the DSM IV-TR:
http://behavenet.com/narcissistic-personality-disorder
Excellent analysis, Spengler. Last night’s debate was an absolute pleasure. I know I had been waiting four years for that a$$ whooping!
I would encourage anyone who has the means and has not done so to donate to the Romney campaign:
https://www.mittromney.com/donate
Dont mean to answer for David but here are the criteria so you can judge:
Narcissistic DSM IV Criteria
A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
(1) has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
(2) is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
(3) believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
(4) requires excessive admiration
(5) has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
(6) is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
(7) lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
(8) is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
(9) shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
The theory is that this pattern is caused by affective deprevation in childhood ie abandonment or lack of affection from parents which fits his history. The major difference between a sociopath and a narcissist is that the former will use more extreme means to achieve goals.
I should have linked to my old piece on the subject:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JB26Aa01.html
While that is the essay on Obama’s character by you or anyone else, didn’t you also write an essay that at least in passing mentioned the similarities of parental abandonment in Obama and Clinton and how this forged similar details of their characters against our polity has little defense?
One of the most perceptive women I know, a former Bush administration official, remarked, “America’s tragedy is that two of its last three presidents grew up without fathers.” You are exactly right. But for all of Clinton’s egregious problems, he is head and shoulders personally and intellectually above Obama. Clinton, after all, severely restricted welfare and cut the capital gains tax. And he left his wife’s health care plan in the dumpster.
I always thought that the reason Clinton signed the welfare act because he knew if he didn’t he wouldn’t get elected again!
The difference, in a nutshell, is that Clinton had a pragmatic streak; a connection to reality that Obama never had. That probably has more to do with Clinton having to claw and earn everything, rather than have everything handed to him simply by virtue of his race. FWIW, I also think Clinton has about 50 IQ points on Obama. He’s a schmuck, but he’s a capable schmuck.
Oh, please. Clinton signed the tax and welfare reform bills because his feet were to the only fire he responds to – public polls.
They weren’t his ideas, he didn’t like them, he fought them as long as he could.
Don’t say that he did it. That’s like giving Cornwallis credit for liberating Lexington.
That counts. That surely counts.
Another tragedy is that one of the three grew up with a father who is a committed globalist, and his son foolishly surrounded himself with his father’s advisors.
obama is clinical.
Clinton adapted to circumstances on the ground. The Boy King either cannot do that, or expects the circumstances to adapt to him. It’s the reason I believe he is the most dangerous human to appear in decades.
I also don’t believe that Clinton was idealogical. He migrated to libralism because he saw it as the winning hand, particularly with the women. Personally, I doubt Bubba will vote for Narcissus. The convention speech was a gambit to position Hillary (and bubba) for 2016. Hillary isn’t going to run as a Republican, for goodness sakes. Now, whether Narcissus wins or loses, Hillary can lean on Bubba’s defense of the indefensible to coast to the next nomination. She will either be the next Secretary General of Amerika or the challenger to Romney. Win-win for Bubba, who is always ahead of the pack and doesn’t hold a grudge unless it’s to his advantage to do so.
What you understand, and so many of us don’t, is that this IS a superiority of Clinton over Obama. Sure, the ability to face reality isn’t a very tough test, but the fact is that, after 1994, Clinton could see what had happened, while after 2010, Obama couldn’t. (The joint press conference was a classic.)
The problem is that it is increasingly clear that Obama is incapable of recognizing any reality other than his own “narrative”, and his own exceptional excellence. It’s really a bit pathetic, and would lead me to sympathy if he weren’t in a position to do so much harm.
William Jefferson(Davis) Clinton (if we was named after Thomas Jefferson his surname would be Thomas), I digress.
At the 1996 Dem convention he vowed to have the Welfare Reform bill he now takes credit for “repealed”. He vetoed it twice and then it was rammed down his throat.
Wow, this analysis is absolutely spot-on – and having experience with narcissists, totally agree.
Yea, but Bin Laden is dead.
And Joe Biden says Obama has a spine of steel.
And a big stick.
Spring steel
And so is Ambassador Stevens and four other Americans. On 9/11 … ‘ Nuff said about obama’s foreign policy. Even the left leaning Der Speigel opined that his foreign policy was “in ruins.”
Thank you, Mr Goldman. This is easily the best morning after piece I’ve read. You are the one columnist who seems to grasp the full nature of Obama’s narcissism. (Well, you left out “solipsist”).
@spindok: Good list, but I don’t think #3 really fits. My reading is that Obama doesn’t recognize that there ARE any “other special or high-status people (or institutions)”.
I’ve said this before, but to me, the best portrayal of his mind is the Monarch of Pointland, in Flatland.
For the rest of the presidential campaign, it will all be AD (after Denver) vs.CO (Cruising Obama). Turning point? No. Avalanche. Get me to that voting booth!
I confess to feeling a bit of schadenfreude this morning upon witnessing the wailing and gnashing of teeth on Facebook by my formerly smug pals on the left.
Is this the beginning of the “preference cascade?”
I wonder how this will impact the early voting results. Are early voters generally the most dedicated partisans (I know who I’m for so I want to get this in as soon as possible), or do they include previously undecided?
One flaw in his character that is often overlooked: he’s lazy. His “preparation” for this debate must have consisted of sitting around being told by syncophants how great he is.
Bingo.
Let’s hope he continues this way.
But don’t count on it.
Think in his soul, Romney agonizes over the CONTEMPT he feels for a man like Obama…
I think he TRIES to be a “Good Christian”… but that practiced love of fellow man, that *normally* permits fair competition and honest disagreement, morphs into sadness pitty and ultimately CONTEMPT… for such a vile, thin skinned, dishonest angry unintelligent and despicably false creature as Obama….
And I think Romney prays, every day, to understand the MEANING of this test of his good character,
and ability to truly love ALL men, even the worst of them.
Obama, you see, is a test of everyones faith.
Sometimes, God makes assholes….for a REASON.
The above observation made by The Root ’83 is true. And very profound. And meaningful.
But I would be remiss in not also adding: And freaking CRACK-UP FUNNY.
I’ve never gotten any sense, ever, that Romney personally dislikes Obama; certainly, I’ve never read any articles saying so. But I have read at least two, saying that Obama hates Romney. I suspect that hatred of Romney is one reason that Obama had a hard time looking Romney in the eye. But to the viewer, it looks like Romney is dominating Obama.
It also wouldn’t surprise me if Romney knows Obama hates him and is using Obama’s hatred as a way to get under Obama’s skin.
“morphs into sadness pitty and ultimately CONTEMPT”
I would like to suggest that the morphing can be stopped before reaching the CONTEMPT stage, when one learns to forgive one’s fellow man;
Forgiving is important because everybody makes mistakes, and contempt is the beginning of the false kind of pride that eventually leads to one’s own personal downfall.
One can still differentiate and have contempt for issues or principles and whatnot, but contempt for the person him/herself is an unwise path to take.
My opinion.
It won’t matter. Without his old bud Telly, he’s hosed. This is as good as it gets, without the Jesus machine.
Great Spengler, thou hast written the defining essay on the character of our pathological president. One can almost feel sorry for him….almost.
And…
these are the results of affirmative action: people like Obama grow up without ever having to fight for anything, everything is made easy for them, and they even feel that they would be entitled to more (and then more and more…).
And as soon as he has to face a real opposition…he crumbles.
Very sad, from a general point of view.
Exactly! Obama is an affirmative action hire for the highest office in the land.
Obama, went into the debate thinking he’d be facing the Scarecrow (A strawman with no brain) which he is so well practiced in defeating.
He should have paid attention to his own ads, it’s the Tin Man who had no heart (as his ads have been accusing Mitt of.)
I suspect he was expecting the same treatment he received from the moderator as when “Debating” Hillary, and then John! Mitt wouldn’t allow it. Next time the first three questions to Obama will be, “Are you comfortable?,” “Would you like a pillow?,” “would you like another?”
Excellent Robert
Mr. President, you keep looking at your shoes. Do your feet hurt? Would you prefer to wear slippers?
“The real Barack Obama is the one who cowered in the Oval Office protected by his Praetorian guard”
and the Amrican media, which has become the greatest enemy of freedom in the world
The media are the footsoldiers in the guard….
Perhaps #3 doesn’t fit (I think there is sufficient argument that it does) but the DSM criteria only require 5 of the 9 characteristics.
Assuming your statement is true, that seems to imply that you feel the other 8 characteristics do apply…..
Of course, anyone seeking high public office has to have some of these characteristics. The key is the degree that they manifest themselves in antisocial behavior.
A test I use is that politicians who merely have a healthy ego can have very strong marriages while narcissists almost always tend to have spouses with that long suffering air abut them.
I learned the hard way it is brutal to be on intimate terms with a narcissist. Almost all their energy is aimed at impressing the outside world to boost their esteem while they believe they are entitled to love from spouse and children no matter how they behave. If they don’t get that love they are first petulant and then vicious.
In general I think that’s probably true, but I’m not sure that explains the Obamas’ marriage. No doubt Obama is a classic narcissist but Michelle O doesn’t strike me as the long-suffering type. From what I’ve read, she can be a bit of a martinet and mom was, too. Maybe they’ve made a bargain: as long as he’s successful she won’t leave him like his mother did. In my experience, a man’s relationship with his mother exerts a powerful influence on his relationship with his wife.
Actually, 3 fits. He’s surrounded himself with the Ivy League’s best and brightest incompetents. From his perspective, he’s got the greatest brain trust ever. The fact the lot of them together can’t organize a kegger in a brewery is beside the point.
How it all began:
Obama, 11 years old, glaring morosely at his mirror, suddenly stands up and says,
‘F* this sh*, I’m gonna be President some day!”
the only thing missing was hand-rolling of steel balls .. I do think Bush stole the strawberries
Mitt Romney’s mission yesterday was to reveal the nudity of the emperor, without being mean about it. He met the challenge. Our next president, whomever that is, is going to face a great many challenges, given the present metastable state of the Middle East, and by extension, the whole geopolitic game. I know which one I want to be in command.
“Response to televised debates in the past split neatly down partisan lines, so much so that conventional wisdom states that presidential debates simply weren’t a factor in the election.” The fact is we have little hard date on the topic. Did people remember Nixon’s sweat weeks later? I know I did. Did Gore’s sighs flap around like bats in the attic? Multiple instantaneous polls are hard for the Liberal media to tamp down. What is so stunning is, the man with the golden tongue came to a gun fight without even a knife.
He showed up to a gun fight and he was armed alright. It was with a half melted pop-sickle.
Obama came out blowing smoke. When that didn’t work, he kept blowing smoke. And so on through the night.
Romney did well but I did find myself wishing for even more conservative responses from him. But elections are decided by the middle and we do need to win….
Mitt was just being Mitt. It wasn’t that he was that spectacular, it was because Obama was that awful and he knew it going in—-” Romney ‘s a good debater , I’m Okay ” Beware the sulking , angry narcissist, Desperate people do desperate things.
Observations about the Presidential debates:
Obama was demonstrating “Leading from behind”.
Obama’s facial expressions to Romney were saying, “Who are you to question me, The One, who has haloes on my head put there by the MSM?”.
More like leading FROM his behind.
That’s basically Obama’s argument for reelection: Don’t change a horse(‘s ass) in the middle of the stream.
Perfect analysis. Do you remember when there was that sound behind the wall last night? Obama turned around and kind of smiled and looked like he wanted to run back there and see what was up so he could hide. he looked like he really enjoyed the interruption. Save me.
That thump was his presidency hitting the wall.
The difference between Obama 2008 and Obama 2012 is a record. He can’t simply B.S. himself out of a box, which has always been his prefered method.
To build on the previous comment, we are at the moment in the Wizard of Oz when the curtain has been pulled back on the Great and Powerfull Oz, the exact moment where, despite the scam being fully visable, he says “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain …uh…ahem…I am the Great and Powerfull Oz!…er…”
Or betetr still…
“Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.
This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. (Daniel 2:31-33)” Romney just pulled off Obama’s socks on live TV.
Or…
Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear –
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.’
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Two words: VOTER FRAUD.
Memorize those two words and remember them the morning after the election.
Have a nice day.
To quote Hugh Hewitt, If It’s Not Close, They Can’t Cheat; this debate made the race a lot less close, I believe.
I am the typical American. I foundmyself the last presidential cycle entranced by the man who appeared so fundamentally different from the politicans I had seen in power prior to his arrivel. He said all the things I longed to hear, unity, hope, change, acceptance. Further, I had the option of voting for a black man thereby being part of a movement to show the world Americans both could and would vote for a black man if given the option.
In all the excitment, I did not notice the 4th estate had gone missing. There were not ‘facts’, no scandals, no data, no nothing in fact. After the historic vote and election, I learned about the biography. ‘Dreams From My father”. Suddenly, I was confronted by a huge demand for 900 Billion dollars…stimulus, to prevent the unemployment from sinking lower. He received his needed cash, and our unemployment went to 10%.
Things went to hell with great speed. Young Black adults were raging in the state fairs, assulting whites…Black Panthers, found quilty by the DOJ, suddenly were free, all charges dropped. Yet we all had seen the men, in paramilitary uniforms with batons threatening 2 older female voters.
Next, our televisions were turned to Occupy Everything movements, purportedly grass roots movements supported by our President, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. after 6 months of urban drumming, drug dealing, assults, rapes and demands for North Slope sleeping bags and APPLE Notebooks, they faded into nowhere.
2 years before our election, our president left the Whitehouse, to campaign. No more national security meetings, no more meetings with the jobs council, no more meetings with the joint chiefs or his national security advisors. The Government was bust sueing Arizona, Texas, and other states for ‘disenfranchising’ black voters by requiring ID’s for 100% of the voters.
Our President and his union allys gutted our treasury to buy out GM, among others, to pay union retirement benefits. He attacked the voters of Wisconsin for actually voting for a man who advocated state recusal as the unions attack dogs.
Our President, who forgot every campaign promise, every look, nuanced approach in American politics had turned out to be a radical socialist golem. No one warned us. No member of the Media beat the drum to forwarn us of the attacks on our constutition, our religious and civil rights, no one said a thing. ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, PBS, NPR all allowed this golem to slide into our halls of power, and begin systematically to destroy the very foundations of America. Hail Frank Davis, Hail Karl Marx,may all blessings flow on the 3 women huddled over the pot of our destruction, Valerie Jarrett, Michele Obama and Susan Rice. One eye between them, and it only sees the destruction of America, if they just have a little more time.
Time they desire, time they need, time is what the American citizen must deny them.
Today, we have seen what barack’s promises evolved into. We have seen the consequences of not having anyone at the wheel. Americans have lost hope, lost futures, lost role models, lost the will to act with vigor and discernment.
if you cant turn this man out, its ok, he promised us so much. I understand. all you need to do is as the nations ministers have been asking, ‘stay at home, sit this one out, let others do the heavy lifting.’
I will be voting. so will my family. My friends. The people at work. We are of like mind. 4 years of Obama was our fault. We voted him in, we did not do our due dilligence. We are very sorry.
On November 6th, I shall be voting for Gov. Mitt Romney, feel free to join me.
Right. You’re sorry. You should have paid more attention–or ANY attention–last time. If you had you would have known what kind of a jerk you were voting for. You REALLY didn’t thing something was wildly wrong when he said his nomination was the moment that the oceans began to recede and the planet began to heal? YOU ACTUALLY MISSED THAT?
God grants forgiveness. Me, if I could do it I’d make every Downgrade voter from 2008 have to pay an extra 5% off the top in taxes for 20 years. That would be slim compensation, and nowhere near enough, but at least it would be something.
“Sorry,” to those of us who have been paying through the nose for this bonehead and his Democrat-criminal accomplices the last four years, just doesn’t cut it. Next time just remember what the sainted Robert Heinlein said: There’s No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (TANSTAAFL). Next time you hear some lying pol start promising you stuff without explaining where the money is coming from to pay for it, be aware that he’s a con man looking to pick your pocket and that he’s hoping you’re stupid enough to let him.
Marc, do you know what I call you? A good start.
It’s no surprise that most Americans come out of high school and/or college as liberals. What amazes me is that anyone becomes conservative after that onslaught. It takes a true, discerning and judging open mind, not the fake, relativistic “open” mind. Better late than never and welcome to our world.
Now tell me the truth: isn’t it much more fun to read conservative writing?
“Now tell me the truth: isn’t it much more fun to read conservative writing?”
This is one bit that’s bemusing when looking at the fray from an ocean away. Conservative pundits and commentators tend to have a pretty solid lead when it comes to writing or speaking something that one can voluntarily listen to.
I try to keep swinging back and forth between the two sides. But too many Democrat supporters and outlets leave an observer who’s got no stake in the game thinking “enough already, I can’t bear to waste my life listening to this kind of pap. Where’s the latest from Klavan, or Pat Condell, or that ever growing parade of self-identifed Libertarians…?”
It is called enabling willful ignorance you idiot.
Some people have to learn the hard way that they must think for themselves. My husband is retired GM and much to my dismay voted for Obama in 2008. The impassioned arguments of his entire family could not withstand 30 years being brainwashed by the UAW. Four years of Obama, however, has done what we could not. The UAW called the other day to encourage us to vote for Obama and it was my pleasure to tell him we were both going to vote for Romney (plus a few other things I am sure he was not pleased to hear).
I liked the way Obambi kept looking around. Like he was trying to figure out where his teleprompter went. Oh and when poor Jim Lehrer tried to interrupt but both Romney and Obambi ignored him.You could hear him in the background but both of them just kept on talking over him.
Oh, and one more thing. Somehow I got on the Move On email list. Talk about crying, that mean old Romney just kept spouting lie after lie and poor old Obambi was so shocked he just couldn’t speak. And of course the altitude there was just depriving him of oxygen so he couldn’t speak.
I think we also got to see the real Obama, Clint Eastwood’s “the chair”
We saw a man of substance( Romney) versus an empty shell of a man who suffers from illusions of grandeur.
Forget Russia, President Eye Candy. Get ready for the election day reset you’re going to see in November. At this point, the voters want a competent adult in charge. Make that a pair of competent adults. It’s going to be a landslide for Romney/Ryan in all 57 states.
I’ve read this article several times, because it’s so important. Yes. Character matters.
Past performance (and results) only tells us what someone has done/is able to do in a particular situation. Character tells us what someone is most likely to do and how they’re most likely to behave in an unknown/unanticipated situation.
BHO has demonstrated time after time he will do what is best for BHO. First, last, always.
Romney, based on past performance and first-hand character endorsements, will try hard to do what is right and best for America.
The chasm between those two fundamental truths is unspannable, no matter how much money Barry throws into so-called “infrastructure” projects.
We’ve all seen some version of these movies: Barry is the sociopath the hapless parents accidentally hired as a babysitter. Mitt is that sorta geeky guy, who manages to save the failing farm, discover a new profit opportunity and rescue the toddler from the burning barn.
This election is no longer ABO. Now, Mitt is Our Man.
I agree and I stand corrected, GDI. But may I continue to sign ABO2012 because I would have voted for a yellow dog against Obama in any event. ABO2012
I predicted this elsewhere and face to face.
The real reason for the surprise of many…including #2 Rob…is that this was not the image they had about Romney.
Understandable….the venue allowed Romney to be encountered without the media filter/lens….IOW the real Romney.
And of course the same process worked against Obama…all his warts were on display.
…and all the king’s soldiers (MSM spin-meisters) cannot put him back together again.
Great article; just one thing: a psychiatrist wouldn’t be able to help a narcissist or a sociopath. You have to be capable of insight into yourself to be helped, and one characteristic of this type is that they are incapable of such insight.
I agree that Clinton was a far better president than Obama, but the reasons go far beyond welfare reform, capital gains tax rates and the abandonment of Hillary’s healthcare program. Clinton, whatever his faults, loves this country. Obama does not.
I think you’re onto something there. Clinton is descended from the Hot Springs Arkansas branch of the Dixie Mafia, but I think he does love America. He’s a southern character right out of Flannery O’Connor loving roadhouses, fatback, football, the blues , a little bit of Jesus. Obama is an alienated freakazoid.
“You know them by their fruits”
What does the Obama tree yield? Nothing good or name something good? Can’t think of anything that isn’t rotten on some level.
Mitt Romney maybe somewhat unknown still, but those who know him speak of his good works. When people watched the debate the contrast was very stark. Reality versus illusion.
The comparison is not going to get any better for Obama the bad tree. His fruit is rotten and his deeds testify to that fact loudly. People listened to the lies and hoped for good fruit, of course none came, in 4 years, nothing good, all bad. You can’t get good fruit from a bad tree.
Romney will produce good fruit and his silent good works testify to it. Also being raised right and living right makes for a very strong tree.
Character counts, Romney has it, Obama does not.
Those socialists parasites who live off the people’s wealth are afraid, afraid they might have to get a job and also afraid that no one would hire an obvious bad tree. They are afraid someone that knows how to use a calculator correctly will run the economy and decide we can’t afford them anymore.
A bent pol does not look good standing next to a straight one.
as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go very far, really.
what’s unsaid is that the megalomaniacal Obama is intent on murder, mass murder.
at home, his first selected victims are the elderly, in numbers to rival the holocaust.
abroad, his immediate target for slaughter is the state of Israel’s Jewish population.
should apply to the American voting public.
close to half of all American voters will happily vote for Obama.
his soul mates, they are liars, lazy and mendacious, with hate and murder in their hearts.
Yes…….. http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2012/10/05/5-revolting-facets-of-american-culture/
I am pleased that Romney triumphed over Obama in this first debate. However, do you remember how, a few years ago, Obama rolled a gutter-ball at a bowling alley campaign stop? Recently, I read that after that public humiliation, Obama compulsively took to practicing in the White House bowling alley.
Obama, having been chastised by Romney, will now take debate preparation for the remaining debates quite seriously. Mix in a little socio-pathology, and you will find Obama descending to a different sort of gutter.
obama’s so low now he looks up to see down
I, personally, can’t wait for the third debate when Romney decides it’s time to stop dithering with this fool and deliver the kill shot. Just put it away.
The first debate was an IED on the Entitled One’s road to a second term. The expected pushback from the Ministry of Truth has already begun with the Labor Dept.’s cooked unemployment numbers. This is going to get very ugly very quickly. Gird your loins.
Unfortunately it is not Romney’s obvious superiority over what was obviously a feckless Obama that will automatically win him the Presidency in November. He must win the election with the votes of people who have proven themselves unable to judge character without the help of the media they rely on to tell them how and what to think between episodes of the View, the David Letterman Show and American Idol and so called “reality tv.” I suspect most who watched the debate watched more in anticipation and hope that Romney, “the unknown,” the guy who had yet “to define himself,” wouldn’t fall flat on his face. The media did their level, “in the Obama tank” best to lower expectations for their weak horse in this race, allowing them to excuse the flop, while raising expectations for Romney so that anything, including a stellar performance, would be “Ho Hum,” no surprises and nothing to see there. Romney’s performance compared to Obama’s should result in a landslide for Romney. Sorry! I have little faith in the mental acuity and awareness of the American electorate but will take a win just big enough to make the result impossible to dispute like the 2000 Gore/Bush debacle in Florida. Anything over that, a Reagan like defeat over Mondale for example, would be delicious icing on the cake.
Will there even be, another debate? Color me surprised if there is.
“The most pertinent question to ask the Obama campaign now is which psychiatrist they have put on retainer.”
Val and ‘Chelle will make it all go away. The Dems will hire George Lakoff for another wound-licking group grope in Aspen or Switzerland. He will tell them next time to lie bigger because nobody cares about facts unless they conform to preconceived notions. The preconceived notions in this case is Dems are good people who have only the best intentions and they should NEVER, no NEVER, be judged on results but only on their unquestionable best intentions.
Obama was either off his meds or on too many of them. Valerie Jarrett must have confused his cocaine with his Xanax. The thug was blinking 90 mph and looked like he had just gotten out of bed after a long night of partying. He needs re-hab.
Romney is a Mensch , with a capital M. Obama is a zombie with a small z.
McBama surrounded by the weird sisters! LOL.
Ever since Spengler started writing less, it has become more difficult to figure which pin pricks bother Romney more. As a result, Obama feels like he is being stalked for another round of sucker punches because he can’t figure out Romney’s latest priorities. Machiavelli would be proud.