I’ve watched an awful lot of debates between politicians. I’ve never seen one like last night’s.
Looking back at the GOP primary debates, there was only one debate performance that even came close to last night’s. That was Newt Gingrich’s anti-media kill shot in South Carolina. He won that primary but went on to lose the war.
Mitt Romney consistently performed well during the primary debates, which is part of the reason that he is the nominee. But he never performed as well in those debates as he did in the first presidential debate. No one did. Mitt Romney was efficient, informed, nimble, aggressive, and likeable at the same time. Obama achieved none of those things. He never even seemed to try.
The question is, can he perform as well or better in the second and third debates?
That’s not an idle question. President Obama’s performance was so bad that even his friends, Chris Matthews and Bill Maher, blasted him. Maher said he needed a teleprompter. James Carville said Obama didn’t bring his A game. The truth is, last night might have been Obama’s A game. He has never been challenged to his face the way Mitt Romney challenged him.
But a careful post-game analysis finds a danger for the dominator.
Romney was so dominant that he can only get worse from here. Obama was so awful that he can only improve.
Do you see what the mainstream media can do with those trajectories?
They’re already writing the script at the New York Times. Now Obama just has to look better in the next debate than he looked last night.
How can he not look better in the next debate? He would have to forget his own name, fall off the stage and rip the arms off his suit to reveal Che tattoos on his biceps. He would have to pause the debate for a smoke break and come back staggering and smelling like a brewery. Absent any of that, he’ll improve. Even a steady-state Romney performance will not hit with the same force that his surprise demolition carried last night.
Here it comes. The media may whisper, before they start to shout at the first opportunity:
Barack Obama, the comeback kid. Mitt Romney, the fading one-hit wonder.
Mitt Romney can’t get cocky. He still needs to finish the job he started last night.
Or, as this poster I found on facebook last night explains:
Obama is stuck in a feedback loop. Yes, it CAN get even worse for him.
That is what I am worried out. This could just be Obama’s debate style when challenged though, he is not ready for Mitt’s quickness. Mitt has to practice a lot to make sure he can keep up in the next 2 debates what he did in 1st
He’s got to strike out the side.
But this time, anyway, Mitt Romney brought Clint Eastwood’s .44 Magnum to Bracky Obama’s knife-fight.
I was stunned when Obama told Romney in an accusatory manner that this country gives tax credits to companies that move jobs to other countries. 1)It appears to be untrue. 2) If it’s true it is Obama’s job to stop it, not Romney’s. What possible gain did the president expect when he brought up the matter?
It indicated a complete lack of his knowledge of the government that he runs and a complete lack of knowledge of his responsibilities.
“He has never been challenged to his face the way Mitt Romney challenged him.”
This is exactly the key. My belief is that he can continue to get BHO all wee wee’d up by speaking directly to his face.
Machine politicians without a teleprompter — they will be on defense. And like an offensive lineman with stiff hips and bad footwork, the linebacker will bypass him easily and sack the QB.
OOPS, that was my post, not anonymous.
“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” – Mark Twain
That is the difficulty for an arthritic mind like BHO. Never having had to learn the give and take of real debate and contention, and having professed so many lies, he is not sufficiently nimble minded to keep up. Without a teleprompter, he cannot remember quickly enough which lie goes where. PWN’D.
So if Romney keeps BHO’s feet to the fire, expect some kind of non sequitur from the president.
I don’t think Hussein Obozo can possibly improve. He is a demagogue used to reading out prepared speeches. He lacks basic knowledge of finance and can only spew his leftist bull crap. All that Romney has to do is keep the relentless pressure on and he will win ALL THREE debates 10 to 0.
Without his teleprompter, Urkel has the debating skills of……I dunno….Rick Perry???…or maybe Rick Springfield. My apology to The Ricks. Next matchup…Nature Boy Paul Ryan v. Crazy Joe Biden. Get ur popcorn ready.
Obama will use the death of Bin Laden in the debate under his presidency in the debate
No doubt the original writer is correct in the way the MSM will paint this debate, but then again, if Romney walked on water, the headline in the NYT would be “Romney can’t swim”. Romney’s campaign cannot worry too much about how any Romney achievement will be minimized; the point to make sure there ARE enough achievements for the MSM to minimize in the first place.
I want to add on to this, not that Mitt Romney would be expected to see it.
It might be a temptation to try to “recapture” the magic of last night, to try to replicate it. Don’t. Just be natural and be the man in the command chair. Don’t try to play a set piece–think jazz instead–variations on a theme.
There also *might* be a temptation to take the act too far–an *impulse* to be a jerk, to be a dismissive. I’d recommend not doing that.
Above all, the media don’t want you to win. Never forget that.
Finally, it seems to me it actually isn’t important to win the election, though it makes life much happier when you do.
What is important is to destroy the narrative that Barack Obama is some kind of great man of history, some genius of our time. Because he isn’t. Once that is made plain, the system will collapse in and of itself. Eventually.
“The spirit of attack, borne in a brave heart, leads on to victory.” Eventually.
Of course, if you *can* finish Obama, that’s good too. Especially if done with a quick shot down the exhaust port, right above the main port.
Let’s see. Biden will come to the rescue to defund the administration with the cavalry or Calvary or something. While only the numerate will be able to follow Ryan.
Then Obama will try to defend his (very) foreign policy while the Daily Show CSI will be in Bengazi as the FBI is waiting for its permission slip.
“America is at peace because I understand Islam and people like me” will be blown up like the suicide vest it always was.
Leading from behind will be exposed as “do what they say and nobody gets hurt.” (at least “on my watch”).
Romney should suggest that the key to the Arab spring may have been the mistaken address to “the Islamic World” from Cairo, rather than to the (diverse) peoples and countries of the mid East. The US is not Islam’s agent, therapist or life-coach. We have “relations’ with nations, not religions. (does Obama think of Islam as a nation?)
And Romney needs to say one thing perfectly clear “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it, and AMERICA will defend your right to say it.”
Perfectly clear and perfectly loud.
game over
A couple of thoughts:
Was Obama off his game? I’m not sure he has ever had to compete at this level with a fully armed adversary -Barry is a script-dependent voice-over guy who is quick to demagogue as a counter to an opposing argument
Could he have made his case better? Well, isn’t helping the poor and downtrodden simply sufficient rationale? Aren’t all the liberal policy and technical arguments mere window-dressing on honest liberal compassion? Obama wants to implement what he wants – supporting reasoned arguments are nice but not usually necessary (except in Presidential debates!)
What can he do different next time around? As noted all over the place – there is no coherent argument in support of redistributive justice…so, its back to demagoguing and ad hominem attacks and class warfare
Why didn’t Obama go on the attack with the 47% etc? I think he wanted to see how far he could get with the ropa-dopa tactic. Save the most vicious attacks for later debates closer to the election
Interesting WIld Card – the VP debates could provide some real fodder for the last two Presidential debates and possibly distract from Barry’s planned lines of attack
Look, it doesn’t matter what Obama actually does in the next two. What matters is that his catamites will be ready, and will have their spin pre-written. Last’s night’s significance is that it came as such a surprise to his fan club. That won’t happen again.