Let me finish tonight with last night's disaster.
You get nowhere in life by not realizing what's done is done.
President Obama was not prepared for his huge debate with Governor Romney. This isn't about left, right, good, or bad. It's about coming to work to work.
His challenger did. He took charge. He took command of that stage, issuing orders to moderator and rival alike. He owned that platform, owned all within the sound of his voice. It was impressive, powerful. It must have been horrible to feel the smothering, all-enveloping sufficiency of the thing. With Romney in the room, there didn't need to be anyone else.
So I'm not here to slam Obama for a hard night. My concern—and that's what it is—is his readiness to skip the politics of this campaign. There's no excuse for a democratic leader to think himself excused from politics—and today that means mastering the 24-hour back and forth, the war room stuff that gets you elected, protects you from being destroyed either on the way to public office or once there.
Simple question: Did the President know he was allowed to mention—in fact, champion—his saving of the American auto industry? Did he know he was allowed last night to interrupt that pissant conversation about PBS funding to say, "Excuse me, let's talk the big stuff. I rescued the American auto industry and the hundreds of thousands of jobs working for it. You, sir, were willing to have it go bankrupt."
Did Obama know he could interrupt his rivals expressions of concern for Social Security folk with the news that his rival tells his wealthy backers behind closed doors something very different: how he sees people who rely on Social Security as parasites.
Did Obama know he could interrupt Romney's weeping for Medicare with a timely reminder that he, the man standing there with him, wants to give 80 year-olds "vouchers" and send them out to fetch a health insurance policy. Who's going to give them that? Old age and being elderly is no time to hit the health insurance market. It's a time of life when you should reap the just benefit of having paid into Medicare your entire working life, not some terrifying moment of "every man and woman for themselves."
One last pair of questions: Did the president know that Mitt Romney just said that we don't let people die in their apartments; we take them to the emergency room, that that is his health care plan. Did the president know that Romney had said that people who didn't have continuing coverage shouldn't get covered for pre-existing conditions, that it was simply their fault for not having paid up all those years?
Well, the whole thing could have gone a whole other way.
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Ok, Obama was not himself, but Romney was programmed with a recitel of lies and told to keep talking which apparently he was allowed to do. Obama, with his mannerism and precise explanations was probably trying to figure out which lie to answer first. Obama made some good points if you wanted to listen. Many of us were surprised Mittens pulled it off, but that doesn't mean he is the best candidate - be careful folks the wolf is trying to disguise itself!
The Romney-wolf is always disguising itself. How do I know? I'm from Massachusetts. Very telling that in his "home state" Romney trails the President by 25 points. People in Mass know Romney and the know they can't trust him for one nanosecond. That story needs to get out more. Have you ever heard of someone losing their home state by double digits? OK, maybe George McGovern...
O.K., I guess I value Mr. Matthew’s opinion, since he is a former Presidential speechwriter. However, I think it might have been even better if our President chose to stand up in a new way for policies that his administration has proposed in the past in comparison to the Republican Party's general tax cut policies.
Like, for instance, how the Obama Administration has proposed giving small business owners a tax break only ‘after’ they hire people, as opposed to a Republican administration that would give business owners a tax break 'before' they hire people, and not contingent on whether or not they even use the money to hire.
We need to stand up for what economic leadership the Democratic leadership has offered, that the Republican House would not let us pass.
While I was disappointed in President Obama's debate performance, I was more disappointed in the commentary from Chris Matthews, Ed Schulze, et al following the debate. With friends like these, who needs enemies?
I hope Mr. Obama is astute enough to learn from all this comment that his supporters don't mind if he goes and bites Mr. Romney's ear off in this contest. Or at least the first six of seven inches of his nose. The "Etch-a-Sketch" performance was as slick and glib as any television ad. One of his best quotes put his strategy right out front - "Keep repeating it and eventually people will believe it". He proceeded to do just that numerous times. Unfortunately, the product that is the Republican agenda he is selling will only result in more of the 2000-2008 smoke and mirrors for the average citizen, Meanwhile, today's news on jobs is encouraging and shows slow but steady progress we are making under the Obama administration. In New Jersey, my home state, our Governor is out campaigning elsewhere because he knows he cannot deliver his own state to Mr. Romney. Today's Press of Atlantic City reports that under Obamacare, NJ has received special exemption to use its federal Medicaid funding to apply toward helping to keep elderly and developmentally disabled citizens that may be able to stay in their own homes the care they would need to do so. This is not bad news. This is progress. I conclude by saying to all the millenials that one of the most important things they should do is ALWAYS keep abreast of who comprises their Supreme Court and the potential consequences of the decisions the justices make. Take a look at the Citizens United decision that sold our elections to a global corporate world. Know that if Republicans get to make the next few appointments, among other things the rights of women to control their own reproductive health will be in jeopardy and foreign corporations will be able to take your land by eminent domain (It's going on in Texas) so they can make a buck. A vote for "Make it up as you go along even if my own party can't back me up" Romney is a vote to head down a backward road to the company town.
It's pretty hard to debate someone who is adopting all of your own positions on the spot. Obama probably showed up expecting to debate a snake but got a chameleon. Even with that, Obama got off the best line of the night: “Now four weeks before the election, he is saying his big, bold plan is: Never mind.”
President Obama's performance in the debate was the smoothest rope-a-dope I've seen since Muhammad Ali was in the ring.
The late rounds are his.
Chris
You missed the real punch Romney delivered and why it so changed the dynamics of the campaign that Obama decided to defer the debate until later.
Namely - the whole economic message Obama has preached was the unfairness of the Romney tax plan - and then Romney simply says - I wont lower tax income from the rich! Not a chance that this is technically feasible - but the lie was so bold and so well delivered - that it deflated Obama. Arguing that Romney is making a technical mistake by thinking (or lying) that he can offset 5 trillion via deductions (they are not there and and can't be negotiated through any complexion of congress) is very hard politics. Romney ducked the "unfairness' label - and to dispute this one needs to either call him a liar or an ignorant fool Neither works politically.
Question for you - how do we Obama supporters best counter attack?
I took one year of debate in high school. So while I may not be an expert, I do have
some credible perspective. It is the responsibility of each debater to present
their argument backed up by verifiable facts to support their point of view. If
one of the debaters stands at his podium spewing lies as Romney did while
smiling his fake as a three dollar bill snake oil salesman sneer, it is the responsibility
primarily of the debate moderator to stop him and the debate judges to declare
him to be the LOSER of the debate. While presidential debates do not have
official judges, the media serves as unofficial judges. Instead of ranting on
and on about how badly President Obama did, they should have made more of an
issue about Romney’s lying. How they could say out of one side of their mouths
that he lied and then say out of the other that he did a great job and won.
That’s a contradiction. You can’t both lie and win. President Obama may not
have been at his best, but he still won the debate by default because unlike
Romney he spoke the truth.
Obama may not have brought his A game, but I honestly don't understand why a bully and deceit is a winning combination.
Do you think Ann Rand would have been proud of the Mittster?
“People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I’ve learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one’s reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one’s master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person’s view requires to be faked…The man who lies to the world, is the world’s slave from then on…There are no white lies, there is only the blackest of destruction, and a white lie is the blackest of all.”
― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
Thanks, NHLucky. I thought that might be true but Barnacle on Morning Joe seems to think the REAL Mittens was at the debate. Baloney. and you just confirmed it. But now, we all have to get out and keep exposing Romneybot for who he is: a big fat liar! And I hope Chris Matthews, who I adore, will stop saying terrible things about Obama's debate performance. I think Romney walked right into Obama's strategy to get Romney to once again flop again and commit to something else -- who knows what this guy believes or wants to do for the country. I feel my liberties and freedom will be deeply jeopardized if this guy gets into office for anything. He's a loser so let's beat him. Go Obama!!
Obama's poor performance attributed to so many possibilities. Altitude, he is just not that into it, he was playing a game of rope a dope etc etc. I was stunned as so many others were.
What I have been amazed by is Romney and teams ability to get by the right wing tea baggers and successfully back to his moderate record in Massachusetts. Would never ever vote for Romney but you have to give him and his team that success. Stumble, pivot, slide, hide, pivot, slide by
Chris if you watched the Republican debates Romney always looks at the person speaking. Always always seeming to listen. Romney listened to every Republican candidates during the Republican debates. Always
Loved that Groundhog Day comparison Can see the message now the alarm going off
and the same day starting over. Rommey trying out new line day in day out . Thanks for that Image !!!!