As I've done in the last two debates, rather than stay up late for last night's debate, I slept, and this morning read the transcript and some of the outside comments. Most people consider it a draw; a CNN poll showed a slight advantage for President Obama, but small enough to be within the statistical margin of error.
It would have been nice to have this debate turn out like the first, with Romney crushing Obama so badly that Obama's supporters, like Andrew Sullivan, said “you know how much I love the guy, … and I can see the logic of some of Obama's meandering, weak, professorial arguments. But this was a disaster for the president for the key people he needs to reach….” But this time the president worked a little harder. And he brought up that phony “47%” business — taken completely out of context — at the last minute so that Gov. Romney had no chance to set the record straight. Obviously, reading the transcript, I thought Romney had the better of it. But I knew the truth — and some people, who may not, might be fooled by such claims as Obama's that he created 5 million jobs — actually, as Romney pointed out, every one of those jobs was balanced out by a job that was lost.
Each candidate had an agenda. Mitt Romney wanted to point out that Obama's record for the past four years was dreadful, and I think he succeeded. Clint Eastwood's empty chair would, of course, have done a better job with the economy than Barack Obama did. So the Obama agenda was to raise fears among the people about what Mitt Romney would do as President — which has been, all along, the tactic of his campaign. With no defensible record, he can only sling mud. And whether he succeeded among those who knew no better, only time will tell. As Stanley Kurtz, one of the few who reported Romney as having the edge in this debate, said, “The core of Obama’s strategy was to distract attention from his record by rendering Romney unacceptable. That strategy has failed. In its absence, all Obama has is the hope of that his base is now large enough to hand him a narrow victory.”
All Presidential elections where an incumbent is seeking re-election are, primarily, a referendum on that incumbent. Barack Obama is trying to avoid this. He can't defend his dismal record, so he is trying to make it a referendum on Mitt Romney, but not the real Mitt Romney — rather, a caricature who doesn't care about 47% of the American people, who outsourced jobs to China, and such. It is to be hoped that on November 6, the American people see through this sham, and send President Obama back to Chicago, where he can ruminate and perhaps write more books about himself, while Mitt Romney goes about fixing this country's problems.
It would have been nice to have this debate turn out like the first, with Romney crushing Obama so badly that Obama's supporters, like Andrew Sullivan, said “you know how much I love the guy, … and I can see the logic of some of Obama's meandering, weak, professorial arguments. But this was a disaster for the president for the key people he needs to reach….” But this time the president worked a little harder. And he brought up that phony “47%” business — taken completely out of context — at the last minute so that Gov. Romney had no chance to set the record straight. Obviously, reading the transcript, I thought Romney had the better of it. But I knew the truth — and some people, who may not, might be fooled by such claims as Obama's that he created 5 million jobs — actually, as Romney pointed out, every one of those jobs was balanced out by a job that was lost.
Each candidate had an agenda. Mitt Romney wanted to point out that Obama's record for the past four years was dreadful, and I think he succeeded. Clint Eastwood's empty chair would, of course, have done a better job with the economy than Barack Obama did. So the Obama agenda was to raise fears among the people about what Mitt Romney would do as President — which has been, all along, the tactic of his campaign. With no defensible record, he can only sling mud. And whether he succeeded among those who knew no better, only time will tell. As Stanley Kurtz, one of the few who reported Romney as having the edge in this debate, said, “The core of Obama’s strategy was to distract attention from his record by rendering Romney unacceptable. That strategy has failed. In its absence, all Obama has is the hope of that his base is now large enough to hand him a narrow victory.”
All Presidential elections where an incumbent is seeking re-election are, primarily, a referendum on that incumbent. Barack Obama is trying to avoid this. He can't defend his dismal record, so he is trying to make it a referendum on Mitt Romney, but not the real Mitt Romney — rather, a caricature who doesn't care about 47% of the American people, who outsourced jobs to China, and such. It is to be hoped that on November 6, the American people see through this sham, and send President Obama back to Chicago, where he can ruminate and perhaps write more books about himself, while Mitt Romney goes about fixing this country's problems.
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