Mitt Romney and Barack Obama will meet each other in debate tomorrow night. And since the polls show Obama with a small lead, the debate will be critical. (There will be three altogether, but it has been this country's experience that the first one sets the tone that the others cannot reverse.)
Jimmy Carter was leading Ronald Reagan by eight points, more than twice Obama's current lead, before their debate in 1980. Yet Reagan pulled it out on the basis of proving, at the debate, that he had what it took to be President. Clearly, this will be an opportunity for Romney, and I will be hoping that he can do to Obama what Reagan did to Carter. This is very similar to 1980 — an incumbent President who seems, to many people, “likeable,” but who has made a serious botch of his nearly four years in the White House, challenged by an opponent who is having trouble winning people to his side. There are differences — nobody doubts Romney's competence as many did Reagan's, and Obama has been the exact opposite of Carter's micro-managing type of executive. And Carter's ”like-ability” seems a lot more justified than Obama's, to the point that I am seriously puzzled as to why people characterize this man — one of the most nasty machine-type politicians in recent history — as likeable. But it is similar enough that I am seriously rooting for Romney to find a way to capture the public's favor.
Jimmy Carter was leading Ronald Reagan by eight points, more than twice Obama's current lead, before their debate in 1980. Yet Reagan pulled it out on the basis of proving, at the debate, that he had what it took to be President. Clearly, this will be an opportunity for Romney, and I will be hoping that he can do to Obama what Reagan did to Carter. This is very similar to 1980 — an incumbent President who seems, to many people, “likeable,” but who has made a serious botch of his nearly four years in the White House, challenged by an opponent who is having trouble winning people to his side. There are differences — nobody doubts Romney's competence as many did Reagan's, and Obama has been the exact opposite of Carter's micro-managing type of executive. And Carter's ”like-ability” seems a lot more justified than Obama's, to the point that I am seriously puzzled as to why people characterize this man — one of the most nasty machine-type politicians in recent history — as likeable. But it is similar enough that I am seriously rooting for Romney to find a way to capture the public's favor.
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