The president is a good lawyer. Tonight, he took Romney's deposition. Romney had no choice but to make an earnest effort of it, so he fired all his shots, made all his claims. The president could stand there, knowing the video was running on the deposition and let Romney say whatever he planned to say. The president let Romney come to him and let him stake his positions wherever he wanted. The president repeated all the clauses from his standard stump speeches. He was excessively polite, even tried to pull Romney into a little Mod-to-Mod hug. Romney ran from that by using the con diatribes, so his hand is out there, a hand he couldn't not play. Use the Massachusetts governor thing, use the businessman thing, use the attack lies, use the detail=less policies, promise everything to everybody, including liberty and justice for all.
All the president has to do is peel apart everything Romney laid out in this first deposition. That was an intentional lay down.
The only question is how hard to come on in debate number two, because Romney will likely change his tune again for that. Mr. Obama tested Romney's response a couple times, probing for how he would respond to association with Ryan's budget, not too hard, but just looking for Romney's direction on that issue.
He also probed a little less gently on the Republican Congress opposition compared to the bipartisan way Democrats treated Reagan and Romney himself.
One of the debates is going to be a dismissal of the Republicans as a whole. So far, the target has been Romney and he has sunk the Republicans. Next, Mr. Obama is going to let the Republicans sink Romney and the rest of their ships.
Rope a dope.