All right, I just watched the debate with my mother, who is both more experienced and marginally more politically savvy than I am, and we came to the same conclusion: That Obama came across as measured and presidential, while Romney was petulant and wandered over the line into incoherence at about an hour and ten minutes. The verdict: minor win for Obama.
Then we watched the post-debate coverage. Imagine our surprise.
I have three takeaways I'd like to share. They're lurking under the orange first-place debate ribbon. . .
First: A lot of Democrats (myself included) wanted to see Obama tear into Romney, rip him a (figurative) new one over the lies, Lies, and LIES which we're all just so sick of. The thing is, though, that there was a fascinating little tidbit in CNN's otherwise excruciating post-event coverage. Among the focus group of supposedly undecided voters, Obama's LEAST popular moment was when he laid into Romney over. . . taxes, I believe. Again, he was least appealing to that audience when he attacked. Make of that what you will.
Second: Romney did tonight what he has done all along. He said exactly what he thought needed to be said right now, to his current audience. No worries about what he said yesterday. No worries about what he'll say tomorrow. No worries about the truth. We all know how well that's worked out for him so far, and now he's done it on the largest stage imaginable.
Third: I'll leave better minds than mine to parse out all the ammunition from Romney's performance tonight, but here's an ad I'd like to see running in Florida and elsewhere.
[clip of Romney telling people over 65 to look away because his plan for Medicare doesn't affect them]
Cut to various seniors, with their children and.or grandchildren. "I'm Joe-Bob Senior, and these are my children Lisa and Doug. Mr. Romey, I love my children. I am not going to look away, and I'm not going to let you take away their Medicare."
Etc.
Fourth (yeah, I lied, sorry): I don't think this was a disaster tonight. I'm not sure it was even a loss in the larger sense of the word. I am curious, though. How is tonight's assessment of Obama's performance different than the assessment of his first debate four years ago?
Cheers all