I'm going to document two conversations I had last night in this diary. Both were on the subject of the debate. The first conversation was with my wife. The second with a close friend. Both are political independents (or as I like to call them, political indecisives) who pay very little attention to the political back and forth I consume on a daily basis here on DKos and elsewhere on the Web.
So, about my wife. I wrote a diary a while ago about the conversation between my wife and I as we went over our mail-in ballots. As I described in that diary, she's not very interested in politics outside of the occasional 5-10 minutes she'll spend watching Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. She's never heard of the Etch-a-Sketch comparisons and she wasn't familiar with Romney's history of flip flopping and lying about his positions. Here's what happened as I was watching the debate on TV and she walked in during the healthcare segment of the debate after putting the baby to sleep.
Romney (paraphrased): Lots of people will lose their insurance as Obamacare goes into effect.
Wife: That's not true.
Me: It technically could be.
Wife: He's lying.
Me: How do you know?
Wife: Just look at him.
[some time later]
Wife: Obama's not giving him any respect.
Me: What do you mean?
Wife: He's not looking at him. Don't you see it?
Me: He's looking down. But I don't see how that's disrespectful.
Wife: It is, trust me. Romney wants to be one of the big boys and Obama won't even look at him.
Me: So who do you think is winning?
Wife: Obama. Mitt is the hungry new kid who just can't get any love.
Me: Interesting.
Wife: Why is Rachel the only woman?
Me: (shrug)
The next conversation takes place on iMessage with a close friend. He has no strong political convictions at all but claims to generally lean Democratic. I have my doubts, but that's neither here nor there.
Obama (paraphrased): I had five seconds before you interrupted me.
Friend: i have 5 sec, hahahahahaha, he's the man.
Me: you're watching the debate?
Friend: Ya
Me: what do you think so far?
Friend: 90 billion? WTF?
Me: sounds like bullshit
Friend: How you know
Me: i don't. i wonder what the fact checkers will say.
Friend: Fact checkers?
Me: yeah like politifact
Friend: Never heard of it
Friend: So who is winning you think?
Me: i don't know. i like obama. but he's just not there today.
Friend: He wants to be home doing michelle.
Me: lololololol
Friend: Romney looks like he wants to beat him up.
Me: ya think?
Friend: Yup. He looks pissed.
Me: maybe a boxing ring would have been a better venue
Friend: Obama would rip that old guys heart out.
Me: today? maybe not.
Friend: Dude romney really hates him.