Before the last Presidential debate, the Romney camp knew they were losing and that the first debate was their last chance to get back into the race. And, of course the Obama camp also knew it was Romney’s last chance.
Team Obama also had to know that Romney would come out all-guns-a-blazing with every standard GOP talking point distortion, flip-flop and outright lie he could come up with. After all, that is exactly what Romney had been doing for the past four years.
But they also knew that the President was already being portrayed by the media-villagers, as “aloof and professorial.” And that if he went in and called Romney on every lie and flip-flop, that the media would have surely portrayed him not just as snob, but an angry-snob at that.
Consider that this is how the GOP is now trying to portray Joe Biden, even blaming him for being so angry he dared to smile at Ryan’s lies and distortions!
If the President had done what Joe Biden did in his debate the GOP and the GOP-owned news-media most certainly would have used this “angry-professor” image to hit Obama in his strongest area; his likeability.
Making Obama look, not only “professorial,” but also angry, would help Romney, who has long been considered unlikable by most voters.
If Romney had been able to goad the cool, “no-drama-Obama” into a slug-fest by using plenty of his brazen-lies and flip-flopping bait, the next day they would have made this case.
I do believe that Obama overplayed this cool, detached look and that it back-fired on him in the first debate, but maybe most of it was planned.
I'm guessing that team-Obama decided to let Romney be rude and disrespectful to the President in the first debate, knowing full well that the GOP, news media and general public would call it a win for Romney.
Remember just two weeks-ago when jobs and the economy were the biggest issues in the campaign? Now that the economy and job picture are starting to look much better, Romney had to quickly change the subject.
The GOP changed the subject from the economy to “who-won-the-debate.” Instead of “where-are-the-jobs” and “we-did-build-it,” their new-found campaign motto could easily be “it’s-the-debate-stupid.”
By taking their eye off the jobs and economy-ball, the GOP is making a huge mistake and walking right into team-Obama’s trap. Note that today Obama returned to jobs in his weekly address.
Now that the GOP and news-media has pretty-much officially made being a rude and disrespectful flip-flopping liar, into someone who actually “wins” the debate, they can no longer claim that Obama is being an angry-snob when he asserts the truth in the next two debates.
Note that despite Herculean media efforts, the right-wingers are still having trouble making Joe Biden out to be rude. Instead, the verdict on the Vice-Presidential debate seems to be that Biden “won” by smiling and interrupting, when he was correcting or reminding Ryan of his own past positions.
Now, Obama can go into the debate and call BS on every lie, and even laugh in Romney’s face when he does one of his well-rehearsed triple-back-flips to try and confuse the media and voters about his ever-changing policy positions.
Bottom line, Obama has not just the media claiming that the most important issue in the entire Presidential campaign is who wins the debate, but also Romney and the rest of the GOP. They can no longer cry that the winner is a big-ole-angry-snob.
On Tuesday night, look for Romney to walk in believing he can be his normal robotic-lying-flip-flopping self, and for Obama to use the town-hall format to beat him on the issues and the now all-important “debate-style” by using Romney’s own positions and lies against him.
The town-hall format gives another advantage to the President by allowing the cameras to show the eye-rolling and big smiles at Romney’s malarkey, not by Obama, but by the voters in the town-hall audience.
And then, for a nice cherry-on-top of the three debates, expect the President to be even more aggressive in the finale match-up before the election.
So tune-in, and then just sit back and enjoy! (Oh, and don’t forget to donate!)