Massa Mitt, please don't make me hit yo up side da haid.
Going into the first debate, every pundit in America was laying the groundwork for a massive assault on the President, if and when he came out aggressively against Mitt Romney. With nearly a month still to go before the election, the press needed a story line, something to feed the beast. Just prior to the debate, the conventional wisdom was that the election was all but over. Given the immutable dynamics of our free press, if the horse race would not support the drama necessary to sustain a good story, by default the press would be required to resort to “afflicting the comfortable”. How can an incumbent possibly insulate himself from spending nearly the last full month of the campaign with the press doing nothing but trying to make the election more interesting by throwing boulder under the Obama Election bus. Perhaps more importantly, Republican money was beginning to move…not to the Democrats to be sure, but away from the presidential campaign and into Republican senate races. What a pyrrhic victory it would be to win the presidency at the cost of losing the Senate.
Coming out of the debate, the Republican base became giddy with enthusiasm for the same candidate that they had held their nose to nominate for the sole reason that only Mitt has a chance of upsetting Obama. And, the money did not move, at least not as much as would have if Barack had wiped the floor with Mitt in the first debate. By my calculations there are at least two likely senator east of the Missippi who will own their seats to Barack’s rope a dope strategy.
During the two weeks following the first debate, every pundit both Democrat and Republican weighed in demanding satisfaction. The chorus was in perfect harmony, every voice raise up demanding that Barack attack Mitt. “Call him out”, “Expose the lies”, “Don’t let him bully you”, “What about the 47%?”, “What about the 99%”. No one could excuse the performance that seemed so out of character, so lack luster. Where was the real Barack? Did anyone look in the briar patch?
By Tuesday afternoon there was not a pundit on earth who had the nerve to suggest that Barack better not be “too uppity”. Still, the polls showed that the projected Electoral College results still had Obama holding Ohio and Virginia, effectively blocking Romney’s path to the Whitehouse. And, Romney had hit his fundamental high water mark.
Last night, there was one huge unscripted uncontrollable outburst from the audience. Everyone was laughing, and Mitt Romney was the butt of the joke. ”Could you say that a little louder Candy?”, brought the house down. Like all good jokes, that line required a set up. Now I am not claiming that the president anticipated this opportunity and deftly laid this specific trap. I just saying that, in a different context, that same line might sound plaintiff. It might sound like Obama was asking a woman to help save him from the more adept Chairman Mitt or if the first debate had gone differently it surely would have been spun as “piling on”.
Next consider this. Jim Lehrer, has been pummeled, by all sides for his performance during the first debate. Yet in an interview many months ago he clearly stated his strategy. He said he would let each contestant be themselves, and by doing that he felt that the true nature of the people would be revealed. On the other hand, Candy Crowley has a reputation for toughness and not being pushed around. She also earned her striped riding the Republican campaign bus for many election cycles. Her sources, her most precious resource are deep within the Republican establishment. If Obama had come into that debate with the same strong lead that he took into the fist debate, I wonder if she would have ever been tempted to truth squad Mitt Romney right on the spot. Is it likely that while she has not affection for the democrats, her years of conditioning and all her instincts set her up to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable?
I have said from the beginning that Obama plays the long game. As an old white guy I hope I can say without sounding racist that, as a people, the African Americans have learned to master this game. The Br’er Rabbit Stories are the distilled wisdom of a group of people who have played against a stack deck for centuries. Maybe Barack had heard these before. Now I am sure that there will be many who will attempt to debunk this theory and claim all this too much of a stretch. My only reply to that charge would be “Massa Mitt? Dat der be tar on yo head?”