Obama did brilliantly last night at the debate

[LynneSin]

We need to recognize that Obama will never be one of those Debate champions that just blows us away with orating brilliancy. That's Joe Biden's forte and I think we'll see the gloves come off in that debate.

Obama is a master chess player that has his moves planned about 10 steps ahead and last night Romney fell into Obama's trap.

It isn't the 90 minutes that two candidates stand on stage debating the issues that determine who is the 'winner'.

It's the 3-4 days afterwards when the press does their job (well most of them - we expect Faux News to slack) tear apart the debate details and fact check them to the public.

Here's a scoop - you cannot debate a person who relies on made up facts and lies to win their point. But you win the debate by allowing that person to spew out all their misinformation and let the critics decide who knew their subject matter the best. He's like that old SNL character that Jon Lovitz use to do of a pathological liar. In the end I half expected for MItt to say 'Yeah that's the ticket'

The fact that Romney is still touting that '$700bil+ so-called "RAID" of Medicare' is a joke. Especially since the idea was first found in the Ryan budget as a way to clean up fraud and excessive paperwork in the system.

They say you know when a junkie is lying - they move their lips. Last night we saw the ultimate junkie on display at the debate and the moment his lips started moving we knew the guy was lying and that person was Mitt Romney.

Obama didn't have to go for the kill - he just laid the rope out there and let Mitt do it to himself.


Edit NOTE: To clarify things I did sleep thru part of it. Was sick yesterday but what I missed I followed up with on the news.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. that's all well and good for the small minority heavily engaged in politics.

That does not apply to most people. Most of those who watched will tune out and ignore any follow up reporting.

[still_one]

9. and most likely subsequent debates will not garner as many viewers. A lot of ad money will need to

Be spent now to overcome what happened

At the same time while Romney was losing monetary support he will now have an opportunity to get it back, and that should never have been allowed to happen

[nichomachus]

46. Only those heavily engaged in politics watched the debates

Probably 98 percent of the audience was composed of partisans on either side, all of whom will refract the debate through their own prism.

People who are not political junkies either didn't watch or turned it off after about 10 minutes. It was that boring.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

53. There is a myth that keeps being repeated of a vast "Undecided"...

There's not.

The media keeps acting like the majority of the country is fickle and can flip their vote based on an impulse.

[still_one]

2. He screwed up. They Romney go unchallenged last night spewing all the contradictions and lies.

That is not a brilliant strategy

It will now cost a lot more money with ads to undo the garbage spouted from Romney last night, that is not good

I suspect if one turns on any MSM show today all you will hear is how Obama lost, not the substance of the lies from Romney

Expecting the press to do their jobs was a fatal mistake for John Kerry, and they won't do it

[BenzoDia]

3. I wouldn't say Obama was brilliant. He may have succeeded in not flubbing.

But there was plenty of room for calling Romney lies w/o slipping up.

[seabeyond]

4. yes. and further. if obama spent all his time challenging the many lies, obama would be pegged

as the angry black man which is what romney was after. and didnt get. having experienced arguing lies, i know, even if doing it unemotionally and with facts, the liar will continue and both are pegged negatively.

[treestar]

8. Yeah exactly, if Obama had done it like people are demanding

it would have been all about how Rmoney controlled the debate and its subjects and the framing.

[seabeyond]

11. correct. i have learned, one puts out facts. lie comes. may call one out.... but, no more.

continue on path of staying on message. informing and educating what obama wants in the future and what he has done in the past.

you have to stop the back and forth at some time, or both are called for a time out.

[Voice for Peace]

52. Obama never became defensive, which is to his great credit.

Last edited Thu Oct 4, 2012, 02:50 PM - Edit history (1)

He stayed with the facts and he stayed clear and calm.

I was struck by the different energies when they switched
from one to the other. Mitt all wavy arms and frantic and
manic, practically spitting. Obama measured, calm, not
lacking confidence at any point.

I'm agreeing with posters who are saying it was best
to let Mitt run off his mouth and have his hour of
imaginary glory. Because it's all downhill from here
for him, with the expectations of him now much higher.

[seabeyond]

55. truly, that is what i see will happen. give it time. but, i agree with you. nt

[magical thyme]

15. you don't get pegged as angry if you do it with a gentle smile...

and shake of the head, "There you go again, lying about my record."

[bluemarkers]

39. Exactly!!!

I've been thinking this all along. Obama really can't do aggressive because - wait for this - his skin is heavily pigmented! omg

However, I do feel like Obama is brilliant and has a plan for all three debates. It's much better to finish strong.

[Whisp]

41. you are right.

There was no way he could keep up with all the LIES that spewed out of Mittsy's headhole. Everything that fucker said was a huge lie.

Obama did get a few under the radar sort of jabs at Romney (about how the teaparty has kidnapped the Pugs, for ex). Romney looked cool as a cuke coming onto the stage and about 15 minutes in or so he started falling apart. Obama started hitting back, in that gentle and deadly way he has where his victim isn't sure what happened, and you could see Mitt change in front of your eyes from that moment forward.

He became red faced, his eyes went all that funny way they do when he's flailing and he started waving his arms around.

Obama won. the pundits and yappers don't know what they're talking about except they need some excitement. Now I hear Rather saying this debate could make Obama lose. holy fuck. That is so stupid it's unbelievable.

[seabeyond]

42. last paragraph..... right on. thanks. nt

[Tsiyu]

5. K & R n/t

[lalalu]

6. Agree completely

Remember the birther movement with Trump and all their lies? The media was fawning all over him and giving Trump praise and a platform. Now Trump just pretends it never happened.

[LynneSin]

12. That was a classic Obama maneuver

Personally Obama shouldn't have been bothered to release a document not even recognized by the state of Hawaii as an official birth certificate however....

He released it right before the White House Correspondence dinner and the weekend when bin Laden was captured. I don't know which move was more brilliant - the look of Trumps scowl during the WHCD or the fact that Obama interrupted Trump's show 'The Apprentice' to announce bin Laden was dead.

[treestar]

7. Yes, the debate does not take place in isolation

The campaigns are still ongoing. Rmoney created several sound bites. It's the you-tube and internet age, so the debates now are nothing like those of the Reagan days.

[Whisp]

43. I think I heard Rather say that this could lose Obama the election, this debate.

maybe we should just all pack it in and give up, eh?



Rather = Douchenozzle.

[treestar]

45. I know so over the top

The drama! It wrecks their credibility, since one knows another debate might have them saying something different. The town hall style debate - I remember how Clinton did well on that and Poppy looked at his watch - that's the one that will make Rmoney really nervous.

[MineralMan]

10. I wouldn't say brilliantly. But he acquitted himself

well. Romney was hyper, untruthful, and aggressive. Obama was collected, cool, and truthful. The nattering pundits were all about the drama, and less about the facts.

I thought the whole debate was ho-hum. I watched the first half, and listened to the second half.

[NYC_SKP]

13. It was classic, "I'll let ya know later when I'm ready to beat your ass..."

Right now I'm thinking about how lucky I was 20 years ago- I've got a date with my wife after this debate.

You go ahead and debate yourself.

K/R

[sfpcjock]

14. Well said! k/r

[99Forever]

16. I have all the respect in the world for you, LynnSin.

But "brilliant," Obama was not. He was dull and seemed distracted, as if he was barely even there. As has been pointed out, ad nauseum, this morning, the people whom this was aimed at, independents who don't follow this stuff like us political junkies do, won't be listening as the 3-4 days afterwards when the press does their job (well most of them - we expect Faux News to slack) tear apart the debate details and fact check them to the public." The time to confront those lies, was when they were made, BY the man they were made against, TO the man who made them, not down the road by surrogates. Nor will there be the large audience at the later debates.

Just when we start seeing some backbone in some high profile Democrats, the top one gets up on the stage with a jerk that almost no one likes and lets him push him around like a wimp.

Brilliant?

Hell no, not even good.

[groundloop]

21. Pres. O should have borrowed Reagan's line "There you go again...."

And then calmly laid out all the lies and explained what the facts were.

Granted, Pres. O is up in the electoral vote count by a ton, and it's going to take a monstrous slip-up for R-Money to catch up, but damn - if he could have beat R-Money into the ground in the first debate it just might have had the effect of helping out in a few key down-ticket congressional races as well. Pound them now, pound them often, and don't stop pounding until the election is over.

[COLGATE4]

37. K&R. We gain absolutely nothing by

pretending that Obama didn't get beaten up pretty badly last night. There was nothing 'brilliant' about it, nor was it '60-dimensional chess' or 'rope-a-dope' as many are doing their best to say today. Obama appeared to be disengaged, low on energy, a little confused, hesitant and definitely stood in Rmoney's shadow last night. Be it for the lies Rmoney told or be it for whatever reason, Obama single-handedly brought the Rmoney's campaign's corpse back to life and it's a damned shame. I just hope we don't have to pay a price for it in November.

[Hyper_Eye]

48. Exactly right. There was no hidden strategy here. The President lost.

It does us no good to read anything into that debate performance other than what it was and that was a poor performance by President Obama and a pretty good one by Romney. Obama had so many openings and he didn't take any of them. Why didn't he connect the $700B Medicare savings to Paul Ryan's budget that all the Republicans voted for? Why did he give away the issue of Social Security? When it comes to the discussion of taxes he should have said, "My figures come from studying the plan you have been touting for the last year or more. If you are telling the American people you would like to begin running on a different tax plan tonight then please fill us in on the details of it because we have no idea where you stand." He let Romney walk all over him. The moderation was abysmal! Romney took advantage of that. It was obvious that the derailing of moderation was not something President Obama was prepared for. I was frustrated throughout.

We can't sugarcoat this. If the rest of the debates go anything like this Mitt Romney could very well be our next president. Obama could have sealed the deal last night and he dropped the ball! See how well this "hidden strategy" is working out when we see Romney gaining ground in the polls over the next week. It is going to happen. I think we will see Colorado move over to Romney and the same thing might happen in Iowa. The President needs to take this as a wake up call. He can lose this race. He better bring his A game to the rest of the debates.

[porphyrian]

17. . n/t

[deaniac21]

18. You weren't the only one sleeping.

[warrior1]

19. kr

[budkin]

20. Brilliantly? He didn't have to fight but he had no passion

I know it's not going to change the electoral outcome but come on, fight for us O!

[PRETZEL]

22. I don't necessarily call it brilliant

but I do think that he let Rmoney take all the rope he wanted.

I know it's been mentioned many times on many threads that we now have so many avenues of attack from the debate that the Rmoney campaign is going to have to work triple time and double their campaign staff to backpeddle things Rmoney said last nite.

After last nite I think we could easily see a new round of ads showing the total flip flopping on alot of issues. VP Biden now has Rmoney's own words to throw at Ryan now that Rmoney threw out things that Ryan's budget would never be able to fund. The President now can go into the next debate (or the last one, not sure where Foreign Policy debate sits) that even Rmoney's head should start spinning trying to keep his thoughts straight.

It would have been nice to see the President call bs more than he did, but that's just my opinion.

[railsback]

23. Cool, calm and collected.

That's our president. Romney, on the other hand, looked like he was on meth - aggressive, fidgety, demanding the last word. I found it disturbing that so many expected Obama to be a dick, too. Ed Shultz was livid. Fuck you, Ed. Obama isn't Romney. Now Romney is paying for it. Maybe you'll have a different perspective once your testosterone comes down to a manageable level.

[zonkers]

30. Yes. Obama isn't Romney. Ed is no Walter Cronkite.

He reminds me of Larry the Cable Guy. I like your take on the whole deal.

[zonkers]

24. Damn, I concur. In fact, I was thinking of the SNL character, too....

Obama did what he needed to. He behaved like a man winning an election and he also behaved presidentially. Romney looked like he belonged in a David Lynch movie. Obama did not lose his cool or "take the bait". He did not try to debate a liar which could have been disastrous. The debate produced damning soundbites to be used against Romney in Obama's next round of spots. Then we will see who won the debates.

[cali]

25. You can tell yourself that until the cows come home but

it doesn't change that the consensus is that he didn't do well and that Mittwit won that debate.

[Sugarcoated]

28. It's hard to impossible

to combat that many lies and garbage coming at you at once. I think Obama was thrown off him game by the aggressiveness and amount of bullshit Mitt the maniac was spewing. Obama wasn't at his sharpest, but he was steady. He and his team will regroup.

[rock]

40. "Winning" the debate is great for high school kids

The aftermath is forever. Mitt stepped in it big.

[Stuckinthebush]

26. "Brilliant" is hyperbolic

He survived. The good news is that his flat performance won't have a lasting effect on swing state polls. If he has three more like that then it might. He needs to step up his game. I'm all for cheer leading but sometimes you have to make an objective call. He wasn't spectacular. He let a lot of misinformation slide. He was slow and fumbling at times. These "debates" are show pieces - political theater, but that is no excuse for being caught flat footed.

[HuckleB]

27. Exactly!!!!!!!

[elleng]

29. and takes notes and nods and shakes his head when an error/lie is said,

signaling to public and his campaign folks to look into THAT one!

[Bake]

31. Brilliant? Afraid not.

Obama could've put Romney away last night. He didn't. It wasn't brilliant. People won't see the fact checkers days later.

Obama could've called him out
his lies. Instead he seemed surprised.

He's got a big job to do in the next debate.

Bake

[russspeakeasy]

32. If Obama loses, you can replay this debate.

I didn't see any pride in the President's comments.

[Sugarcoated]

34. What??

That's a new one

[russspeakeasy]

50. I'll type slower next time.

[Sugarcoated]

54. Maybe just explain what you meant?

That would make more sense, actually.

[ecstatic]

33. Except, the media (including MSNBC) is still covering style over substance

[DirtyDawg]

35. Last night...

...I told myself - in response to the gloom and doom of the MSNBCers - that Obama was doing his version of the 'rope-a-dope'...looks like I was right. I mean its not 'The President of the United States' job to stand there and holler 'liar, liar, pants on fire'. Hopefully, the fact-checkers will calm the waters. Plus BO will have plenty of ammo for the next one.

[Capt. Obvious]

36. 2 more brilliant debates like last night

and he'll beat Romney by 35% and 49 states.

[rustydog]

59. They were not out to change Dem and Repub minds

They are trying to get the undecided voter...There is no way last nights debate made an undecided voter decide they want Big Bird's killer in the white house.

[Marrah_G]

38. I have not watched the debate yet

And I'm not sure I want to. My very liberal friends all were upset this morning. They thought he did not do well at all and did not seem to be himself for whatever reason.

But, with that said, I doubt it will have any impact on the election which I am very sure the President will win pretty handily.

[hue]

44. I agree with the OP! Pres Obama did not have to go for the kill in this 1st debate!

He who laughs last laughs best!
President Obama was not going to be manipulated emotionally by Rmoney and kept His cool throughout!
This is not at all what most of us expected, especially the Repukes and as a result we felt "let down".

The final analysis is coming and Rmoney's ambiguities, distortions and errors of omission will come back to haunt him-->there are 2 more debates!
I truly think that for at least for this 1st debate it was best for our President to let Rmoney take the reins and SPEW!
Rmoney can do nothing else anyway!

PS: I like the analogy of these debates and the final sprint of the campaign to a chess game as that is how I think President Obama operates (indeed with patience in making His moves) !!

[kimbutgar]

47. I watched last night and I thought the President did ok.

I expected Rmoney to go for the jugular and be aggressive. He was the angry white man. President Obama was the Kool Kat. If the President had gone gonzo it would have been , "see the angry black man is attacking the white man" over at Fox. Let the right wingers and Fox think they won. This debate also gave the President more experience in dealing with rmoney. I think the next debate the President will come out cool and swinging and will dig at rmoney enough to get him to lose it. The guy is smug and thinks he is privileged. President Obama set a trap for him. And Rmoney will be overconfident the next debate. But the one thing that really pissed me off is Jim Lehrer lost control of the debate. Terrible moderation.

[David Zephyr]

49. Thank you for your OP. As the debate settles within American minds, Obama wins.

Thank you for saying what had to be said: "Obama didn't have to go for the kill"

President Obama did not make one mistake all night. He also showed the side of him Americans like: a quiet, but deliberative man who is resolute, but not a hot head."

LynneSin, you wrote what needed to be said.

K&R.

[montanto]

51. I agree:

Obama rope-a-doped Romney. Romney completely exposed himself, lied, bullied, blustered, and the Obama team will exploit Romney's weaknesses in upcoming debates. O is controlling the pace, R is punching himself out. I predict 3rd round knockout. People only remember the last thing that happened, and they won't forget R getting torn to shreds in the final debate. All in the timing.

[LynneSin]

57. I like the Rope-A-Dope comment

Most important thing to remember is that the last debate will be the one that counts the most.

Obama knew he just had to stay calm and let Mitt expose himself - job done!

[Common Sense Party]

58. It's the Audacity of Rope-a-Dope.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

56. He should have known...!

...that you can't play 3-dimensional chess when ding-dongs like my sister are watching. To her "open mind," the campaign began last night. To her open mind, Romney looked like the executive in charge. To her open mind, he was enlightening.

Aren't first impressions of utmost importance? Will everyone who watched last night watch the next 2 debates? I knew going in that Romney's strategy was lie, lie, lie. Did Obama get blindsided by this?

[David Zephyr]

60. Kicking this again.

!