Hours of preparation for Romney ahead of debate

Source: The Salt Lake Tribune

If Republican Mitt Romney stumbles during Wednesday’s presidential debate, it won’t be for a lack of preparation.

The Republican presidential nominee has spent at least eight days over the past month getting ready for the three debates against President Barack Obama. He’s holed up for hours on end with briefing books, top aides and his sparring partner, Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman, often at the expense of campaigning.

Romney began intense sessions Sept. 4 at an adviser’s home in Vermont. Those ran for three days and drew the campaign’s entire top echelon to a remote resort in the mountains. A few weeks later, top aides flew to Los Angeles for more practice. Romney has held debate practice at his Boston headquarters, and he spent part of last weekend at the Back Bay Events Center, where the auditorium holds 1,100 people.

The reasons are clear: The stakes are enormous given that Romney trails the president in surveys in key states and national polls favor Obama in a close race, and the debates are one of the Republican’s final opportunities to shift the dynamics of the race. Millions of people are likely to watch the debate at the University of Denver, as well as two more slated later this month in New York and Florida. And Romney is looking to use the forums to put Obama on his heels in the homestretch.


Read more: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/55004896-68/romney-debate-obama-debates.html.csp

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There you have it. Romney will have spent the most time and resources on debate preparation of any candidate in history. He went underground in his secret compound in New Hampshire rather than press than flesh with the 47 percent following the RNC convention. Thus, he willingly sacrificed any chance for a post-convention bounce!

Romney then avoided the unwashed masses, and pressed the flesh at secret fundraisers or holed up in additional debate preparation studiously memorizing and delivering zingers that had been written by an expensive team of policy experts and comedians that will cause even the most dedicated liberal to spontaneously erupt in laughter and derision at Barack Obama. This is what lead Chris Christie to proudly spike the football and declare that the debate will be THE turning point and the last of Romney reboots.

Who needs political rallies or even network interviews with little people demanding specifics. Romney does not need to answer to "you people" when he has a village working on make him the perfect debater.