General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 67 million viewers vs. 3 million viewers. And we wonder why Obama never mentioned the 47% [View all]Stargleamer
(1,989 posts)tended to better regard Romney as the person he's trying to portray, i.e. one who cares, then yes of course Romney's deceit only works to improve Romney's chances. Challenging that deceit by referring to Romney's quotes works to mitigate this misperception of him. It's not all that "obvious" as you point out to many of the more uncertain voters in this country that Romney is as bad as he really is, and not challenging such deceit was a HUGE mistake on Obama's part. There was so much available--especially direct quotes from Romney himself--to help voters see just how uncaring Romney truly is. It's true that some of them may have already heard Romney's comments from his Boca Raton speech, but perhaps not all of them, and even for those who had already heard them it would have gone a long way to counter Romney's bullshit, if Obama had reminded them that this is the way Mr. Romney truly is by re-iterating these comments. Not only do people forget as they go about their daily business, but also repetition emphasizes crucial points. Now Romney's surge in the polls just shows that the "obvious" wasn't so obvious to a portion of the electorate.
All Obama had to say after Romney started in the first part of the debate discussing some down-on-her-luck person he met was, "Oh, and how would she feel, Mr. Romney, if she discovered that there's a good chance she's one of the 47% of Americans that you don't worry about, that you feel aren't taking responsibility for themselves, that you believe view themselves as victims?" and "you truly are like an Etch-A-Sketch, Mr. Romney, as one of your Republican challengers in the primary debates put it--you change your position based on who your audience is."
Please don't think I'm blaming Obama himself--I think Plouffe may have given him bad advice, and Kerry wasn't aggressive enough as a debate partner in the role of Romney. Also, Al Gore may be right that Denver's altitude affected The President.
On a brighter note, I think maybe you're right that Romney's goose is still cooked, as there is still some chance that Obama can win in Iowa (a lot of people there already voted), Colorado (up by 3 points), Wisconsin (up by 2 points), New Hampshire and thus win the election.