In the barely-moderated presidential debate held today, Mitt Romney came with his A-game and the President appeared as though he would rather have been anywhere else.
President Obama spent much of the debate staring down at his podium with an occasional smirk on his face while Romney looked confident and appeared genuinely interested in what Obama had to say.
The clear difference between the two men was in the conviction with which they made their statements. The President seemed out-of-sorts when talking about his own ideas and often dropped into talking-point-style attacks on Romney’s plans. Romney, however, came out with point-by-point remarks to correct the President when Obama mis-stated facts.
For the first third of the debate, Obama’s attacks centered upon repeating that Romney would cut taxes by $5 trillion. After trying a few times to correct the President, Romney said “I’m used to people saying something that’s not always true but just keep repeating it and ultimately hoping I’ll believe it. But that is not the case.”
The other major attacks from the President were still based in class warfare. Obama went straight to discussing how Romney will decrease taxes on the rich to which Romney said, “I know that you and your running mate keep saying that, and I know that’s a popular thing to say with some people, but it’s just not the case.”
Rep. Marco Rubio said of the debate that the President looked uncomfortable talking about deficits, jobs and the economy, “because he doesn’t understand those things.” At one point in the debate, the President commented on tax advantages for businesses moving facilities overseas to which Romney replied, “Look, I’ve been in business for 25 years and I have no idea what you are talking about.”
Obama tried to re-promise that he would cut the debt by $4 trillion dollars, a promise eerily similar to his 2008 promise to reduce the deficit by 50% in his first term. Romney clearly pointed out that the President was unable to achieve it in his first term and would likely fail in a second.
A tough moment for Obama came when he pointed out the $2.8 billion in tax deductions for oil companies. Romney brought up Obama’s failed investments in green energy companies where he said “In one year, you gave $90 billion in breaks to green energy companies” and that it was “50 years worth of breaks to companies like Solyndra”. As an exclamation point, Romney said that the wasn’t just picking winners and losers, but that Obama, with his investments in failing green energy companies, seemed to “just pick losers.”
Obama said that Romney’s health care replacement had no details, then went straight into discussing the details of how Romney’s plan deals with pre-existing conditions.
Probably the strongest point made by Romney was that on day one he would sit down with leaders from both parties and get things done. A direct challenge to Obama’s statement that it can’t be done from the inside. During the debate, Obama even tried to re-iterate how impossible that would be by saying that “Your’re going to be very busy on day one.” America certainly hopes so – it would be a refreshing change.
Romney did an effective job at reminding America that Obama has been president for an entire term and has achieved nothing in the way of creating jobs or helping America.
Obama was clearly out of his element. Unprotected by a friendly media, he often looked to Jim Lehrer for help and requested topic changes when getting lambasted by his Republican challenger.
Well, Rich, If Obama looked weak & out of place, it’s because He IS ! Although I was extremely pleased with the very Presidential demeanor of our next president, I am also cogitative that Obama was caught off guard by Ronmey’s ability & believe we’ll see a different Obama next round. So am trying not to get too excited. I believe that Romney put to rest many of the doubts that ‘reluctant voters’ may have & stired the base. We need to keep in mind that the fat lady is barely on stage & could sing off key. I thought rather than smug Obama’s ecxpression indicated he was working on keeping his ‘kool’ & frustration.
When the debate concluded I was very pleased with Mitt, however I found his performance not particularly exceptional for the simple fact that I have been following Mitt since he announced and in my humble opinion Mitt was just being Mitt.
It wasn’t until I reluctantly flipped over to MSNBC during a commercial that I began to realize what had happened.
If, like me, you have been with Rush any length of time you have heard him say from time to time, “The democrats are in full panic mode.”
Unfortunately, we could only guess about these things because at these times they would continue to glad-face whatever was going on.
However, Wednesday night, 10-3-2012 post debate I was delighted to find that the democrats were indeed in a full melt down panic!
Poor Wolfed Blitz of CNN shamefacedly announced the results of their “flash poll.” Registered voters voted 67-25 in favor of Romney.
The panel, including Beck favorite Communist, Van Jones were blindsided. Van Jones even announced that Romney looked very presidential, though promising to get him next time.
Admittedly I was blindsided also. It was just Mitt being Mitt.
Then later Frank Luntz debuted his latest unattached focus group guests, and except for one holdout all 25 or so vowed that they were now planning on voting for Mitt. Luntz was blindsided as well.
Of course, any group of independents are likely to be mercurial at best, but if Mitt can manage to keep their attention long enough this bodes VERY well for the coming election.
The theory goes that many of the 50 million who tuned in for the debate had never seen Mitt unchained and once they did, of course they would flip.
Like many who may be reading this, Mitt was not my first choice, but as I have come to learn more about the man, my appreciation has grown many-fold.
I can imagine what a shock it must have been to the millions who are just getting started on their path to Romney. In a way, I envy them.
Norm