That said: Overall, I give Romney a win here because he seemed more engaged and a fair amount less stiff than Obama. Yet, I thought the Stand-for-Little gop-er Mittster missed a huge opportunity to hammer Obama a lot more over so many of the rotten attributes of the Obama presidency. A bit too nice, Romney was (although admittedly with a number of good lines aimed at swing voters, which lines are likely to resonate)...
But is this (a workmanlike win) all that Romney really needed to accomplish tonight? There's a school of punditry thought (primarily from the right-wingers) that all Romney needed to do tonight was show up and reassure the American audience that he's not (in contrast to the Obama campaign machine narrative) a scary Dick Cheney or Newt Gingrich-like Darth Vader figure. Well, as W Bush might say: "Mission Accomplished" on that front. But...
Not sure that's nearly enough, given that Romney, while close to Obama in national polls, is still distinctly behind (though only slightly or "not overcomingly" -- I just invented a new word) in several of the so-called "battleground states" that will ultimately decide this election in the electoral college. Regardless, I do predict Romney will get a small bounce from tonight in those same states.
And speaking of missed opportunities as I did above, Obama missed a huge one by not even alluding to Romney's prior statements seeming to write off 47% of the American population as not being worth the effort to try to connect with (sorry Jeeves for ending sentence on a preposition). However, I think that may (who knows) have been because Obama didn't want to open the door to Romney commenting on newly released portions of a highly divisive Obama Virginia college speech in 2007 (see last night's post).
Final thought: Although I did find Obama to be fairly stiff tonight, I'm still hesitant to trash his performance to any significant degree since (as those who've read me know that I always appreciate) he made me laugh out loud (literally LOL) several times tonight, albeit completely unintentionally on his part. It ain't easy makin' me laugh, and you score brownie points when you pull that off (again, sorry Jeeves). I mean, this leftist 20 percenter Obama had me rollin' over here! To wit (based on my notes; not precise word-for-word):
-"I share a deep interest in encouraging small business growth."
-"We don't want to blow up our deficit."
-"The basic structure of Social Security is sound."
-"Private insurance companies have to make a profit. There's nothing wrong with that. That's what they do."
-"I had 5 seconds before you interrupted me, Jim" [prior to Obama going on for another 30 plus seconds].
-"Governor Romney has not had the ability to say 'no' to some of the most extreme people in his party."
Thanks, Obama, for the comedic relief! The Good Lord knows we can all use it these days!
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-live-obama-romney-presidential-debate-2012,0,3871379.story
I'M THE RAGER, AND I APPROVED THIS POST.
POSTSCRIPT: A Final, Final important note: I didn't come into this debate having an overly high opinion of the debate moderator, Jim Lehrer. He's a devoted leftist, in my view, who often wore that slant on his sleeve as a PBS "anchor" and commentator. But I thought he did a great job as moderator tonight! He did the job any debate moderator (or any decent journalist) should do: Checking his own viewpoints at the door. And also loved the debate format that Lehrer presided over: No rigid rules and plenty of unscripted back-and-forth between the candidates. That's called a debate, and quite unlike the way most of these events unfold. A BIG Rager Kudos to old battle axe Jim Lehrer on this night (very seriously).
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