I love this pic I found while searching for "presidential debate":
It shows the aloof, condescending Obama in his most typical state — and shows an angry, frustrated Romney railing against the system in his most untypical state. Just the way we like it.
And do you know what?
I bet it was posted by a Lefty. He wanted to show Obama as calm and reasoning and Romney as totally unhinged.
Such is the eye of the beholder.
Stage 1: The Primaries
I don't think anyone reading my Republican debate posts was surprised that Romney took the nomination. It wasn't for naught that Mitt won the prestigious 'Most Presidential' award after every debate save one, where he shared it with Jon Huntsman. He speaks a solid platform, he enunciates well, and, more elusively, he acts like a president should act. That's why he kept winning the damn award.
Stage 2: The Conventions
Bottom line? We got a meme out of it ("empty chair") — and the Dems got nothing. Hah!
Stage 3: Rise of the Tea Party
Lurking in the shadows. Waiting in the wings. Step right up, pick yer metaphor.
Personally, I think it's going to be 2010 all over again. For those of you scoring at home, we had a mid-term election two years ago where the Repubs totally clobbered the Dems, taking back the House, almost taking back the Senate, and putting the fear of two words — Tea Party — into every Democrat's heart.
The good news is that you haven't heard a peep from them since then.
Good news, because the MSM didn't get the opportunity to liken them to the Wall Street Occupiers when they were having their fling, and good news because it appears the MSM has forgotten all about them at this point of the game. This false complacency is just fine with us.
The debate is set to fire off at 9 pm Eastern. More details here.
Despite what Bird Dog and many others view as the evil of pagination (spreading a web post over multiple pages), I am purposefully going to split up this post into two parts right here and now.
(And thus 'Doc Scofflaw' once again spits in the eye of convention! He's back, folks!)
Let me quickly make two points:
1. The Tea Party isn't about this issue or that, it's about a philosophy. A couple of graphs and a good spiel can convince you about an issue. Not so with a philosophy.
2. The Tea Party is devout. They don't need rallies and banners to 'keep their spirits up'. An unshakeable faith doesn't require boosters.
For example, after not being heard from for months, if Sarah Palin suddenly called for every true Palinite to be in D.C. on Saturday, I'd be on the next bus outta here.
That kind of faith and devotion.
And I think that same feeling and dedication that was present in 2010 is still there today — lack of banners and boosters notwithstanding.
The Dems just want to vote. We're ready to vote.
As for tonight's debate, it appears the GOP will not be taking my good advice to use Newt Gingrich as a substitute player in the warm-up round and thus display to the nation what an utter naif Obama is in the wide-ranging world of D.C. politics. Rats.
As for Romney, I suppose one of the biggest fears among the pundits (like usual, I haven't read any pre-debate posts out there lest it warp my thinking forevermore) is that Obama will bring up RomneyCare, basically portraying Romney as a hypocrite. I hope/presume that Mitt will respond as he did during the Republican debates; that there's a shitload of difference between a state-wide health care plan and a friggin' nation-wide one. You don't, for example, arm IRS agents to storm the houses of criminals refusing to buy ObamaCare in a state-wide plan. A small, but discernible, difference.
I don't think Mitt's '47%' comment will be brought up, since neither the narrator nor Team Obama will want the subject of government dependency anywhere near the microphones.
As for the rest of Romney's 'gaffes', a couple of whiz kids pointed out months ago that the MSM was going to label Romney as 'gaffe-prone' throughout the duration — discounting the 1,001 gaffes Biden has made while actually being in the White House — and this the MSM has done without fail. Either way, it's all too lightweight for a presidential debate.
What I hope and pray is that Romney will basically ignore everything Obama says and implies — and just answer the moderator's question straightaway, directly addressing we, the people.
I'm not sure I can sum it up any better than that.
By the way, speaking of gaffes, if you took a survey of right-wing bloggers and commenters and asked them, "How many states did Obama think there were when he uttered his infamous gaffe?", virtually every one of them would answer "57". That's how the meme goes; Obama and his 57 states. Right?
"I've now been in 57 states, I think one left to go." — at a campaign event in Beaverton, Oregon
The correct answer is, he thought there were at least 58.
And now you know something almost no other right-wing blogger or commenter knows.
This is just (slapping fist into palm) the kind of incredibly worthwhile yet utterly meaningless trivia you glean from every Dr. Mercury post!
He's back, folks!
