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Thursday, October 4. 2012

There's no debate about the big debate

 


Leftie Chris Matthews: What was he doing out there?


Leftie Bill Maher tweeted:



i cant believe im saying this, but it looks like Obama really does need a teleprompter



Romney was the adult in the room


Powerline: It's Over:



 Mitt Romney was in control from the beginning. He was the alpha male, while Barack Obama was weak, hesitant, stuttering, often apologetic. The visuals were great for Romney and awful for Obama. Obama looked small, tired, defeated after four years of failure, out of ammo.



Romney was having fun. The O just wanted to go home and turn on the TV.


Sullivan: A disaster for the President


Politico: Not debatable: Obama stumbled -



  Juan Williams was caroling “Massacre! Massacre!” to himself as he bounded out of the men’s restroom.



Juan Williams was "caroling"?


Pajamas: Left and Right Come Together to Slam Obama’s Bomb of a Night (and Lehrer) - But was the president's bland, dispassionate performance actually part of a campaign strategy?


For the pity vote?


Podhoretz: Massacre leaves liberals in tears


Dejected Libs Ed Schultz & Rachel Maddow on Obama’s Debate Performance: ‘I’m Disappointed’


Commenter at Powerline:  "Remind me if I ever become a community organizer not to debate a CEO."


Commenter at Mediaite: About a hour into the debate, I almost felt bad for the President. He was completely outclassed and seemed intimidated by the Governor.


Best comment line is from Insty: "The ego has landed."


Best line from Romney: “I’ve been in business for 25 years. I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Romney said in the most devastating understatement of the night.



Romney Schools Obama on How the Economy Works:



Obama was totally uncomfortable in the debate forum. As Tom Stemberg, Co-founder and former CEO of Staples said to Neil Cavuto, following the debate, “President Obama is terrific on his feet when no one is challenging him to the facts.”



Krauthammer: Romney ‘won by two touchdowns’:



“With Obama, I thought he had a very weak night,” Krauthammer said. “It looked as if he’s sitting on a lead."



NRO:



What viewers saw last night was the real Obama — slow-witted, unable to think effectively on his feet, desultory in his pre-debate preparation, and thoroughly unimpressive without his beloved teleprompter.



My email from Barack at 12:42 am:



Bird Dog --


I hope I made you proud out there explaining the vision we share for this country.

Now we need to go win this election -- the most important thing that will happen tonight is what you do (or don't do) to help in the little time we have left:

https://donate.barackobama.com/Tonight

Thank you,

Barack


Posted by Bird Dog in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 04:22 | Comments (26) | Trackbacks (0)

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See kids, there is a reason you have to do your homework. In case you get schooled and it isn't open teleprompter.

The MSM didn't do Obama any favors by protecting him. Once he was out in the open, he was exposed.
#1 JKB on 2012-10-04 08:04 (Reply)
The waiter asked "And what will you have, Sir?"
Gov. Romney replied, "I would like an Obama sandwich."
And that's what he had -- Obama for lunch. No pencil, no paper, no taking names. Just an old fashioned a$$ kicking.
#2 SgtBob (Link) on 2012-10-04 08:09 (Reply)
Wooo-hooo!
It was like watching two Dems debate. One was trying to play the part of a moderate and the other trying to look Conservative right.

Neither of these clowns deserves the support of people who love liberty.
#2.1 Kevin on 2012-10-04 14:25 (Reply)
Troll alert
#2.1.1 bill on 2012-10-04 15:00 (Reply)
This is pretty funny...Facebook put a video up on its login page that features--are you ready for this--empty chairs! Facebook just Eastwooded Obama after his miserable debate performance. It has to be unintentional, I mean, this thing was produced well beforehand. That is, unless they had it ready as a contingency plan, but I doubt that is what's going on here. Go to facebook.com and check it out!
#3 Jephnol (Link) on 2012-10-04 09:02 (Reply)
The video is set to a frame showing an empty chair floating in air. This is what you see before you press play. In the video itself there are a lot of empty chairs. This is hilarious!

God, they can't be that stupid. It has to be intentional.
#3.1 Jephnol (Link) on 2012-10-04 09:12 (Reply)
We have to be careful here and not celebrate - gloat a little at finally exposing the empty suit that is President Obama perhaps, but not celebrate - there are two more of these things and it ain't over until the Fat Lady sings. I'll grant you that she may be warming up though.

I think it is also important to remember exactly who the President was using as Romney in debate prep - John Kerry. Now I have no respect for Kerry at all, I'll admit that right up front, but that was a horrible choice for a debate prep partner - one empty suit talking to another empty suit.

Romney had Rob Portman who, as we all remember, did such a great job at role playing Obama in prepping McCain that Cindy McCain went running from the prep room crying and never ever returned to watch the debate prep again. Romney was wise to pick Portman because he takes his role seriously and does his best to annoy, harass, irritate and just generally be a pain in the ass.

And that's the difference between a politician and a CEO.

Some choice Twitter commentary per my usual post debate commentary:

@Kristi Harrison ‏-- I have to admit they're both pretty handsome. I'm waiting for the swimsuit competition to decide. #debates

@Phil Plait ‏-- After reading all the variations of the debate drinking games, I have decided to simply remove my liver and set it on fire.

@Are You Italian? ‏-- The debates in my house are much louder. #2012debate

@iowahawkblog -- From what I'm reading, the big winner last night was What Obama Should Have Said.

@freddoso -- Quick, someone give Obama a Nobel Prize in Debating.

@iowahawkblog -- Inside the JournoList volcano lair, Jim Lehrer is being tossed in the shark tank.

@iowahawkblog -- BREAKING: Sandra Fluke hit by immaculate conception.

@DrewMTips -- My guess is about 75% of MSNBC's audience tonight is conservatives ODing on schadenfreude.

‏@rjmoeller -- #ObamaDebateExcuses The son of George Romney was in my eyes.

I also found it interesting that a week before the debate, R and O were basically neck and neck in the polls - across a broad spectrum of polls I might add. This week, O is ahead and R needs to "catch" up. My money is that this is the election where the polls are totally useless and folks go back to not paying them any attention at all.
#4 Tom Francis on 2012-10-04 10:20 (Reply)
Quick, someone give Obama a Nobel Prize in Debating.

Too late. You have to give him the prize before he debates.
#4.1 Colorado on 2012-10-04 11:22 (Reply)
OK. That one was worthy of a Nobel. Now I have to clean my computer screen.
#4.1.1 jma on 2012-10-05 00:53 (Reply)
Politico spins furiously, yet does not weave. Rumpelstiltskin could spin straw into gold, but Politico couldn't spin hot air into yarn. When ya gots nuthin to work with...
#5 Sam L. on 2012-10-04 10:23 (Reply)
The Empty Chair got sat on.
#6 JimK on 2012-10-04 10:41 (Reply)
...by the fat lady.
#6.1 buddy larsen on 2012-10-04 16:49 (Reply)
Pollster Frank Luntz says he has never seen anything like this as focus groups swing sharply to Romney.

http://twitchy.com/2012/10/03/undecided-voters-in-focus-group-swing-sharply-toward-romney-frank-luntz-ive-never-seen-anything-like-this/
#7 feeblemind on 2012-10-04 10:46 (Reply)
I think it was an overwhelming, and stupendous, shift in attitude by people toward Romney. But as Don Draper says "Success is a reality, but its effects are temporary." The most important debate is the final one. Romney can't afford to rest on his laurels, he can suffer a tie at worst in the next one, but has to have a third debate (there are 3, right? I don't really follow these things closely) which is as advantageous as this one.

Here are the problems, as I see them:
1. He gets cocky. Cockiness can lead to slips of the tongue and the press is salivating for a chance to flip momentum. They won't wait. Any slip will be used to a devastating end.
2. He gets lazy. Doubt this will happen, but his campaign is weird so you never know. He isn't good at responding to Obama's insanity regarding advertising. He has to fix this. Obama could go on an ad blitz that Romney suffers through.
3. It's part of a plan. Seems weird, but think about it for a minute. Reagan in 1984. First debate - the doddering old man, confused looks, etc. Second debate - that devastating comeback which knocked out Mondale for good. It's possible that Obama is playing rope-a-dope and Romney just has to be ready for it. He can't let his guard down.
4. None of this matters. I'm still of the opinion that the press doesn't really care that Romney won by a wide and effective margin. They are busy creating new memes to work with so they can diminish the impact of this over the final month of the campaign. Remember, the key for Romney is convincing about 5% of the undecided votes to go for him....if they don't care too much, then all this is for naught.


The VP debate should be (but no need to go overboard) be a devastating win for Ryan. Biden may have an edge on Foreign Policy, but other than that Ryan is more articulate and more intelligent. Don't count chickens, but another big win there could generate a tremendous turnaround. Biden is funny, though. I think people like him because he's so stupid, they feel sorry for him.
#8 Bulldog on 2012-10-04 11:58 (Reply)
I think people feel sorry for Sheriff Joe because he's such a doofus - a perpetual underdog who somehow wins.

I'm of the opinion that Sheriff Joe's persona is carefully constructed to cater to the low information voter and it works.
#8.1 Tom Francis on 2012-10-04 14:06 (Reply)
I know, it ain't over til the fat lady sings, but the facts aren't going to change between now and the last debate. At best, Obama will have refined his lipstick-on-a-pig application skills by then.
#9 Jephnol (Link) on 2012-10-04 12:49 (Reply)
I know a lot of pro-Obama people, and this certainly didn't change any of their minds. .

It has always been about turn-out. This election will be decided by how many people care enough to vote. For that reason, I have never been as despairing as some about the polls. I am also not that elated by the debate.

VOTE if you're pro-Romney. VOLUNTEER to work on the ground game now. DON'T gloat.
#10 Park Slope Pubby on 2012-10-04 13:17 (Reply)
It was Rocky Marciano vs President Truman Capote. Capote escorted Rocky into the parlor of languid cynicism, and switched on the lights. Lo and behold, someone had redecorated, it was a boxing ring!

And the butler wasn't Andrew Warhol anymore, it was Andrew Napolitano!

And Jim Lehrer was Gym Leerer!
(ok scratch that last one, groan)
#11 buddy larsen on 2012-10-04 15:02 (Reply)
press here declared Obama the unequivocal winner even before the debate was over in massive headlines, then later put up single column messages that US TV stations had declared Romney to have won according to opinion polls.

Was the first time they'd ever mentioned Romney except to regurgitate the "scandals" the US MSM keeps inventing around the man.
#12 J.T. Wenting on 2012-10-04 15:12 (Reply)
Truly, there is no there there. Moreover, there never has been anything there.
#13 Thalpy on 2012-10-04 20:34 (Reply)
How come you guys are always getting emails from the White House? I never get emails from the Obama campaign.
#14 Texan99 (Link) on 2012-10-04 22:17 (Reply)
'Cause y'alls from Texas.

:^(
#14.1 jma on 2012-10-05 01:02 (Reply)
n' Obama's a notorious anti-texite
#14.1.1 buddy larsen on 2012-10-05 04:17 (Reply)
"Texas has always been a pretty Republican state, for, you know, historic reasons." You know,Texas went big for Lincoln in 1860,with the exception of those Hill Country Germans. Lyndon Johnson, a.k.a. Mr. Republican, represented Texas in Congress before being elected President. No point in trying to convert those yellow dog Republicans in Texas, whose great-great-grandpappys voted for Lincoln.
#14.1.1.1 Gringo on 2012-10-05 13:07 (Reply)
Bill Clements, elected in 1978, was Texas' first Republican governor --ever, in all of recorded history.
#14.1.1.1.1 buddy larsen on 2012-10-05 14:28 (Reply)
Dang it Buddy, don't confuse ∅bama's narrative on Republican Texas with the facts!
#14.1.1.1.1.1 Gringo on 2012-10-05 18:03 (Reply)

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