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OBAMA VS ROMNEY: IT’S DEBATABLE
Emergency opinion from Team Def Chief Political Batshit Scientist, Lucky Bensonhurst
The first of the POTUS debates is over, and everything has gone exactly as I predicted.
Granted, my prediction was along the lines of this: “Romney and Obama will say everything they’ve been saying for the last year, and that regardless of their actual performance, the party faithful from both sides will not only declare their own candidate the winner by a landslide, but also that the Opposition got his ass kicked all the way downtown.”
So I think I nailed it. Except that the second bit is more true for Romney than Obama.
Or so the Internet says. Indeed, the Internet is a-dither over polls declaring Romney the winner of this round – much to the surprise of just about every hardcore liberal in the country who were sure that Obama would hand Mitt his ass back to him. Even William Rivers Pitt is wondering just what the hell happened to El Jefe’s mojo.
Then again, that disappointment is easy to explain – hardcore liberals frequently made the mistake of assuming that Obama is as far to the left as they are. Which is probably why they expected him to speechify his way to victory and/or body-slam Romney’s lying ass Jon Stewart Style and end the election right then and there. Or something.
So what really happened?
Theories abound.
My own theory is that Obama deliberately pulled his punches – possibly because he was trying to make himself look like the reasonable one in this discussion (which would work great against pretty much every other Republican POTUS candidate this season except for the Mormon ones – who knew?), or possibly because Team Obama figured he could jiu-jitsu his way to victory by letting Romney do what he’s done all through campaign – punch himself repeatedly in the nuts and hand Obama all the ammo he needs to take him down.
That didn’t happen, though by many accounts it could have. Maybe Obama is saving all that mojo for the last debate.
Maybe it’s all Jim Lehrer’s fault.
Or damn, Hovis, maybe it really was the altitude.
Either way, for all the dithering over Obama’s performance, I can’t see it helping Romney that much at this stage.
It’s hard to tell, of course – we’re in post-analysis Media Circus mode right now, and pundits will make hay, as they do. But taking a macro view, I don’t see anything from the debate that would cost Obama the support he already has – and he has a lot.
But as I’ve said before, so far the election has been Obama’s to lose, and it’s safe to say that, in terms of political logic, Romney has bought himself a chance to get back in this. Liberals will complain he got it by lying his ass off. Which is true. So what else is new? No one ever became president by being honest – not even Obama.
But here’s a thing: Romney isn't likely to get away with that again. Obama may have held back in Round 1. But there’s two more debates to go, and you can bet Team Obama will be watching the tapes and rethinking their strategy.
L. Bensonhurst
The first of the POTUS debates is over, and everything has gone exactly as I predicted.
Granted, my prediction was along the lines of this: “Romney and Obama will say everything they’ve been saying for the last year, and that regardless of their actual performance, the party faithful from both sides will not only declare their own candidate the winner by a landslide, but also that the Opposition got his ass kicked all the way downtown.”
So I think I nailed it. Except that the second bit is more true for Romney than Obama.
Or so the Internet says. Indeed, the Internet is a-dither over polls declaring Romney the winner of this round – much to the surprise of just about every hardcore liberal in the country who were sure that Obama would hand Mitt his ass back to him. Even William Rivers Pitt is wondering just what the hell happened to El Jefe’s mojo.
Then again, that disappointment is easy to explain – hardcore liberals frequently made the mistake of assuming that Obama is as far to the left as they are. Which is probably why they expected him to speechify his way to victory and/or body-slam Romney’s lying ass Jon Stewart Style and end the election right then and there. Or something.
So what really happened?
Theories abound.
My own theory is that Obama deliberately pulled his punches – possibly because he was trying to make himself look like the reasonable one in this discussion (which would work great against pretty much every other Republican POTUS candidate this season except for the Mormon ones – who knew?), or possibly because Team Obama figured he could jiu-jitsu his way to victory by letting Romney do what he’s done all through campaign – punch himself repeatedly in the nuts and hand Obama all the ammo he needs to take him down.
That didn’t happen, though by many accounts it could have. Maybe Obama is saving all that mojo for the last debate.
Maybe it’s all Jim Lehrer’s fault.
Or damn, Hovis, maybe it really was the altitude.
Either way, for all the dithering over Obama’s performance, I can’t see it helping Romney that much at this stage.
It’s hard to tell, of course – we’re in post-analysis Media Circus mode right now, and pundits will make hay, as they do. But taking a macro view, I don’t see anything from the debate that would cost Obama the support he already has – and he has a lot.
But as I’ve said before, so far the election has been Obama’s to lose, and it’s safe to say that, in terms of political logic, Romney has bought himself a chance to get back in this. Liberals will complain he got it by lying his ass off. Which is true. So what else is new? No one ever became president by being honest – not even Obama.
But here’s a thing: Romney isn't likely to get away with that again. Obama may have held back in Round 1. But there’s two more debates to go, and you can bet Team Obama will be watching the tapes and rethinking their strategy.
L. Bensonhurst