Is Obama a terrible debater or are they trying to lower expectations?

[Hamlette]

On Chris Matthews this morning a couple of the pundits were saying Romney is an excellent debater, just look at his performance in the primaries, and Obama is a terrible debater and the Obama campaign is worried about it.

In 2008 I thought Obama did a great job during the debates. Yes, he does hem and haw a bit and I do agree Clinton was better (can we use a pinch hitter?) but I remember him beating McCain by a long shot. But then, I'm an Obama fan and agree I was probably not objective.

Maybe it is wise to lower expectations, like Palin did. Is that what they are doing

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Romney is a masterdebater.

[gkhouston]

14. I guess that means he goes through a lot of Gun Oil. n/t

[Rosa Luxemburg]

67. Rove will be behind the screen pulling Romney's puppet strings

or will he have a remote like Bush did?

Say this Romney?

[Tyrs WolfDaemon]

84. There is a 'special' hole in the magic underwear for that

[pnwmom]

2. Obama, alas, is a terrible debater.

If he's still standing when the first debate is over -- if Romney hasn't just ripped him to shreds -- then it will have been a major triumph for Obama.

[oldhippydude]

8. Romney will win.......

want to bet 10 thousand?

[pnwmom]

45. No, I wanna bet $20K.

[AverageJoe90]

53. .....when hell freezes over. nt

[brush]

24. Huh?

This is satire, right? What's Romney gonna do to win, bet him 10,000 dollars who can lie the most? You're kidding,right? Gingrich and Sanctamonius both beat Romney a couple of times.

[pnwmom]

44. Didn't you notice the winking smilie?

That usually means it's a joke.

[BlueStreak]

43. He's not bad, but ultra conservative

He is always concerned about being perceived as the uppity n-word. So he just refuses to hit hard in the debates.

He makes a competent showing with a minimum of fireworks.

In other words, it is very difficult for an opponent to gain ground on him during a debate, but he doesn't go on the offense himself.

If his current lead is still in place when the debates arrive, you can bet he will play it safe.

[ancianita]

68. Now that he's been president, the old debate style doesn't necessarily apply.

He's got gravitas and way more experience than just being a financier. If expectations are being lowered, so be it, but I say the man will slam Romney and leave him sputtering.

[BlueStreak]

79. I agree with you 100%, but he won't do that

He is still going to play it very safe.

And I really don't blame him. Racism is still very strong in America. If Obama gave the Republicans even the slightest opening to work with, they would be blowing racial dog whistles like crazy.

[brush]

52. Oh!

But what's point?

[BumRushDaShow]

3. Rmoney was EPIC FAIL

during the 22 rethug debates this past winter and spring. Both Sanatorium and Getrich took him down.

The problem will be the so-called "moderators".

Both Creepy Crawly and Bob Shitffer are rethug shills and don't be surprised if they allow Rmoney lies to go unchallenged. Lehrer is a tossup.

[Baitball Blogger]

29. You KNOW Jon Stewart & Colbert will be watching and taking notes.

[anneboleyn]

56. Yes -- Rmoney lost his sh*t when he was challenged by Perry and Santorum. He couldn't deal AT ALL

and he became incredibly pissy, turned into Lord Pouty-Pants, and he made a fool of himself. If I remember correctly, he even stepped into King of Texas Perry's personal space and put his hand on Perry's shoulder, which is BIG no-no in political debates (like Lazio in the debate with Hillary). The only thing that saved him was that nobody really watched the ten million republican debates, he had the most money, and the moderators were soft on him.

[XemaSab]

4. I thought Romney was dreadful in the debates

There's just something off about him when he talks.

By way of contrast, Gingrich is a whole basket of dildos, but there's something about the guy that makes me think going on a pub crawl with him would be a blast; I like Huntsman more than I care to admit; Ron Paul is right about quite a few issues; and Santorum is appalling but at least he believes in the stuff that comes out of his mouth.

[cindyperry2010]

9. gingrich a basket of dildos

oh my god what an excellent explantion for all of them

[GoneOffShore]

63. What issues is Ron Paul right about?

Apart from drug legalization?

I do like that "Basketful of dildos" line.

[XemaSab]

64. Getting the hell out of the middle east

[GoneOffShore]

66. He's an isolationist. No, don't agree.

Even if we do pull out tomorrow, nothing will change.

[Bandit]

71. What do you mean "nothing will change"?

There will no longer be American troops getting killed there.. Is that "Nothing"? Was going into Afghanistan a Huge mistake that will have zero impact on Afghanistan for the future, I think the answer to that is absolutely yes, however we did go there and now it is time to leave and YES is will mean things for American soldiers will be different...

[GoneOffShore]

81. That's the only thing that will change.

But Paul and his ilk are isolationists. Bad for the US, bad for the world.

[Connie_Corleone]

5. Let them keep saying that.

Then Obama can prove them wrong.

[safeinOhio]

6. I'd bet 10 grand mitt says something stupid,

if I had 10 grand.

[Zalatix]

50. If you could find an idiot who'd bet against you on that...

you could most likely go to ANY bank and get a loan for that bet. ANY bank.

[Trajan]

7. You aren't serious ...

Obama is an excellent debater, with the same cool character he always has, no matter what he is doing ...

Mitt was smashed by Kennedy .....

Really .... You actually had to ask ?

[lunatica]

10. Do you remember in the first few months after he became President?

Remember when he invited the Republicans to ask him anything they wanted and it was televised? They tried very hard to do gotcha questions and without any notes he beat them in every answer. The Republicans were the object of derision for a while after that, and they've made sure never to do anything similar again. As a matter of fact you never see them anywhere near President Obama.

That's the kind of debater he is. No notes, and open to any question.

[ancianita]

69. He out-thought the entire House of Representatives, as I recall.

Seriously, he will demolish Romney.

[cthulu2016]

11. Obama is not a great debater, but he is a human being

I expect him to come off better than Romney, who is a weirdo and compulsive liar.

But Obama really is not a great debater. He's fine... he's more than adequate. He's smart and articulate and disciplined, which is important. But debates have never been his strongest suit.

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

12. The Corporate Media will raise the bar for Obama and lower it drastically for Robme

Just as they do for ALL Republican contenders.

[bhikkhu]

13. Romeny is widely expected to gain a 12-point debate bounce

He's the best debater anyone has ever seen!

[GeorgeGist]

42. Only until they watch Paul Ryan destroy Joe Biden.

Few people know that Paul single-handedly won the National Debate Tournament TWICE.

In recognition of his accomplishment, the tournament trophy is now affectionately called the Ryan Bowl.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Debate_Tournament#National_Debate_Tournament_champions/Paul_Ryan

[renie408]

78. He said he ran to both those Debate Tournaments. In record time.

[begin_within]

15. I thought Obama did fine in his last debate...

the one where McCain was wandering around like he was stoned and needed to pee. Obama improved his debating skills in 2008; in some of the early Democratic debates he seemed unsure, but he got better. I don't know what the complaint is. I think Romney will just memorize 6 or 7 talking points and then recite one each time it's his turn to talk, just like Palin did in her debate with Biden. It was like she was pre-recorded. She never answered any question, simply ran through her talking points. Romney will do the same, and when it's over the right-wing pundits will praise him for being "on message" even though that's not the point of a debate.

[cally]

16. I'm worried because President Obama may not have enough time

to prepare with the serious problems in the middle east. With a national security crisis, he may cut out some of his debate prep with advisers. I do think President Obama dislikes Romney and some of that may come out in the debate as snark if his advisers don't reign it in. President Obama was a good debater when he ran but he did have many debates and perfected his responses.

[Jennicut]

17. Obama was a very good debater to me against McCain.

Maybe McCain was really bad? My husband and I both watched those debates. He knows not much about politics. He declared Obama the winner on sheer presence alone.
He thought Biden was much more intelligent then Palin as well but that was obvious.

[The Second Stone]

18. Obama is quite a good debater

if you recall from 2008, and from his Q & A with the Repub leadership a while back.

The moderators, other than Jim Lehrer, are partisan hacks. Nonetheless, I expect that the format will allow Obama to handle Crowley and Schiffer and Romney quite nicely. Their kind of crap only works when they are free to interrupt the speaker, which the debate format does not allow. Not only that, but you don't interrupt the President of the United States when he is talking.

Between a neutral live audience and Obama, I think that Obama will present excellently.

[anneboleyn]

57. I think so too. Plus Obama embodies cool/collected, and Romney tends to lose it and get very pissy

[Indpndnt]

19. Willard debated idiots in the primaries and he still didn't come out on top.

Which is really sad. I'll bet Gov. GoodHair has money riding on Willard blowing the debates.

[skeewee08]

20. President O is a very good debater he is better than Romney

don't forget he went up against HRC, McCain, & the rethugs.

[brush]

21. Don't fall for the hype

Don't fall for the hype. We've seen how Romney handles himself on the big stage, Europe, the Libya crisis. We've also seen how the President is cool, calm and knowledgable in these moments. Don't listen to people who want to see the President fail. He did well in the 2008 primaries and beat McCain handily. And when was Romney so brilliant in the primaries, when he was making a preposterous 10k bet with Perry, or when Gingrich cleaned his clock oratorically a few times and won a couple of southern states because of it? Romney has made so many gaffes the President just has to remind everyone a few times in his responses of Romneys stumbles, and LIES, during the campaign and he'll be good.

[JaneyVee]

22. Huh? Mitt Romney was atrocious during the GOP primary debates.

He ducked & dodged, gaffed & lied. The only reason he won the nomination is because he carpet-bombed the airwaves with negative ads against everyone else & was backed by billionaires.

[Jamaal510]

49. Also because the vote was split among everyone else.

Remember how in the primaries, the GOP had their ultra-conservative anti-Romney candidates, whether it was Gingrich, Santorum, Paul, Cain, Perry, or Bachmann. They each led momentarily, but none of them were able to consistently get a strong plurality of voters and unite the base.

[JaneyVee]

72. Good point. Romney didn't win the nomination, everyone else dropped out.

[fugop]

23. Style vs. substance really

Obama is a great debater if you're into facts and details to back up his argument. If you're just looking for some snarky lines and a sarcastic knockout line, I don't think he's programmed that way.

Then again, Romney is programmed to be a douche, so Obama ought to come out of it fine. But trust the media to complain that he's too serious and too wonky. They nailed Gore for being too wonky (and for sighing and having orange makeup, because that's what makes a bad president), because the press hates serious and smart. They prefer "There he goes again" zingers.

I expect this to be a zinger-light debate. Oh, don't get me wrong. Romney will try releasing a couple prewritten ones, but his timing will suck so badly that it won't end well for him.

Then the pundits will declare it a wash (or, if Romney is falling even further behind in the polls, they'll declare he nailed it).

Then the instapolls will come in and show that Obama was the clear winner.

Then they'll all pretend it never happened and move on. Business as usual.

[skeewee08]

25. As much as I despised him Newt was the best debater in the rethug primaries

[liberal N proud]

26. Sounds like they are setting Romney up for a big fail

Obama is cool and very deliberate, he will get Romney to get off his game and it will degrade from there.

[GoCubsGo]

38. Nah, they're setting up a whitewash.

Romney will suck, but since Obama is "not a great debater", he couldn't possibly kick Mitt' ass, even when he does. They'll find some little, obscure nit to pick as evidence that Obama lost the debate. It'll be just like Al Gore sighing when Shit-for-Brains said stupid things during the 2000 debates. Gore kicked Dumby's ass in all the debates, yet they claimed Dubya won most of them.

[MrSlayer]

27. Best thing in the world. Pump up Romney's debate creds,

I don't want him just having to show up and not drool to be considered a winner. Set the bar high for him.

[Pirate Smile]

48. Yep. Romney's had tons of practice over the past year - Plus, unlike POTUS who has a full time job,

Romney's only job for the last 6 years has been SOLELY running for President. He can do debate prep & practice as much as he wants.

President Obama is at a Huge Disadvantage.

[bigwillq]

28. I think Obama is a pretty good debater

I think the pundits are full of the brown stuff.

[AverageJoe90]

34. Schiess. Caca. Merde. Bollocks. etc.

[patrice]

30. I have low expectations because of the f*ing format. nt

[Laura PourMeADrink]

31. I hear that bullshit line. I think it was misinterpreted. What is the only thing that could

change/stand in Obama's way..... the debates. duh...it's the only even between now and then.

[AverageJoe90]

32. McCain was a frickin' master debater(no pun intended), compared to Mittens Rmoney........

Rmoney.....is basically the GaffeMaster 2000. His Asperger's-esque awkwardness(no offense to any Aspies, self-diagnosed or otherwise!), his wanton rudeness, and his haugthy, arrogant demeanor have all contributed to an early downfall......I'm still regularly shocked by just how screwy this guy really is.

[GoCubsGo]

39. The pundit who made that claim said he's a "brilliant" debater.

I guess it was Opposite Day on the show.

[lumpy]

33. Obama has the answers in his head not on a piece of paper.

Right now Romney is taking off from campaigning trying to bone up on the answers.

[sendero]

35. Utter nonsense.

... Obama will chew up Romney and spit him out. It's not even close.

[Shae]

36. Obama is good at thinking on his feet...

Romney can't help putting the feet in the mouth.

[mnhtnbb]

61. Agreed.

[unblock]

37. obama hasn't shown brilliance in debates. he's shown competence

against mclame, obama's MISSION was to appear reasonable and neither scary not angry.
that's it. he accomplished that, so perhaps that was brilliant, but his task wasn't to get in any memorable zingers or to appear particularly brilliant in any way.

his mission was to make voting for a black man something people could get comfortable with.

meanwhile, mclame was singularly inept in the debates.


rmoney is not likely to be quite so inept; but once again, obama will be in a position to win by playing good defense. rmoney is the one who has the challenging task in the debates. unless rmoney does something major to boost his campaign, obama easily wins by simple showing up and being competent.

[WI_DEM]

40. Well look at his competition in the primaries--It was in a debate that Rmoney

made his $10,000 bet which hurt him as coming off as a rich elistist. Anyway, Obama will be what he always is cool, calm and in control of himself. Rmoney will be trying to throw everything including the kitchen sink and, I think, will come off as even more unlikeable.

[ejbr]

41. Since Romney refuses to release details

he cannot possibly win a debate.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

46. I've been hearing this from even people like EJ Dionne

I don't get it. I thought that he held his own fine in his debates with McCain in 2008 and he was more than adequate dealing with a roomful of Republicans in 2010 when he spoke at their retreat/conference. He really actually pwned them quite good from what I saw of it- too bad the DNC couldn't have put together a good video package and sold DVDs of it (or at least used it as an instructional video for Democratic Party candidates)He can handle Romney IMHO. Hey, where's that good ol' "Chill The F*** Out I Got This!" poster from 2008?

The $10K question for Romney IMHO is going to be figuring out which "Obama" he plans on facing at the debates: "REAL Barack Obama" or "Barack X" (also known as "Empty Chair Barack Obama&quot . If he goes in guns blazing aimed at an "Obama" that doesn't really exist for most of us living in the reality-based community, he's going to make himself look (more) delusional, probably enough so that a lot more people might finally come around and realize that they've been trapped into a Republican Fox News Tea Party web of lies about him for the past 4 years. His only chance as far as I can see it is to respond to the real Obama but even then he'll fall short IMHO because he can't/won't articulate what his solutions/alternatives are to any of the problems he'll be sure to attack President Obama over.

[valerief]

47. Smart guy debates Moron. Moderator is Moron's minion. Media is Moron's minion.

How does one know when someone wins? When the minions say so?

[creeksneakers2]

51. I expect Romney to

go into non-stop attack mode with lots of zingers. Obama has to go on offense too, otherwise, he'll be seen as defending himself the entire time, which is a sure way to lose.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

54. I predict Romney will openly call the President a liar again and again

from the get-go in every debate. This wildly Orwellian tactic is pure Rove and may rattle the President if he does not prepare for it. When Pinocchio accuses YOU of lying, it's a tough charge to rebut in the minds of low-information voters.

You can already hear this tactic being used in new Republican campaign and SuperPAC ads--"The President is not telling the truth about my tax plan."

IMO the Rs are counting on doubling down on their own unprecedented level of prevarication and on confusing low information voters about who is and who is not telliing the truth. I hope the WH is preparing President Obama with detailed findings of the most repected fact-checkers.

[TrogL]

82. It's difficult to debate against The Big Lie

[juba]

55. Not worried

He will do fine!

[tomm2thumbs]

83. agreed

I think anytime mitt rises to talk, he loses points just for showing up!

(irony)

_____

welcome to DU!!

[SoapBox]

58. Mittens is all twitchy and stuff, when he speaks...

I say he will look angry...and twitchy...

And what about that crap, where Queen Anne, wants to be on stage with him?

[genxlib]

59. Destruction

Romney can't realistically lower expectations because his party has spent the last 4 years casting Obama as a minority quota moron that can't string two words together without a teleprompter. Its pretty tough to make the case that Romney goes in with a disadvantage.

I expect Obama to be better than 2008. In 2008, he had core competence but was relatively new to the national stage. Now, he has lived this stuff 24/7 for 4 years and has real world experience and data at his command. That makes debating 10x easier

It won't be a fair fight.

[Bluenorthwest]

60. This is the verbal version of Clint's empty chair, they think they can create their own

Obama and run against him, one who is not so much more skilled and likeable than their candidate. Mitt was awful in the GOP debates, Obama has THE personality perfect for unnerving Mitters, and he's quicker, smarter, funnier, more able to tie one fact to the other and above all, he is centered where Mitt is unfocused and just grasping all over the place.

[kentuck]

62. Obama doesn't have the passion to be a great debater.

He is competent and intelligent but I could see Romney beating him up a bit in the debates. No, he never cleaned the floor with McCain.

[ancianita]

70. No, but this is not bad, in my view.

After McCain says we need to use a sledge hammer, he takes Obama's idea of using a scalpel and applies the scalpel argument to government spending. BHO beats him.

[kentuck]

74. No, not necessarily.

If Romney tells an outright lie and is calmly called on it, then it could work in the President's favor. I hope the President is preparing for the debate?

[DemocratSinceBirth]

65. Better To Be The Underdog

Mitt Romney's debating skills would make Abraham Lincoln envious (SPIN)
Mitt Romney is a pompous gasbag and will come off as the guy who gave you a pink slip (FACT)

[Lone_Star_Dem]

73. Let's see. Mitt has spent every free moment "practicing" for the debates.

He's said Obama will "lie" during the debates.

Yet, Obama is said to be the poor debater? It doesn't add up to me.

[NYC Liberal]

75. It has never done anyone good to have expectations raised for them.

If they want to lower expectations for Obama, that would be great!

[kentuck]

77. Agree.

[get the red out]

76. Romney

Romney wasn't exactly debating people with much going on upstairs during the Republican debates. The President is intelligent AND keeps his cool. Romney is a hot-head.

[cynatnite]

80. Rmoney did not do that great in the debates. Obama will do well. n/t