Romney's lying and the debates

[andym]

Watching some of the video clips of Romney's GOP debates with McCain and "friends" in 2008 and Gingrich and "friends" this year, one thing that strikes me is that Romney is a good debater in that he stays focused, has seeming "facts" at this fingertips, and he feels free to lie and to act offended by the "lies" of his opponents. I expect Romney to attack the President continually during the debates and accuse him of misrepresenting Romney's positions. Romney really loves to accuse his opponent of behavior in which Romney himself engages. Romney seems to have no problem in angrily railing against his opponents. He clearly can be a "dirty" fighter, the same way he tripped his daughter in law to win the foot race at the family picnic.

My question is how best for President Obama to counter Romney? He can't leave false charges unanswered, yet he will want to be positive in explaining what happened during his administration and how he will move forward. Perhaps he should break out Reagan's old chestnut "There you go again" before Romney uses it himself..... I do think some humor might be needed to diffuse Romney. How do you think it will play out?

[Angry Dragon]

1. When Willard takes a position on something the President should

ask him if he is going to stay with that the rest of the campaign or if his handlers are going to come out tomorrow and say that is not what he meant. And also say that is not what he said in the past. Ask him if he is going to change his mind again. Keep on attacking the Willard and he will start to get angry and go off topic

[andym]

2. I think Romney will try to be evasive as possible about his own positions

in order to avoid just this scenario. Also, he will not be specific because he has not been specific during the entire campaign, and is hoping to avoid the ensuing controversy that any extreme GOP plan would entail.

[Angry Dragon]

3. Then the President needs to call him out on his lack of details

tell him the American people deserve and need to know

[lob1]

4. I think Obama will do just fine. but it's dangerous to underestimate Romney.

He'll do better than the low expectations the republicans would like to set.

[andym]

5. The good news is that I think Romney will inadvertingly set high expectations for himself

as he tries to justify his campaign to his supporters.

[vinny9698]

6. Mitt is believing he will be debating the made up Obama, not the real man.

The GOP has this obsession about Obama not being a smart man but just reads a teleprompter. Remember all the teleprompter jokes. And Newt claiming he could win a debate against Obama, because Obama will not have his teleprompter?
Mitt is in for a big surprise. Obama took on the whole GOP congressional members and made them all look like idiots and on TV.
Later they moaned about how big a mistake it was.

[andym]

7. Good point

Obama really did well against the GOP congressional members. Still, I'm not sure he ever encountered anyone with as little disregard for truth as Romney. It does present a problem when the opponent is going to lie with impunity. I think he has to call out each lie.

[andym]

8. Post debate: It looks like the President decided to ignore many of Romney's lies

perhaps because he wasn't expecting the magnitude of deception that occurred.

The good news is that Axelrod on Face the Nation hints that won't happen next time....