In Debate, Romney Plans To Drop ‘Zingers’ On Obama

[RandySF]

Looking forward to the first presidential debate next week, Mitt Romney has a plan: Knock President Obama off his game with some well-rehearsed "zingers," reports the New York Times:

Mr. Romney’s team has concluded that debates are about creating moments and has equipped him with a series of zingers that he has memorized and has been practicing on aides since August. His strategy includes luring the president into appearing smug or evasive about his responsibility for the economy.


http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/in-debate-romney-plans-to-drop-zingers-on

[emulatorloo]

1. But I thought he was going to "fact check" Obama?

I guess somebody thought that through. Wouldn't look good for Mitt to keep saying, "Obama is correct, and none of my ads and claims can survive a fact-check."

[Happyhippychick]

2. And all Obama has to do to defuse it is to bring it up in the opening remarks.

He can say "I've heard my opponent is going to use some clever repartee, I look forward to hearing what his advisors have written" and Romney will be done.

But Obama is so smart he no doubt is confident about his strategy.

[southernyankeebelle]

17. I'm sure Obama will give him some zingers right back.

[kiri]

25. Is that your position today, or is that your position from yesterday?

An excellent tactic for Obama: Ask, "Is that your position today, or is that your position from yesterday?"
Next time: "Is that your position today or from last week?"
"Is that your position today or your position from 2008?"

By the third time, Mittie will be in a red-faced rage.

[aletier_v]

29. Romney has so many positions that Kama Sutra offered him a job

[CaliforniaPeggy]

47. LOL, as if!

[WinkyDink]

59. And then he'll need as many wives as Gramps had in Mexico.

[LibDemAlways]

3. I have a feeling Obama will have no problem explaining the

economic mess he inherited from the last Repuke President. Romney goes there at his own peril.

[BeyondGeography]

4. This campaign sets new records for pathetic every day

[sad sally]

5. Zinger number 15: "bet I can float longer than you...watch me, watch me."

[JackRiddler]

50. Chairman Mao once did that trick. Reportedly.

[Lint Head]

6. What would be some zingers Dumney might use?

Will he have a snare rimshot after each one?

[pinboy3niner]

20. #MittZingers is trending on Twitter

Elon James White?@elonjames
I wont apologize for my success like Obama apologizes for AMERICA! No I dont have proof of him saying that but, um...socialism? #MittZingers

David Waldman?@KagroX
Knock knock! Who's there? Posthumous baptism! #MittZingers

Brinda Estrella?@BrindaStar
I had a good joke but now I'm against it. #MittZingers

Jeremy Littau?@JeremyLittau
OK, fine. I've never had a Zinger. But I do know the owner of Hostess. #MittZingers

Lisa SQOP Bloom?@BloomUtopia
Mr President, tear down that safety net! #MittZingers

I'm Chastastic!?@ThatsMyDILFbert
"I came from a real poor neighborhood. Why,one time Juan had to park the Rolls next to a Benz. Oh, the humanity…" #MittZingers

For more, go to the first link in the OP posted in GD by highplainsdem:

#MittZingers is now trending on Twitter
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021436367

[tallahasseedem]

37. These are hilarious!

The "I had a good joke but now I'm against it" had me in tears!

[ananda]

7. Ho ho

My snack of preference.

[HughBeaumont]

8. I'll bet he'll make clever use of various pulleys, gears and levers too!!

The Late Carl Stalling will provide the soundtrack.

[randome]

9. Fight back with Twinkies!

[Brewinblue]

10. Ooh, this is gonna be fun.

What an ultra maroon. The debates are going resemble a Bugs Bunny cartoon, with Obama as Bugs, and Mitt as Elmer Fudd.

[frylock]

11. i can't wait to catch slappy's schtick..

these debates are going to be epic!

[lunatica]

12. WHY DON'T THEY ANNOUNCE IT AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS?!

Everyone knows no one in the White House reads progressive political blogs.

[bunnies]

13. I dont understand why they would announce this.

Dumbest. Campaign. Ever.

[pinboy3niner]

16. One wag suggested they were out of ideas

And by leaking the story, the RMoney campaign hoped to collect some usable suggestions from comments on Twitter and the blogosphere.

[coalition_unwilling]

24. LMFAO. There's probably a dark truth there (about being bereft of ideas), which is why it is

so damned funny

[kiri]

26. it takes RR's team an average of 3 hours, 45 minutes to issue a retraction of latest remarks

Obama can note:
By the way, it takes your team an average of 3 hours, 45 minutes to issue a retraction of your latest remarks, reverses your position 180 degrees, or "clarifies" what you might have meant. That is too long for this debate.

But this means in a typical campaign day, you get to have 4 re-writes, retractions, reversals.

[aletier_v]

30. What's the stats on a retraction of a retraction? What about a retroactive retraction?

[morningfog]

39. Exactly my thought.

It is true that debates hinge on "the moments," but announcing that you have moments rehearsed is so amateur and will dull the moments.

[regnaD kciN]

41. If they didn't announce it...

...who would bother to watch?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

14. He will have his dozen or so "zingers" memorized,

and then, with typical Romneysian aplomb, he will drop them in completely inappropriate and unrelated contexts, once again demonstrating that he doesn't know how to behave like an actual human.

Obama: My economic plan will create jobs and reduce the deficit.
Romney: Your mother swims after troop ships. Bazinga! Ha. Ha. Ha. I'll be here all week. Don't forget to tip the waitress. Ha. Ha. Ha.

[quaker bill]

15. You gotta go with what you got, but an actual plan might work better.

Romney is such a comedian (not).

[get the red out]

18. Lead balloons

Romney will damage floor tiles.

[David__77]

19. If true, this doesn't sound like a good idea.

Romney is no master of timing - sounds like a bad recipe.

[Whovian]

21. Sorry, Mitt. The I knew Jack Kennedy line has already been taken.

Careful, dude, you don't want to bring a knife to this gunfight.

[Glimmer of Hope]

22. Bring it on Mittens!

[yellowcanine]

23. A "zinger" delivered badly will backfire. Can't wait. Mitt does not do "zingers" well.

He would be better off focusing on explaining how he would govern.

[hobbit709]

27. He doesn't do that very well either.

[aletier_v]

28. "Oh, yeah well, that's what SHE said".

I can hardly wait for that one!

[randome]

31. Obama should just give him the raspberry.

And then respond to every question with an impression of Curly: "Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk, nyuk."

He'd still sound more coherent than Romney.

[sadbear]

32. Plans to drop Zingers on President Obama?

Is it because he's black? That's pretty racist.

[aletier_v]

33. Hey, there's yellow and red zingers too!

Maybe Romney can pull Elizabeth Warren into the circus show.

[randome]

35. Well, they used to make 'vanilla' Zingers, too. Don't know if they still do.

[nolabear]

34. Will he have a drummer on hand to do a rimshot?

Otherwise we might not recognize these "zingers".

[Honeycombe8]

36. "There you go again." or "O, if it were only so..." nt

[Raine]

38. He'll never be able to pull it off, he'll "zing" then give his Beavis/Butthead hee hee hee and look

and sound like the idiot that he is.

[morningfog]

40. Obama should say: "I hope you didn't spend too much time practicing that one."

[gkhouston]

42. Giving zingers to a man with no comedic timing...

It reminds me of back when my sister had a British boyfriend who wanted to learn out to speak with a Southern accent. His rendition of, "His mama and my mama was that close," was so pathetically bad that it had us all in stitches, including him.

[no_hypocrisy]

43. "Where's the beef?"

[aletier_v]

44. A zinger

OMG, not even a real debate.

I can picture Romney's advisors - "Okay, we can't debate on real policy crap, let's just go for the easy zingers".

[bulloney]

45. Zingers? Isn't that a snack cake from Dolly Madison?

What's Mitt going to do? Throw snack cakes at the president during the debate?

That could get messy.

[pinboy3niner]

46. Hostess:

[Fire Walk With Me]

49. He's going to wave them at Obama! Maybe even poke them in Obama's general direction!

The Secret Service will take him down. Kewl.

[bulloney]

51. So, let me get this straight....

We could see a Twinkie throwing Zingers at the debate and going "Ho Ho" to himself from being so proud.

That about covers the line of Hostess products.

[Fire Walk With Me]

48. That sounds like so much fail just waiting to happen, I might even watch it

[PCIntern]

52. Methinks he's going to be dropping some turds...nt

[JHB]

53. This has 'epic disaster' written all over it. I knew Romney wanted to use Reagan's...

... 1980 "There you go again" line, but to depend on them as a strategy? And telegraph it so nakedly?

Reagan was an excellent public speaker. His fan club may overblow his "Great Communicator" rep, but that reputation didn't come from nowhere. On top of that, Reagan had a copy of Carter's playbook, the debate briefing book used in now-infamous practice debates with George Will. He knew the points Carter would bring up, Carter's lines of argument and potential responses, all things that were enormous multipliers to his talents as a speaker. He could prepare his "zingers" ahead of time and had a pretty good idea of when to deploy them.

In contrast, one of his worst moments in the 1984 election was in trying to re-use the "there you go again" line against Mondale. It really didn't get him anything and it let Mondale slap him right back by reminding everyone that Reagan had been wrong when he used it against Carter.


Obama is a much more agile speaker than Mitt is. He can shift gears without grinding the clutch. If Mitt's depending on some pre-memorized 'zingers' and everyone knows he's doing that[/i, odds favor Obama giving him fencing lessons: in particular schooling him on the meaning of 'parry and riposte'.

Or maybe 'fish slapping:

[NBachers]

54. Can you imagine being around Romney the last 2 months while he practices his "zingers" ad nauseum?

I can just hear Queen Ann shrieking, "Stop It! Stop It!"

[Warren DeMontague]

55. Yeah- he can use ones like "you would let women who havent even been LEGITIMIATELY raped,

Get abortions!"



ZZZZZZING!

[Warren DeMontague]

56. "How can you know about the experiences of the little people, when you dont even have

A team of Mexicans to groom your dressage horse and operate your car elevator?"


ZZZZZZING!

[Warren DeMontague]

57. "I know your Health Care law is bad, because I helped write it!"

ZING!

[WinkyDink]

58. Shaking in his boots, Obama is. NOT. "Is this election a joke to you, Mitt?"