Debate
Presidential Debates:
October 3 (Wednesday): on domestic policy.
October 16 (Tuesday): “town meeting” format.
October 22 (Monday): foreign policy.
Vice Presidential Debate:
October 11 (Thursday): domestic and foreign policy.
Long-time forum readers may recall my saying that “all of life imitates the sport of boxing.” Truer words have ever been uttered in human history. And, intentionally or not, the presidential and vice presidential debates offer definitive proof of this, every four years.
2012 will be historic. No matter if one is a political junkie, excited about this year’s contest, or if one has little interest in, or understanding of things political, presidential debates are like a good heavyweight championship bout. Almost everyone watches. More, everyone has an “opinion” -- which is often based upon their favorite candidate/fighter from times past.
The first debate, featuring President Barack Obama defending his title against challenger Willard Romney, takes place on Wednesday, at the University of Denver, Colorado. The moderator/referee will be PBS News Hour’s executive director, Jim Lehrer. The general public will be judging the bout.
D.U.’s sports forum participants know that when there is a good boxing match on television, I always play host to a number of fight fans. Some are, like myself, retired boxers; others are young, amateur fighters. And still others are people who never boxed, but love the sport.
Last night -- before the HBO Boxing After Dark card -- I attended a birthday party for the lady who now serves as my editor. She is also one of my three top advisors/associates in socio-political activities. The other two include my cousin, who won numerous amateur titles in the northeast in the 1970s, and my younger son, soon to turn professional. By no coincidence, my cousin helps me train my son. More, my editor will now be working as his “cut man” in his upcoming fights.
The third corner man was also at the party -- he, too, left early, to watch the fights. There were about fifty people at the party, mainly school teachers and social workers (including a couple social workers who also teach/taught at the high school, college, and university level). About half of us went from a lengthy discussion of recent boxing matches, to a hilarious chat about this Wednesday’s debate. Quite a few of those folks will be coming to my house Wednesday. After our evening meal, we’ll invest an hour or so in work on a couple of local elections, including setting up a five candidate debate for one important town. And we’ll be working on the epidemiological study of an area village ravaged by toxic industrial wastes. Then, we’ll settle in for the presidential debate.
My house was a stage coach station in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Thus, the largest section of the ground-floor is an open area, surrounding a central chimney with three fire places and a couple of Dutch ovens. I have a television set with a 66” screen. My younger son had insisted that I purchase it a few years back, to watch boxing in “high definition.” It comes in mighty handy when there is a small crowd here to watch presidential debates, too!
When I post a “pre-fight” essay on the sports’ forum, I like to include not only background information on each fighter, but also a general description of what I’ll be looking for during the fight. In this case, I think that we’re all very familiar with both President Obama and Willard “Mitt” Romney. There’s no need to review much about them, except for perhaps a few thoughts on their showings in their recent debate contests. So here goes:
The challenge goes into Wednesday’s contest with significantly more recent debate experience. However, all of it was in the republican primaries. This will be his first date at the Big Dance -- and that arena holds far greater pressure for Willard. Also, in the context of primary debates, the truth is that Romney lost literally every debate in the 2008 contest. The 2008 primaries had far stronger candidates than the 2012 contests. And in ‘08. Romney couldn’t beat a tired, confused John McCain.
Though there were no democratic primaries this year, we have a good idea what to expect from President Obama. In 2008, he was engaged in one of the Democratic Party’s legendary primary struggles, against Senator Clinton. I’m convinced that if you took only the strengths of the ‘08 and ‘12 republican fields, and combined them into a single pre-programmed candidate, that person could not compete with the skills of Clinton in 2008. Although there were several other talented candidates, the Obama vs. Clinton contest was all that mattered …..it’s significance in American history ranks high.
So, I expect that President Obama is going to focus on a good “body-attack” on Wednesday. And that is not simply an attempt to be clever by the use of a boxing term: President Obama will be looking to knock the wind out of his opponent by exposing the weaknesses and cruelty of Romney’s supposed strength, domestic policy. Those infamous 47% statements are going to be slammed home, each and every time Willard attempts to deliver a sound-bite zinger. In doing so, President Obama drastically increases the likelihood of Romney, in a state of panic, attempting to over-compensate in reaction.
Finally, I find it singular that the blow-hard governor of New Jersey is raising the bar of expectations for Romney on Wednesday. I’ve seen his on television twice this morning, saying that Mitt’s performance will absolutely and totally change the dynamics come Thursday morning. Yikes! One could think that he is looking to exploit Mitt’s losing campaign, in order to begin laying his own for a 2016 run.
I hope that everyone has the opportunity to enjoy this year’s debates. And I’d appreciate hearing your predictions for Wednesday.
Your friend,
H2O Man
= new reply since forum marked as read
ramble on and those zingers he has been memorizing will pour out of his mouth at the most inappropriate times. Like a robot with a short circuit 
.
That makes you older than DIRT!
