The Republicans say the debate will be a game changer. What do you think?

[OmahaBlueDog]

Christie predicts Romney debate performance will change course of presidential race

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie predicted on NBC’s Meet the Press that Republican nominee Mitt Romney will change the dynamic of the presidential race in Wednesday’s debate with President Barack Obama.

“On Wednesday night Mitt Romney is going to be standing on the same stage as the president of the United States. And I am telling you David, come Thursday morning the entire narrative of this race is going to change," Christie told NBC’s David Gregory.

Asked whether it was too late for Romney to reverse polling numbers which show him behind Obama in battleground states such as New Hampshire, Nevada and Ohio, Christie contended that “the general public that I speak to in New Jersey and elsewhere are just beginning to really tune in to this race."

“Wednesday night is the restart of this campaign,” Christie argued. “I think you’re going to see those (polling) numbers move right back in the other direction” as a result of the debate.

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/30/14158935-christie-predicts-romney-debate-performance-will-change-course-of-presidential-race?lite

Mitt Romney's Secret Debate Weapon: Zingers!

With the first presidential debate coming on Wednesday, further details are emerging about how the two candidates have been preparing for the face-offs. The debates have a special importance for Mitt Romney, who trails President Obama by 4.3 points in both Real Clear Politics’s composite of national polls and their aggregation of polls in most swing states. Many politicos believe that the debates are Romney’s last chance to turn the race around. So what’s his secret weapon? Zingers.

This from Peter Baker and Ashley Parker in today’s 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.

This nicely illustrates one of the big problems that the Romney campaign has brought upon itself: They keep trying to find one magic moment on which they can turn around the race. They banked first on the vice presidential roll out and then on the GOP convention as instances where the American people would see and embrace a new Mitt Romney while finally turning on President Obama in the manner Republicans believe he deserves. That magic bullet instinct also explains the campaign’s jumping around from attack message to attack message (see: welfare attacks, “you didn’t build it,” “bumps in the road,” and so forth).

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2012/09/29/mitt-romneys-secret-debate-weapon-zingers

14 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Time expired
	The debate will have no impact on current polling
	1 (7%)
	The debate will help Barack Obama
	13 (93%)
	The debate will help Mitt Romney
	0 (0%)
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[TheCowsCameHome]

1. Only to the extent that it buries Romney's campaign quicker.

[demwing]

2. The debate will absolutely help Romney

just being on the same stage as Barack Obama makes Romney seem like a presidential challenger, instead of a schmuck.

When you're Mitt Romney, you take what you can get...

[Jim__]

3. I think we've had the game changer - Romney's 47% remarks. - n/t

[gkhouston]

4. Oh, yes, it will definitely change the game.

From Twister to Sorry.

[demwing]

6. DUZY

that was witty

[malaise]

5. The debate will destroy Rmoney

Being able to win debates with the low level bunch of ReTHUGs in the primaries is not the same as debating with an incumbent President int he league of Barack Obama. Even Rmoney has already admitted that Obama is one of the great communicators of all time.


Additionally debates don't change a damned thing - people already know for whom they are voting.

Fuck Rmoney!

[Stewland]

7. We already realize

Today's latest poll of Ohio voters tell us that people know what Mittens stands for and it stinks . He should not talk about tax cuts when he also harps about deficits. For thirty some years the rich have been getting richer and they have not promoted the greater good. The Republican Party stands for bigotry,greed, religious intolerance and privilege for its followers. These ideas are not exactly visionary.

[Control-Z]

8. If romney manages

to stay on the stage the entire debate, next to President Obama, without crapping or wetting his pants, it will give him more than he came into it with. Not much, but more. It won't be a game changer for him.

[XemaSab]

9. It's going to look like Nixon vs. Kennedy

Romney has terrible body language.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

10. Yeah. Kinda like Custer charging across the Little Big Horn to "change the game".

[graywarrior]

11. It will be a diaper changer, coz Mitt is gonna shit himself.

[mnhtnbb]

17. ROFLMAO.

Will Ann have a change of Magic Underwear to give him during a break?

[graywarrior]

21. She'll be managing the colonic tube

[Andy823]

12. Well what I think is

Christie wants to run in 2016, and though I did not watch his speech at the GOP convention, I heard that it was pretty much him getting ready for 2016, and by saying what he did today about a "game changer" it sets the bar very high for Romney and when Romney blows it, this to will be helping make sure Christie has a chance in 2016,

I also read the McCain was talking up the debates also. Well McCain hated Romney back in 2008, and I don't think he has a whole lot of love for him now. McCain lost, he doesn't want to see Romney win and by him also setting the bar higher for Romney, well need I say more.

To be honest I really don't think the GOP ever had any plans for Romney winning. I think they "thought" it would be a neck and neck race keeping the down ticket senate races in their favor, and they would be dumping large sums into the senate races in hopes of taking control of that branch while keeping the House. Romney would lose, but president Obama would not be able to do anything and come 2016 they would lay all the blame on the president, and Jeb Bush, Christie, Thune, and others who they consider their "A" team, would be able to run for the nomination, and then they thought they would be able to beat any democrat that might run.

The problem was that they didn't count on Romney being so damned bad as a candidate, and now they see democrats having a good chance of keeping the senate, and gaining seats, possibly even winning back, the House. Thanks to Mitt, the future isn't look to bright for the GOP!

[OmahaBlueDog]

20. re: Christie

Asked whether it was too late for Romney to reverse polling numbers which show him behind Obama in battleground states such as New Hampshire, Nevada and Ohio, Christie contended that “the general public that I speak to in New Jersey and elsewhere are just beginning to really tune in to this race."

So, the general public wasn't paying attention to those months of GOP primaries, and the general public wasn't paying attention to those conventions, and the general public didn't hear the 47% remark? They're just tuning in now? news flash, Chris -- early voting has already begun.

“Wednesday night is the restart of this campaign,” Christie argued. “I think you’re going to see those (polling) numbers move right back in the other direction” as a result of the debate.

Wait -- so you're saying the polling numbers are bad? I thought the party line was that the polling numbers were skewed, and Mitt was actually winning in most of the places every pollster in America says he's losing. Which is it?

[Donkees]

13. "that magic bullet instinct..."

..."shoot first, aim later"

[NYC Liberal]

14. Romney will say something stupid. You can bank on that.

He's not gone 2 weeks without a gaffe in the past few months. Under intense pressure, on live TV, he'll say something.

[OmahaBlueDog]

22. The more he runs his mouth, the deeper he digs in

...and the GOP keeps thinking they can pick apart Obama lines, and it will change the whole game. They've tried desperately to promote the "You didn't build this business, Mr. President" meme. The problem: the only ones who are swayed by that line are NFIB types who were voting Rmoney anyway. Now he's trying to make something out of the "bumps in the road" comment Obama made on the changing landscape in the middle east. Forgetting for a moment that GOP Middle East policy has amounted to two wars, neither of which have been terribly popular, I think the people who want us to send in the Marines to Libya are, once again, white conservatives who are voting for Rmoney anyway.

..and to your point. He's not Reagan. He's not someone who has spent much of his life delivering the memorized written line. Rmoney's proven to be a pretty ineffective speaker.

[Warpy]

15. Nobody but political wonks and junkies listens to the words

Most people who watch the debates (during commercial breaks in the stuff they'd rather watch) are looking for poise, charm, general demeanor and other non verbal cues. Low information voters are not interested in what the men are saying, they're more interested in who those men actually are.

And who's to say they're completely wrong? After all, it's not the LWV moderated debates in which questions were asked and answered. Now it's a canned speech format, the League having been discarded in favor of tame pseudo journalists.

You can learn a hell of a lot by tuning out words and looking at body language, which is why I watch much of the conventions with the sound off.

My own best guess is that Romney's attempt at humor is going to fall as flat as his attempt to be a reg'lar guy and that he will come across as juvenile and petty. Obama will be Obama, Joe Cool all the way.

I sincerely doubt the debates will have any effect on the polls, just as they're not giving any of us new information.

[treestar]

16. I've always believed the debates will help Obama

Even in the summer when he was behind in polls.

[gollygee]

18. The more he opens his mouth, the worse he sounds

And his mouth will have to be open frequently during the debates.

The more Obama opens the mouth, the more caring and empathetic he sounds. So the debates will help him.

[Buns_of_Fire]

19. "the entire narrative of this race is going to change"...

Wednesday morning: "Romney is an idiot."

Thursday morning: "Romney is a f**king lying idiot. And his mommy dresses him funny."

[gkhouston]

23. That's our narrative. What's the Romney campaign going to say? n/t

[tarheelsunc]

24. I think the debates (first one at least) will help Romney

Obama is already ahead, despite what FAUX News says. Romney is playing from behind and even an average debate will make people see him more highly than before.