I judged President Obama's Debate performance too harshly.

[bvar22]

Yesterday, I posted that President Obama's passive performance at the debate was another "Missed Opportunity" to drive a stake through the heart of Republican Economic Policy over the last 30 years.
After a day's digestion and some reflection, I have changed my mind.

The fact that he did NOT mention the 47% has gotten MORE air time in the last 24 hours than if he had confronted it directly.

The fact that Romney reversed his position and outright LIED that his tax plan would not benefit the RICH has gotten MORE air time and discussion than if President Obama had confronted it directly.

This pattern is consistent with the many other distortions and lies broadcast by the republican nominee Tuesday night. In fact, President Obama's approach appears to have catalyzed a feeding frenzy that is being reflected in the daily polling.

This was discussed on Stephanie Miller's show this morning.
She said it was like a Tsunami. The tide first goes out rapidly, and the ill-informed rush out to pick up free fish off the ground (the Right Wing Media after the debate) only to be caught out in the flats and drowned by the incoming Tidal Wave.
I liked that analogy.



I wanted FIRE Tuesday night, and Obama played it cool.
Today, that appears to have been the right approach.


[font color=firebrick size=3][center]"If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for,
at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them."
--- Paul Wellstone[/font][/center]
[center][/font]
[font size=1]photo by bvar22
Shortly before Sen Wellstone was killed[/center][/font]

[font size=5 color=firebrick]Solidarity![/font]

[enough]

1. Great cartoon. (nt)

[warrior1]

2. I never though his debate style was weak.

[LynneSin]

20. He's definately not a good debater. That's Joe Biden's forte.

Obama is a good strategist like a Chess player who can see 5 moves ahead that will win him a checkmate.

The only claim that Romney got from the debate was a 'Check'. 'Check' doesn't win the game, just means you got lucky one time with lining up your piece to attack your opponents king. Many times 'Check' gives the person calling it a false sense of 'I won this game' because they can't see beyond the move they just made.

Obama did good. But I do expect Obama to be more fierce on foreign policy.

[Aerows]

37. Joe Biden

Is going to make mincemeat of Ryan, and Obama set him up to do just that. Ryan is a liar about small things, big things and everything, and Joe will call him on it, whereas Obama couldn't do it without sounding petty. The right dogs on Joe Biden because they fear him and him telling it like it is, and with very good reason.

[goclark]

48. I so agree wth you!

Hope we are right in our thoughts on the matter.

[defacto7]

40. Good analogy...

Drawing someone into check can actually be your mate move! Loosing your queen can be a small sacrifice that leads to the kill.

Obama has it figured out!

[arcane1]

3. I agree. It would have been awful if he had spent all his time debunking Mitt

In fact, that's probably exactly what Mitt expected, and practiced for.

[defacto7]

23. yep.. absolutely!

[RedSpartan]

4. Love that tsunami analogy.

[tridim]

5. It's the smartest campaign I've ever seen

They're 50 steps ahead of everyone else.

[Tumbulu]

25. So true!!!!!

[PufPuf23]

6. You made me feel better bvar22

I don't watch TV but watched the debate live over internet.

My overall impression was that Romney bullied POTUS Obama and Lerher and POTUS Obama agreed too often with the creepy GOP nominee.

Always respect your voice.

[bvar22]

8. Those were my impressions during the debate too,

....and I am still upset about the number of policy items with which he is in agreement with Romney, especially "Entitlements". He is even using the Republican Framing, and THAT bodes of bad things to come for New Deal Democrats.

It is important at this point to get Democrats elected, especially down ticket.
Putting policy aside for a moment and viewing the Debate purely as a Campaign Event, I believe that Obama's Cool approach reaped more Campaign Rewards than if he had Gotten Up in Romney's Face.

As a mainstream FDR New Deal Democrat, I certainly have my issues with Centrists, but he is the only horse in the stable for us now.


(I can't believe I wrote "put policy aside".)

[PufPuf23]

12. I too am a FDR New Deal Democrat and

never imagined the course of the USA.

Once thought the end of Vietnam and Nixon left nothing but a good future and even the evil mannequin Reagan was only a speed bump residual to the WWII and depression era generations.

The USA was a kinder and more just society than what I now expect to see the remainder of my time.

[defacto7]

29. I feel exactly the same way

I think of my generation not as the Baby Boomers but the generation of disappointment. There was so much hope in the 60's 70's and now I look at it and don't see anything of it. The hopes and dreams of a world with people working together in peace and building things greater than we can imagine just didn't happen. Our hopes for space travel and common national goals just got pummelled by greed, war and hate. Bigotry is as bad if not even worse than I remember.

We have to pull together for the future even if we aren't going to see the fruits of that hope. So now, we will just move in the direction of unity and peace and keep plodding along. There's no doubt in my mind that Obama is our best hope right now.

[onecent]

7. Nice post!!!!!! n/t

[Laelth]

9. That cartoon is brilliant. k&r

As for the debate, the President is a very smart man. I may not always agree with him, I may even loathe some of the things he has done, but he remains an extremely intelligent person.

-Laelth

[MineralMan]

10. Looking at a transcript of the debate, it's clear

that President Obama said a lot of things that were lost in the fury over Romney's lies and aggressive style. That's too bad, too.

As for myself, I listened to most of the debate in bed on the radio, after watching the beginning on television on MSNBC. I heard none of the punditry following it. My impression of the debate was that Romney flailed around and that President Obama calmly explained his positions.

In our eagerness to find fault, I'm afraid most of us missed what President Obama actually said during the debate. You can read the entire transcript here:

http://www.npr.org/2012/10/03/162258551/transcript-first-obama-romney-presidential-debate

I think everyone should, really. It doesn't seem as though much of what Obama said has been part of the discussion, and it should be.

[MrMickeysMom]

19. I think that's right, MM...

Thanks for the link!

[SemperEadem]

32. The pundits on Current really pissed me off after the debate was over

especially Cenk Uyger. John Fugelsang about snatched a knot in his ass for saying some really stupid shit. He and Gov. Granholm were far more reserved in their condemning of Obama than Uyger, Spitz and Gore were.

[Scootaloo]

47. My finding is that democrats aren't happy unless they have a reason to be miserable

Even if they have to conjure one up. Especially in recent years, since there's a whole generation of liberals who've had their politicla outlook formed by the Bush administration; the notion of a Democrat not just doing well, but succeeding, is an alien, even frightening notion. it seems some people would much rather wallow in misery, claim that the Democrat is failing horribly on every level, and envision themselves the long-suffering underdog.

Unfortunately this doesn't do much to actually help progressive causes, as we saw in 2010, when defeatocrats wallowed in misery and pessimism and basically held the door open for the tea party.

[Ikonoklast]

11. It was a demonstration of political jiu-jitsu.

You let your opponent attack, then use his own movements to defeat or neutralize him.

If your opponent expects you to react in a certain way, trains for it, and waits for you to make the move for which he has a planned defense, and then you refuse to proceed in the expected manner, you leave him standing there wondering what just happened.

That's why Mitt kept frantically repeating himself toward the end of the debate.

Mr. Obama wouldn't follow the script Mitt had written in his head for him, and it threw Mitt off.

[Neutralator]

13. If you bring 47% to debate, you are offering a chance for Romney to negate...

Obama team choose not to confront and keep the issue in play as it can win him election. They knew Romney will have response ready for it, if they bring it up. But Obama didn't give a chance, Romney has to put out separate statement on his new position on 47%. It got less air time and attention.

Obama strategy is to stay on his message, see what opponents attack plan is and give Romney a chance to hang himself. Which Romney has used it on several occasions only to be bailed out by his team. Eventually Romney will walk into Obama trap for a knock out blow.

There is only one big difference. Obama does well as an underdog and when he is on offense. On defense, he is just not the same guy.

Hope the smiles a bit and looks people in the eye.

[SemperEadem]

34. totally true

mittiot would have played the victim and we all know all thug candidates are adept at playing the victim.

[patrice]

14. He was not weak. Less well-informed neutralish viewers saw an even match, because they

don't know what the lies are. There WAS a missed opportunity there to shine a light on the lies, but, since there was nothing but lies coming out of Rongny's mouth, Obama would not have been able to even get close to his own message objective, because he would have been doing nothing but talking about whatever Rongny was lying about. I do wish more specific truth telling had been accomplished for each lie, but Obama was NOT weak.

[TrogL]

15. It depends what air time

Many markets only get right-wing broadcasting and not everybody is on Twitter or the blogosphere.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

16. I think you are right.

I also like an analogy that came up on Lawrence O'Donnell's show last night - some writer had compared Mittens to a bull in a bullfight who kept charging the matador over and over. Lawrence then asked the question: Who always wins a bullfight?

[Indpndnt]

17. Nice post. Very true.

I was happy with the debate, but I am positively gleeful that Willard decided to highlight his biggest weakness, the 47% remarks, by apologizing for it! What. An. Idiot.

[LynneSin]

18. And people mocked me yesterday for saying Obama was 'brilliant'

The guy is a master chess player - he knew his strategy and played it well.

[rhett o rick]

36. "When you fight with a pig you both get dirty, and the pig likes it." Romney is the pig.

Pres Obama shouldnt get in the mud with him. I think most Americans watching got that.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

21. Kudos to you for a humble, wise post

"A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday"
-- Alexander Pope (1688-1744) "Thoughts on Various Subjects", 1706.

[MyOpinion-2]

22. Well said...

I am so glad to see someone else got it. I was explaining to my friends, while they were getting so upset about the President's performance during the debate; this is a great move on the President's part. He is allowing Romney to lie, lie and keep telling lies so he could use it against him in his ad. Just like you pointed out more and more people are talking about what happen, which is a good thing. Also, while Romney was telling all those lies he also showed his hand to the right wing conservative that he really is a moderate; by saying what all he’s going to do once he becomes the President. That’s what I got out of the debate. Thank you for articulating your conclusion so well.

[elleng]

24. Thanks.

We've got a chess master in the White House, not a pugilist.

[TheKentuckian]

26. Can't be helped bvar. No way you could expect the media to even half ass do their job

based on years of observation.

My thoughts were Obama won close which could only mean a loss in the media.

That was also backed be the real world reactions of Democrats I know, though I began to feel hopeful when a non-radical TeaPubliKlan coworker was sending around emails making fun of Weird WilLIARd firing Big Bird rather than crowing.

[BumRushDaShow]

27. Thank you.

It has been awful around here and many of us wondered how folks missed the President addressing many of the issues that were complained about here and having watched this man for 4 years, there's usually a method to the madness. No, he's not perfect, but he's also not as incompetent as so many seemed to insist upon and wail about. I think some even recommended a 2nd viewing from CSPAN without the bias of the split screen.

When we see the enemy, it shouldn't be us, it should be THEM.

[CrispyQ]

46. The CSPN version is good.

You can see Obama clinch his jaw when Romney lies. I bet he had an ache in the jaw after that session of lies.

http://www.c-span.org/Debates/


on edit: Romney looks like a sap while the Prez is speaking.

[upaloopa]

28. Obama just did not take their sucker bait

[defacto7]

30. That's it!

[FrenchieCat]

31. Toon toon!

[BumRushDaShow]

35. !!!!

Perfect.

[DallasNE]

33. Some Things Have Not Yet Been Mentioned

When Gore debated Bush the whole story was Gore's sighs and the one time he ambled over near Bush. That was the only thing that was talked about. There has been no mention of Romney's wild blinking of his eyes, fixed smirk on his face, rude interruption of Obama while he was talking and arguing with Jim Lehrer over debate rules, showing just what a bully Romney really is (good thing no sissors were handy). What we saw in the initial reaction is the gross double standard afforded to Republican candidates. Had the roles been reversed Romney would have been declared the winner because of the very points I listed above. I think the Obama people realized this and wisely did not take the bait. Thursday Obama had a good day on the campaign trail by poking fun at the two Romney's. Wednesday night after the debate I saw that people were only looking at style and the next morning when they started looking at substance a new verdict would be issues.

[B Calm]

38. The more Romney talked, the more lies

he told. I told a friend the next day (who was down after seeing the debate), give the fact checkers a little time and we'll see who won the debate! If Obama would have said anything, the right wing corporate media was ready to pounce on him and portray him as an angry black man. Rush has been saying just that for the past week, but the debate instead showed Obama as a cool, calm and Presidential black man.

In the long run Obama won!

Now Biden will be the bulldog and he'll be able to get away with it!

[Raine]

39. Nice post, THANKS! nt

[KoKo]

41. Romney and his Ideology of Wall Street needs to be brought to light...

There are folks like Max Kieser, Barry Ritholtz, Yves Smith, Real News plus many other places one can find to read about Wall Street Criminality.

And so, this becomes and election about Wall Street having even More Power, and "Power to the People."

So, while I was disappointed in the format of this Debate and Jim Lehrer's weak performance...I have to think about how it will be Progressives to have to deal with the "Mittster" and his gang of thungs....or, a President that will hopefully be MOVED more to the LEFT in his second term.

That is the choice I have to face when I go into that voting booth. For NOW...I will vote for Obama and as always I do the Dem down ticket (I'm one of those who votes every year in the 50 and up group) and have always taken voting seriously....so there's no doubt I will vote Dem Down...but, I do have concerns about WHAT ISSUES Obama is running on to be re-elected and therefore, I've been anxious to see if he ditches the Rahm Emmanuel rhetoric to go against the Dem Party Progressives for Change and will at least LISTEN TO US!

I understand he came in with Bush Mess and has been a good manager given the incredible deck of cards he was delt. BUT....I want to know about TERM II...and the issues that I care about that he will address in his Second Term. The issues (we Progressives know the list) that were put "off the table" in his First Term ...but which need to be addressed in his Second Term...and that's why Obama will get my vote for this second term. BUT...if the issues that we Progressives have are not addressed by the time of the 2016 Election...I feel that the Dem Party will split and that there will be new places that we Progressives will go and that's my conviction. (there are budding signs of places to go...that cannot be mentioned on this site, however)...but they are out there.

OWS! and elsewhere!

Thanks for your post BVAR...

[Doctor_J]

42. No you didn't

his debate performance was awful. Luckily Willard is a despicable liar who's as likable as jock itch. Also Americans like the president, because he's a good, decent, honest man.

But he looked terrible at the debate, and I've lost all hope of him getting the country's trajectory away from the teabaggers. There is no way that psychopathic, treasonous bastards like McTurtle and Boner are going to compromise or work with the president that was on the stage Wednesday. Like I posted elsewhere, I now think I know why the Repukes got 99% of what they wanted during term 1.

[tavalon]

43. Standard rope a dope

Few do it as well as Obama. He's a grand master.

[Tigress DEM]

44. I really miss Wellstone.

[lonestarnot]

45. K & R!