What should Obama do if Romney repeats his performance at the second debate?

[PM Martin]

Should Romney stay with his false moderate image, what should Obama do to counter these blatent lies?

[treestar]

1. Hell if I know

I hope the campaign has some ideas.

[brush]

20. Town Hall

Isn't the second debate supposed to be town hall style with people in the audience asking questions? If that's the case the President has the advantage because of Romney's empathy problem.

[treestar]

22. Yes, that's going to help the President a lot

Rmoney will do something like look at his watch. In fact he will hate "you people" getting to question him.

[msongs]

2. "You got away with this at the first debate. Tonight I'm holding you accountable" nt

[mzmolly]

11. Yep.

[pa28]

15. Absolutely. n/t

[NotThisTime]

27. That's right EVERY SINGLE TIME.... he doesn't have to be rude, just call it out.

And keep his composure while doing so.

[uponit7771]

29. +1! Then discredite him 2 - 3 times with the SAME theme and it'll STICK!

[Drahthaardogs]

35. He has to call him out on it.

The lies, the time overruns, etc. He has no choice but to do that.

[Life Long Dem]

3. In the last debate

The President would have had to correct 27 of Romney's lies. Obama did correct some lies but he couldn't get his message out and correct all of his lies at the same time. So I would think Obama will correct some of his big lies as he did in the last debate, and that would be about all I think he could do.

It's going to be a townhall debate, so that may go over better with Obama than Mitt.

[graham4anything]

4. nothing. the debates don't matter, see my other thread on the 192.

Obama won.
stop freaking out.

and if I had Obama's ear- I would tell him- do not change who you are. Just be you.

and never call Mitt a liar. It is unpresidential. and not one Obama voter changed to the other side, and we do not need, nor care about any Mitt voter whatsoever.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

5. So Governor Romney

Are we to understand that you are telling the Republican base that you're just not that into them? Or are you spinning in order to convince Americans you are a Liberal Republican in the Nelson Rockefeller mold?

[1-Old-Man]

6. Switch places with Biden and let Joe do the debating.

[Mz Pip]

25. Maybe hire Jon Stewart as debate coach

Obama needs to be quicker with his responses and not let Rmoney talk over him.

I expect nothing from Candy Crawley in terms of actually controlling the situation.

[chrisau214]

7. Look directly at Romney and say;

'There you go again.'

[renate]

8. I don't think he has any choice but to call him on every single one

Maybe it was a lack of oxygen, maybe he was taken aback by the fact that Romney had decided to flat out lie like a rug in front of tens of millions of people instead of just his closed-door audiences, but his performance in the last debate cannot be repeated. It's not an option.

The silver lining (not the ten-dimensional chess move) of the first debate is that Romney got overexcited and his blatant lies are now on videotape. And I do believe that it was a deliberate decision not to say anything about the 47% or anything that might have allowed Romney to take back in front of a huge audience things he's been caught saying in private. But even if there's an upside to what happened in the first debate, if Obama lets Romney lie like that again he's going to look weak. He's not a weak president by any stretch of the imagination, but his performance in the debate was weak, and a second weak performance will start to establish a pattern that could hurt him in the polls.

I'm not worried; I'm much less worried about the second and third debates than I was about the first one, because this time I know he's going to be prepared for Romney to shamelessly lie on an epic scale and he'll come out swinging hard.

[tblue]

9. YOU LIE!

Maybe not the best idea but please at least he should show that he thinks that.

[HopeHoops]

10. Say, "Yo, dude. Grow the fuck up! These are serious issues here and you're not being serious."

[gkhouston]

12. Point out the number of things he lied about in the last debate that have been proven false

and ask when Romney's going to be straight with the American people. "We could stand here all night and say, 'Yes, you did.' 'No, I didn't.' and that wouldn't get us anywhere, so I'm not going to waste all my debate time doing that. Being the President is a serious job, and Americans deserve serious, honest, detailed answers to questions about the issues that affect them. If you choose not to give those answers to them again, Americans are going to look at the lies and evasions and wonder, 'Is that all he's got? Is that his plan for America?' "

[lucca18]

34. Great answer!

There are so many sides to Romney, who the heck knows who the real one is! Romney is a bully. President Obama needs to stand up to him. I think if he does this, Romney will shrivel up like the coward that he is.

[gordianot]

13. Do not let Mitt Romney redfine himself.

Their new line (at least today) seems to be eliminating deductions are not a tax increase. Romney went back on his word that he was going to lower upper income taxes as promoted by Paul Ryan and voted on by the Republican majority. Given Romney's own low tax rate he should be vulnerable on that point. Obama did note that just not agressively enough. Partisan politics is not going away, Republicans are afraid of Obama he needs to use that against them.

Also Obama needs to watch out for numbers given the poor math skills of the electorate; millions, billions, and trillions are confusing.

[msanthrope]

14. "There you go again, Mitt." nt

[yankeepants]

16. Taze him. n/t

[larkrake]

17. make a buzzer noise every time R lies

[magical thyme]

18. Town Hall format will be totally different....

than the last debate.

"There you go again Mitt, lying about your own record!"

or

"There you go again Mitt, lying about my record!"

[lunamagica]

19. Myth will defenetrly, absolutely try to repeat his performance from the first debate

He thinks it worked wonderfullu for him, and it's the only positive media coverage he has received so far. Obama must be prepared for this, must not let him get away with it.... and please, Mr President, please LOOK UP!

[Dawson Leery]

21. "There you go again".

Obama needs to mock or give a subtle demeaning comment to Romney.

[CanonRay]

23. Call him a liar and a phony

[Tennessee Gal]

24. Since it is townhall style, isn't it possible that some people in the audience will

ask Mitt embarrassing questions regarding Big Bird, 47%, his taxes, etc.? I certainly hope so.

I think the President will be very comfortable in the townhall format. He relates to people in those settings quite well.

[Dawson Leery]

28. Should Rmoney repeat last weeks performance, he will do to the audience

what he did to Jim Leher. That will look bad to the nation.

[Tennessee Gal]

30. That is exactly what I am thinking.

It's one thing to be rude to the moderator and get away with it. It is quite another to be rude to a voting American citizen who publicly asks a reasonable question.

He could very easily come off looking like the ass he is.

President Obama will shine in this format.

[CTyankee]

26. Use answers that gently but firmly school Mitt...such as...

"This is where you get into problems with that idea, Governor..."

"You see, this is why it was such a bad idea for your campaign not to use fact checkers..."

"Well, it seems to me that you were saying just the opposite a few weeks ago when you said..."

"Which is it, Governor? You can't have it both ways!" (big grin)

"No, now don't go changing the subject just to get out of having to answer a question you obviously don't want to get!"

[Wellstone ruled]

31. Govenor,is this the way you plan

to speak to the people of the United States. If it is,then,I'am here to tell you differently. You can not lie to the people,they are not dumb. They know the facts,and they know the truth. You are sir,entitled to the facts,just not your facts.

[andym]

32. You'll Romney 21.0 in this debate: aggressive, but trying to show empathy

it will be well-rehearsed no doubt. Some stories about middle-class people trying to make it!!
And how he is the Answer. Ughh.

Obama has to show who understands everyone's problems better and make sure he explains the implications of his policies vs Romney's.
He also has to insist that his policies have been working and that by this time next year it will be morning in america or its eqiuvalent.

[RichGirl]

33. Obama should play offense instead of defense...

In his opening mention Romneys problem with fiction and fact. In light of that it's more important than ever that he release a full 10 years of his tax returns (as every president has, his dad, Paul Ryan, etc) Romney's excuse has been that the media will give him a hard time. Obama points out that if you're in public office, especially president the media will give you a hard time everyday. Point out that the media is still giving him a hard time over his lack of enthusiasm during the first debate.

So Mitt...no excuses, man up and release those tax returns.

[ncav53]

36. Push back on the lies with humor

Obama should push back on all the lies with humor. Look like you're having fun just dismantling the lies Romney spews.