Obama Let Romney Off The Ropes

In light of my earlier blog, Mitt Romney just might want the Presidency after all. In what was probably the worst debate performance I have ever seen from the President, it is clear he vastly underestimated Romney's ability to deliver a knock out blow. From the very beginning Romney was aggressive, assertive, and drove the debate from start to finish. The President seemed disengaged, kept his head down, and tried a "do no harm" approach that did exactly that. While most people thought a win would look like Mitt Romney just holding his own against the President, turned into a complete route in Romney's favor. There is no question the first debate is always the most important one, the President could have put this contest away last night, but he failed miserably.

So how does this translate? Well for one thing the massive wave of momentum the Obama campaign was riding into this debate simply evaporated in 90 short minutes. It will be a few days until we can access the damage, but rest assured damage was done. It is clear the President was not as prepared as he should have been for this debate. As far as I could see, Obama was too busy trying to be cool, calm, and Presidential, while Romney was taking him to the wood shed. It is clear the President thought he could coast through this debate while watching Mitt Romney self destruct, well that was an epic miscalculation. In politics, no matter how diminished your may think your opponent is, you never ever give him a chance to recover, and last night Romney did just that.

While both candidates played fast and loose with the truth last night, Romney's demeanor dominated the discussion, and in some ways blunted the Presidents attempts to respond. While it is clear both of these candidates don't like each other, President Obama showed it. The forced smiles, the constant looking down, the almost dismissive manner he used to counter Romney's arguments, all made him look like he had somewhere else he'd rather be, and I'm sure by the end of the debate that was completely true.

The big problem I have with all of this, is that the President had an arsenal of weapons he could have used on Romney last night, and didn't use one! His 47% remark, women's rights, voter suppression, his division of Americans as makers and takers. Why didn't he call Romney out on any of these issues? Instead he chose to sit back and play it cool, while Romney eviscerated him. Now while I am deeply disappointed in the Presidents performance, I think this debate is to little to late. It may swing a few people off the fence to Romney's side, but not in the kind of numbers he needs to capture the White House. Just because he had a good debate doesn't change 18 months of describing his vision for America, and while he fed us that vision with a big spoonful of sugar last night, the choice remains clear, and direction each of these men represent remains unchanged. When the dust settles Romney will still be a plutocratic gas bag, who favors the rich and big business at the expense of the middle class, and that is why he is still going to lose in November.