I've been working in and around politics for 25 years, and I have never seen as bad a week as Barack Obama just had.
And yet you folks go on cheerleading, as if this was part of some grand strategy, or as if Obama has some magic ace up his sleeve. I'll let you in on a little secret: there is no grand strategy, there is no ace up his sleeve, and we're staring down a very, very tough month.
Before the debate, Democrats were in a very enviable position. The president had a solid lead overall, which pushed the narrative that he was going to almost certainly win. We all know how important that narrative is to the media, who always has and always will stick to reporting the horse race rather than the issues.
With a terrible debate performance, he has turned what was a slam-dunk win into a coin flip, and that is just terrible for the country, the world, and for each and every one of us. We have lost the narrative that was going to not only re-elect the president, but also provide coat-tails where we need him most: Senate races, House races, and local/state races.
Now we have a coin-flip race, and Romney has had a week to build momentum and surge in polls (as much as anyone surges in this era). He's tied the race.
Yes, WE all know Romney did it by lying his ass off. We're also high-information voters who'd either vote Obama or sit the election out. But the people whose minds were cemented for Romney last week after the debate? Or the people whose minds were cemented in the last week, as Romney got glowing review after glowing review; who saw Romney stick it to the President? Those people are low information voters. That debate was probably the first impression they had of Romney -- and they liked it.
Folks, it doesn't matter that Romney lied. The people that performance was directed at are not going to go back and worry about whether Romney was and is full of shit. They're not going to fact check his claims. All they heard was the usual crap about tax cuts and getting government out of the way and balancing the budget.
WE know his plan doesn't do anything but cut taxes on the rich and eventually raise taxes on the poor. But that slice of voters don't know, and thanks to the President's awful performance, won't know.
And yet, I go through the popular headlines today, and I see nothing but confidence that we're winning, or that we will win, and that we'll win Senate seats and maybe even flip the House. Perhaps if we were facing an actual human being for a candidate, we'd be able to do so. But against Romney and his barrage of bullshit? Against a sociopath who will literally say and do anything to get elected? Against a billion dollars worth of untraceable campaign ads? What the fuck do you people think is going to happen?
Romney set up the first debate with a laundry list of horseshit about the economy. The president didn't fight back. In the next debate, we're going to see a similar list of horseshit about foreign affairs. Romney will make up whatever stupid and nonsensical phrases make Americans happy and he will win that debate -- and the next one too. He will call the President weak and people will buy it. He will all but declare war on Iran, and Obama will do nothing. He will call Obama weak for letting (as if he "let" them) terrorists kill an ambassador.
Look, I'd love to be more positive. But if the bullshit being posted here is as good a response and defense of the president as can be had, we're going to get our asses kicked.