So Obama lost the debate. It was depressing, and this is not how you fire up the base. We saw the President be crushed and his lead, which is founded on his opponent being a feckless smirking plutocrat, might be undone. I'd like to think that this is calculated theater, and maybe in a way it is, and Obama will be aggressive in the second and third debates, but really, this is deflating.
It's the debt ceiling fight all over again. Republicans come at you and then you decide that everyone wants you to just agree with them. You become bipartisan, and then even when you get what you want (tax increases and spending cuts by the time you might leave office in 2013) no one is happy with you because you didn't seem like a fighter. You become the Democratic candidate that is perfectly willing to cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, deflating your base and independent's respond to the person in charge. No one in America likes a wimp.
However Obama learned to fight with the payroll tax cut, leading his opponent into a swamp and then forcing them to stab themselves by being against something everyone is for, with Obama as the only thing between the American people and Republicans who want to raise taxes on them. It was a clarifying move. It was clear that even low information Republicans got the message. Then he came out with the JOBS act, delivered an excellent speech, and hit his opponent's with a two by four.
So I'm willing to believe that this is the debt ceiling debate again, where he creates a villain in the Republicans and then excites his base by first being defeated and then magically coming out the hero. The problem is he has to paint Romney as a liar, and Romney was not the two legged drudge report he's been portrayed as. I don't think politics is this orchestrated. I usually think that most political strategies are only ankle deep, and all it requires is getting on a podium and saying that so-and-so is a Maoist.