It's been a tough stretch for us Kossacks to watch the polls tighten nationally and in the battleground states in light of the fact that Rmoney was seen as the better performer and debater in Denver. In my view, I thought that Mittens was pretty good on stage.
He was confident, aggressive and gave the impression that he was a very moderate candidate, basically repudiating every policy policy that he's had in the campaign. Etch-A-Sketch in action so to speak.
Rmoney should have looked polished since he's had a ton of practice in the primaries - I've lost track of how many but probably a dozen or more.
Since I'm originally from the Grey White North, I check in occasion to see how our friends in Canada are viewing this election. Well no surprise, they think that Obama blew the first debate badly.
In an article published by Postmedia News, writer Michael Den Tandt gave his perspective on why he thought that Obama did himself such harm with his passive and inarticulate approach to the debate.
Den Tandt offers an interesting perspective why he thinks these debates matter.
Which brings us back to the televised debates. These are always important – even more so when both contestants are courting the moderate middle. Then it becomes, literally, a popularity contest. Who appears more confident and upbeat? Who has the better one-liners? It’s geopolitics and the fate of the world reduced to a grin and a punch line.
Of course, this is bizarre – even stupid, in a sense. But it’s still the only reliable means yet devised of allowing millions of voters to take the measure of ideas and of their proponents simultaneously, efficiently, in a setting in which they are entirely without aids or props. By this light, Obama failed terribly in his first outing with Romney, and he earned the failure. Four basically competent years in the toughest job in the world aside, if he blows it again, he deserves to lose Nov. 6. If Biden cracks in the face of the younger, ruthlessly intelligent Ryan, he will speed the loss.
So as we have seen today from the latest polling, the bump for Rmoney has started to subside a little but the narrative has definitely changed. The GOP base is energized, the media has clear evidence that the race has tightened and the pundits are eager to frame this election as too close to call. And as Markos noted, the Democratic base was demoralized.
We still have two Presidential debates and I willing to bet some money that Obama will be much much better. I think that we can all agree that Obama is a pretty competitive fellow and hopefully not very happy with what transpired last week.
It's funny that Obama claims that he didn't recognize the fellow on stage with him. Frankly (no pun intended), I would say the same for POTUS. Where was the President that night?