So as a secondary posting today, I thought I would just opine myself on the events of last night and how I saw the debate and the aftermath going forward to the election.
As I mentioned in today's earlier post I saw two glaring things:
- Romney was prattling off as many falsehoods and lies as he could, even taking over the debate and sort of shoving moderator Jim Lehrer aside.........Romney obviously was coached to be the aggressor, and he pulled it off.
- Obama seemed complacent and not as intense as many wanted him to be. He was looking at his notes more than he probably should have while Romney was rattling off rapid fire statements, and Obama let Romney off the hook in many cases where Romney was blatantly lying.
The one big thing that stood out was Romney's multiple claims of Obama cutting $716 billion from Medicare - A claim that has been debunked by just about every fact checker out there - yet Obama did little to challenge or counter the claim.
The Ryan budget takes the exact same amount out of Medicare and does it in a way that harms patients much more than the Obama reduction does, yet Obama failed to point out that Romney was claiming Obama was doing something THAT ROMNEY'S OWN VICE PRESIDENTIAL PICK PUT IN THE REPUBLICAN BUDGET!!
Obama NEVER mentioned Romney's Bain Capital when the "Tax breaks for jobs to China" portion of the debate came along. Why didn't Obama counter with the vulture capitalistic ways of Bain Capital and the jobs that Bain shipped overseas?
Obama never once mentioned the 47% comment that the Obama campaign has used extensively in advertising since the recording became public.
Obama never once mentioned anything about the GOP war on women.
Obama even went as far as to say he agreed with Romney on Social Security needing tweaking!?!? This is a hot button issue that the democrats have been using to hit the republicans on, and Obama comes and and says he "agrees with Romney"!?!?
There just seemed to be a complacency on the Obama side and he did not retort or engage Romney when Romney was factually wrong.
This was a golden chance for Obama and the democrats to come out and punch Romney on his lies, (many were the same lies he tells on the campaign trail) and strengthen the lead Obama has been showing in recent polling and put some distance between himself and Romney going into the final 30 days of the campaign.
Had Obama come out fighting and countering Romney in this debate, Obama and the democrats could have given a swift blow to the Romney campaign which was faltering entering the debate.
Now it looks like the GOP & Romney campaign have been energized. Money from big donors might have evaporated, diminished or been transferred to senate and house races and away from Romney.
This wasn't the deciding moment for either campaign, but it was a chance for Obama to really seize the lead going into the final 30 days and a good showing could have been a blow to Romney's campaign and changed the dynamics.
To use a sports metaphor: Obama played not to lose, rather than playing to win...........not sure this was the time for that type of debate strategy, if it was a strategy, but this close to the election, with Romney stumbling in the last 3 weeks, this was the time to go for the throat and crush what was left of the Romney campaign.............instead Romney now has new life, his base and republicans are energized and they see a glimmer of hope for a November win........a strong debate performance by Obama might have wiped that out and been in a stronger position 30 days out..............this was an big opportunity lost by the Obama camp.
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