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I Am A Master Debater
Oct. 4th, 2012 08:54 amSome observations following the first debate:
Romney clearly won the optics game. He was smooth and polished in his delivery, had his talking points down to specifics and was able to stay on message throughout. In contrast, Obama had a lot of unnecessary pauses, tended to ramble, and didn't seem to want to engage directly on a number of key points where he could have boxed Romney into his own campaign rhetoric.
Romney won the optics, but his performance reminds me a great deal of Paul Ryan's during the RNC. Initial responses were that the VP candidate came off poised and persuasive, until the fact checkers tore his speech to ribbons and narrative became 'Paul Ryan lies a lot', which is still dogging him. Romney's pivoted away from his core positions of the last 18 months in order to verbally flank Obama, and for a man already defined as an Etch-A-Sketch, I think the narrative will quickly limit any boost.
Despite a poor performance, Obama didn't give up a major gaffe or misstep. Obviously, his campaign strategy was to dummy up on the first debate where Romney's central selling points are showcased, and move big during foreign policy and social issues debates. I don't know if I agree; if Obama had broken Romney's back in this debate, I think that would be about it for the election, but the incumbent has the luxury of being able to play defense.
In short, Romney got the win that he needed to stay alive and maybe halting the rapidly trending free-fall on his numbers, but I don't think he reversed it. The biggest advantage is that they'll go into the foreign policy debate on roughly equal terms, as opposed to one candidate in a must win position. If Romney scores another victory, he's got a chance to reverse his decline and make some gains. He can't win; the electoral breakdown is so far out of his reach that he'd need an average of an 8-10 point shift in the swing states just to get himself in the margin of error to take enough seats, but he may be able to reverse the damage down ticket and help the Republicans put the Senate strongly back in play. As for Obama, he needs to come into the foreign policy debate ready to be aggressive and dismissive. Romney is a foreign policy lightweight who is going to be leaning on talking points from the likes of John Bolton. Obama needs to be ready to isolate those points and counterpunch hard to draw a strict line between his policies and the GOP.
Romney clearly won the optics game. He was smooth and polished in his delivery, had his talking points down to specifics and was able to stay on message throughout. In contrast, Obama had a lot of unnecessary pauses, tended to ramble, and didn't seem to want to engage directly on a number of key points where he could have boxed Romney into his own campaign rhetoric.
Romney won the optics, but his performance reminds me a great deal of Paul Ryan's during the RNC. Initial responses were that the VP candidate came off poised and persuasive, until the fact checkers tore his speech to ribbons and narrative became 'Paul Ryan lies a lot', which is still dogging him. Romney's pivoted away from his core positions of the last 18 months in order to verbally flank Obama, and for a man already defined as an Etch-A-Sketch, I think the narrative will quickly limit any boost.
Despite a poor performance, Obama didn't give up a major gaffe or misstep. Obviously, his campaign strategy was to dummy up on the first debate where Romney's central selling points are showcased, and move big during foreign policy and social issues debates. I don't know if I agree; if Obama had broken Romney's back in this debate, I think that would be about it for the election, but the incumbent has the luxury of being able to play defense.
In short, Romney got the win that he needed to stay alive and maybe halting the rapidly trending free-fall on his numbers, but I don't think he reversed it. The biggest advantage is that they'll go into the foreign policy debate on roughly equal terms, as opposed to one candidate in a must win position. If Romney scores another victory, he's got a chance to reverse his decline and make some gains. He can't win; the electoral breakdown is so far out of his reach that he'd need an average of an 8-10 point shift in the swing states just to get himself in the margin of error to take enough seats, but he may be able to reverse the damage down ticket and help the Republicans put the Senate strongly back in play. As for Obama, he needs to come into the foreign policy debate ready to be aggressive and dismissive. Romney is a foreign policy lightweight who is going to be leaning on talking points from the likes of John Bolton. Obama needs to be ready to isolate those points and counterpunch hard to draw a strict line between his policies and the GOP.
