I arrived back home from my extended sojourn in the Wilderness to partially unload the car, set some gear for cleaning (always take care of your gear first), take a shower and then settle in for an early evening (Pacific Time Zone) of the first Presidential Debate. My first attempt to write this has been delayed by the necessary work-day obstacles, but it nevertheless allowed a quick search of the internet to discover that my reaction was fairly universal: Romney articulately took apart Obama’s rote talking points.
That's all, folks.
All this time, Obama has been made the butt of many jokes about his dependence on a teleprompter. It turns out that it’s true – it was painfully difficult for him to move beyond his endlessly rehearsed talking points (other than golf, practically all he does lately is fundraisers), and Romney successfully slapped down each point. But Obama would later lamely repeat the same assertions as if he hadn’t been listening – and he certainly gave that appearance – and Romney appeared all the stronger by knocking them down again, even with answers that practically quoted Joe Biden verbatim, such as the middle class being “buried” for the last four years. I am sure that Romney must have been tempted to channel Ronald Reagan with a comment of “Well, there you go again.”
The key moment to me during the debate, which I pointed out to the Distaff Darkwater (who nicely replied that yes, she had caught it too . . . Sweetie), was when Obama, toward the end of one of Romney’s romps over Obama’s excuses, appealed to the moderator, Jim Lehrer, with “Jim, you may want to move on to another topic.” Donald Sensing at Sense of Events caught it as well, among others, and correctly paraphrased it as “Jim, help!” Sensing continues with some notable quotes of other observers.
The real tell for me was when I later switched to MSNBC to see the shell-shocked expressions of the panel. Only Donna Brazile played the party line, saying that Romney won only on “style”, but his facts were all wrong (thereby showing that she was as lucid as Obama). Chris Matthews has continued a full-blown snit for some time now.
'Epic Fail', as they say, for Obama. Stay tuned for further performances (Tuesday the 16th and Monday the 22nd), with a bonus match of Paul Ryan vs Joe Biden the Gaffe Machine on Thursday the 11th.
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