Sidney Barthwell, Jr., chair, EACPHS Diversity Advisory Board
Posted on 10/04/2012 6:06:57 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The man who went to school with both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney and predicted the president would "smoke" the Republican nominee says he is dumbfounded by Obama's poor showing in the first debate.
"I'm surprised. I was shocked, actually," Sidney Barthwell, a district court magistrate in Michigan who attended Cranbrook with Romney and Harvard Law School with Obama, told The Daily. "That was not the Barack Obama I’ve seen through the years. I’m thinking the man might have had the flu or something."
Barthwell, who has remained friendly with both candidates over the years and is staying neutral in the presidential race, said earlier this year that he expected Obama to dominate in the face-offs.
“When they debate, Barack will smoke Romney,” Barthwell, 64, told The Daily in May. “Mitt Romney is smart,” he said at the time. “Having said all that, I still think he’s going to get smoked. The best he can do is hopefully come out not looking like a fool. Mitt will find out the hard way as soon as they have their first debate: You don’t debate Obama.”
Barthwell, the only black graduate of Mitt Romney's 1965 class at Cranbrook Schools, the prestigious boarding school in suburban Detroit, said Romney's former classmates have been pulling for the president.
"There’s been a lot of emails going back and forth between people in my class. The vast majority of them are very supportive of Barack and not Mitt Romney," he said. "It’s surprising to me because Cranbrook was a very conservative type of place."
Thursday, Barthwell said he barely recognized the president who appeared on stage at the first presidential debate this week in Denver. The Michigan man said his former law school classmate seemed out of it. "You never see Barack looking down all the time," he said of the president's performance Wednesday night, widely panned as lackluster, at best. "He was actually stumbling over his words. That was not the real Barack Obama in my opinion."
Barthwell also said the president was unusually reserved, even in the face of full-on attacks from Romney - a possible sign, he suggested, of Obama's acute awareness of the politics of race. "It’s possible he doesn't want to appear to be the angry-black man type," Barthwell said.
And the magistrate said it's likely that Romney -- who he described back in May as "not an athlete," "not a student leader" and "not a scholar" -- was simply better prepared for the debate. "Mitt Romney is a smart guy," he said. "He must have prepared for this debate and it was obvious."
Right now the meme is that the Chicago thugs will be staging an October surprise. It may be the other way around.
Most people aren’t really aware of some likely economic changes ahead. That shouldn’t have anything to do with a politician’s drama performance in a debate, but it could.
hey... it was the altitude, the lack of oxygen up there, Sid-ney.
It was Romney TURN last night..
The next debate closer to the election Obama will eviscerate Romney..
Maybe Romney will lie down, or some other excuse.. BUT Obama will WIN....
The whole thing is choreographed.. maybe a tie..
BUT the last debate Obama will win handily.. i.e. two more debates..
This election is a Cartoon.. and the voters republican as well are infantile cartoon watchers.. (generally)
George Bush won (twice) because it was the republicans TURN..
Obama according to the elite will have to have two terms “to be fair”..
Even FOX News is cinematography.. its the movies..
America is so brain washed they even believe POLLS..
Which even a moron can see is propaganda.. ALL OF THEM..
Sidney Barthwell, Jr., chair, EACPHS Diversity Advisory Board
This is BS! Romney graduated from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School taking both curriculum at the same time and graduated with honors from the school of Business!
I never understood how all these people think president Eye Candy is such a brilliant debater and speaker. Don't forget he lost a debate with Joe the Plumber in 2008 and he's never been without TOTUS and a fawning media since that encounter. Good Lord! The man needed TOTUS to speak in front of a middle school class! Romney did just what he had to do and what NOBODY in the media would do, he refuted the lies and hit back with actual facts. My particular favorite was when 0boober said Exxon gets $4 bln/year in tax breaks and Romney told him that he spent 25 times that amount on failed green companies like Solyndra that went bankrupt.
President Eye Candy thought it was going to be another softball interview like Letterman or the gals on the view. Instead, Romney showed up loaded with facts.
I'm sure that the fact he's black has nothing to do with it!
Mack has had an easy life. He debated like someone who’s never had to work hard for anything. Doesn’t understand working hard for a living, fighting hard for a cause. It must drive manchelle crazy.
I think he has “something” allright, but it ain’t the flu. He looks like he has lost about 25 lbs, among other things.
Barry should leave the crack alone before a debate.
In Chicago, they say he has “The Slims” which is just what you think it is.
Prominent Members of Chicago Black Community: Those closest to Obama know there’s no 2nd term
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-gop/2931779/posts
Hey, whatever gets him through the next debate, man.
There are so many of the progressives that are surprised that the Food Stamp President, without a teleprompter or not being able to orchestrate the event, is a bumbling incompetent. The MSM pimps began to believe their own BS. There were no MSM pimps there to carry water for him, he had to do it on his own and failed miserably.
Glad you researched
LOL! Yeah, well, John McCain wasn't that much of a challenge, so Obama looked good, in comparison.
It's clear, thought, that Obama isn't that much of a speechifier without a teleprompter. ;o)
If the SOB Obama had the flu, it was over the next morning because he was out calling Romney a liar the very next morning. That was after he had snorted a line, of course. LOL
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