What you said.
Sure wish we’d have had Newt instead of Squishy. Bleh.
Well, at least we still have Trump’s big “surprise” on Wednesday!!
I think you are letting your biases impact your opinion. Even the worst poll, PPP, showed Obama lost independents and Romney gained independents in this debate. I would love to see Romney in aggressive mode, but he didn’t need to be. You saw tonight who was winning and who was losing. A desperate sitting president making wild accusations, one after another. He looked desperate, and the followup on his slams of the Navy and his other whoppers will be just as damaging as those after the 2nd debate.
ilgipper nailed it. Tonight was not about us or the disgust we have with Obama. Tonight was a final chance to reassure splinter-crotched wafflers that Romney is a safe choice. Based on our emotion Romney was wrong. Based on pure logic he was correct.
The trend line will remain with Romney. The rest of us made up our mind long ago.... tonight was about the undecided voters.
If Newt, Lincoln-Douglas would have become
Gingrich-0bama.
It didn’t take me long to figure out the Romney strategy tonight. Don’t get overly aggressive. Show that you’re competent and avoid the bitterness that marred the second debate.
Why?
Conservatives love to see this charlatan in the White House beaten down like the fraud he is. Independents and the squishy middle undecideds? They want solutions. they want to feel comforted that the guy they are about to vote into the White House can answer the 3 a.m. call in addition to fixing the economy.
Romney did just that.
Just several weeks ago, in late September, many Freepers questioned his campaign's decision to withold the money until when the time was right. Polls showed he was losing and some conservatives who never wanted him to be the nominee started mental masturbation by saying, "I told you so! If only X was the nominee..."
Today, not only does he have upper hand on ad money, he also leads polls on national and battle ground states, including those that have been in Dhims' hands for several cycles.
And Obama might be re-elected and it is all thanks to the GOP elite. Or, maybe that was your plan all along?
Romney played to the undecideds that liked him in the first debate but dont want a war monger. Romney played it that way. Few would have been swayed by beating up Obama on attack. They are already in his camp. Is anyone that was going to vote for him before the debate going to change their vote because of it afterwards?
I just finished watching it and I am not even sure we were watching the same thing. I saw Mitt being tactical and careful. Maybe a bit more so than I would have liked, but debates are funny things and he has built up an enormous amount of goodwill that he could have quickly and fatally squandered if he had gaffed.
On the other hand I saw Obama as nervous, sullen, and snarky. Those on other boards who are gleefully recounting all the “points” he scored against Romney are ignoring the fact that Biden scored a lot of “points” too, and came away the worse for it as the voters, especially the independents, were left cold.
We can argue all day long about whether Mitt is far enough ahead to be playing a “prevent defense”, but I think he did fine. He looked much more mature, in control, and confident than Obama did, and that is going to count for a lot.
Oh well, we’ll find out soon enough. I’m just glad the debates are over. And I hope and pray this is the LAST time we get sucked into playing by the “Debate Commission” rules.
I guess we'll know in about 3 days when the polls start showing things. If Obama picks up points or Mitt does.
2 weeks left for the important poll.
I can’t say I agree with you here. Picking a fight with Obama in this debate was the wrong way to go about it. This election is purely about the economy. Romney teaed that up, attacked Obama on it, and kept Obama from hitting him with negatives the rest of the debate.
Obama looked increasingly irritable through the debate; he looked sour. Romney looked calm and confident. He also nailed Obama where it counted, calling him out on the apology tour and not getting mired in the details.
At this point, I can’t say savaging the incumbent on issues most Americans—and particularly undecideds at this point—care little about and know little about. You win points by looking presidential, reassuring, competent, and steady-handed. Romney looked all of the above more than Bush I or Bush II, more than Dole, and more than McCain.
Who should be able to win a debate with the sitting Commander-in-Chief other than the head of the CIA?
I think Romeny ended up looking far more level-headed on this one than Obama, and he certainly won on economic issues, which is all that really matters at this point.
Romney won this one. It wasn’t even close where it counted.
Polls show 2-3% undecided. Of that, maybe 1% watched the debate. Of that, maybe 0.5% were swayed to zero. MAYBE. I would estiamte 0.5% to be the absolute max.
zero need a bigger turnaround than that to save his sorry ass.
I hope your post stays on here.
The very last thing you want to do when you are ahead and running away is to do something stupid in your last debate.
Romney played it coy, and came off looking presidential. I do not care one bit if Obastard might have won on points made. Romney won on style. Obastard looked and sounded nasty, arrogant, and snippy.
This did not play well with anyone other than his demented base.
I do not give it to Romney because of his coy play, but give it to him on his demeanor. There is two weeks to go, and a lot can happen yet.
If you are old enough to have followed Mitt's '94 senate race, you have seen this progression before. Romney comes out of the chute on fire, and voters see a genuine conservative choice. Romney actually led Kennedy early in the race. As the campaign rolled along, Romney ran like a scared bunny rabbit from the (completely unsurprising) Boston liberal media onslaught until, by the end, Romney essentially declared himself more liberal than Teddy.
Mittens, of course, lost in a landslide. And there he was again tonight talking about how he will "reach across the aisle".
/eyeroll
My thought was, "Here we go again."
You can tell who won by Chris Matthews reaction. He is suicidal and needs to be watched closely.
It is what it is. Mitt could have made you happy or won over some undecideds. I am very glad he didn’t make you happy.