Posted on 10/06/2012 7:14:18 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian
CSPAN has a replay of the debate available at the link above.
Watching the debate live, I thought Romney won handily, but I was somewhat biased. Post debate punditry reinforced my original view. Romney gave a very strong performance, was in command of himself, the facts, and the stage. Obama was unprepared, tired, and over matched.
I urge freepers to watch this debate again. This wasn't just a win for Romney, it was a massacre. Some of the finer points that may have been missed the first time:
1) Obama fell back on old rhetorical tricks time after time: "as I said four years ago...", "as I've indicated...", "independent studies have shown...", "if you think that..."(the straw man argument), referring to individual Americans (Donald Trump) or corporations (Exxon-Mobile) as a bad example.
2) Obama looked like a shiftless liar. He looked worse, in this regard, than Nixon in 1960
3) Obama's opening and closing statements were extremely weak. This is unexcusable and reveals huge flaws in Obama's campaign.
4) Many times Obama was nodding his head in agreement with what Romney was saying. After pressing the $5 trillion tax cut meme three times, and having it masterfully refuted every time, Obama finally nodded and said "Okay".
5) Obama ran over the time limit many times and had more talk time than Romney. This actually worked to Romney's advantage. The more Obama talks, the more he reveals himself as an empty suit.
Obama is truly in a corner. He can't run on his record. Every attack is easily countered by Romney and the attack is turned right around on Obama. Obama, seemingly has no where to go.
The next two debates are going to see Obama on the rhetorical rack. Romney's biggest problem will be tightening the rack so that Obama is continually revealed as the phoney liar that he is, but not so much that people actually feel sorry for him. It will be fun to watch.
Watch the debate again and get used to the phrase "President Romney".
Thanks for the link... Sharing it with some who didn’t watch it.
I only watched about half of it before I nodded off on the couch - that was enough to ease my mind to the point that sleep came so easily. Obama opened with what seemed intended to be a disdainful smirk and only went downhill from there. It was obvious that if anyone should be smirking, it was Romney and he has too much class (Ian intelligence) to have to resort to 6th grade “tactics”. I got the impression that Obama actually expected to clean the floor with Mitt, and as the realization finally dawned that he was on stage with his superior in all things, he went into severe pucker mode.
‘Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.
Abraham Lincoln
Remember all the lefties calling Clint senile or having dementia for his “bizarre” performance.
Tell me, whose performance was more bizarre?
I got the same feeling, at times. Obama complained about different things, one being subsidies to oil companies. I expected Romney to say, “Dumbass, you've had 4 years to do something about it”, but he didn't.
Thanks for the link. I didn’t watch the live broadcast, but listened over radio while following the live FR thread. I missed all of the body language, which I’m now seeing.
First visual impressions:
Obama looks a bit haggard.
Mitt looks fresh and ready to go to work.
Obama rarely looks Romney in the eye while either of them are speaking.
Romney maintains a normal degree of eye contact with Obama when either of them are speaking.
Both of them occasionally display brief smirks while the other is speaking.
Obama mostly talks to the moderator.
Romney mostly directs his communication squarely to Obama.
Obama made his closing speaking to the moderator and calling the American people “They”. Romney made his closing speaking to the camera/audience and said “You”. A very surprising mistake for Obama to make.
When Obama is giving his presentation about the affordable health care act, shortly before the “I had 5 more seconds” remark, it sounded like he said, or almost said Billions of American families.It was like a sound that went bmbllions.
Obama is in a corner. His best bet is to start a war (Lybia?) just before the next or the last debate and see if Romney will agree to call it off for national security reasons. Don't think that this isn't being discussed.
Both of them made some mistakes. Romney said a trillion when he meant to say 20 trillion. It didn’t matter. He so outclassed Obama for 90 minutes that it just didn’t matter.
That's quite telling. Shows who's engaged with the people, and who's disengaged. Good catch.
-— Obama made his closing speaking to the moderator and calling the American people “They”. ——
Great observation, and VERY creepy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.