If any of these debates are Obama’s it will be this one. I expect the final debate to be a replay of the first. I think some here are way over confident in Romney in not only the town hall format, but Romney’s need to walk a tightrope between his own indistinguishable (from Obama) social policies, and a stance conservative enough to not bleed conservative votes. If there is going to be a Dolesque, “I haven’t read the platform.” comment, it will be during this debate.
Agreed. The town hall format is tailor made for leftists. Whiney “what are you going to do for *ME*???” type of questions from “undecided” voters who are more likely plants, plus very short answer and rebuttal format. The less there is an actual debate, the more easy it is to drop liberal talking points and platitudes, and then we’re off to the next inane question.
Romney was able to smoke Obama in the last debate because it had a more open Lincoln-Douglas type of format. Obama couldn’t just ramble for a couple of minutes and then off to the next question.
Hopefully Romney will be well prepped for this new format.
What I think folks missed in the aftermath of the first debate and are still missing is how difficult it is for the president to debate on his record. There is not a lot of good there to discuss.