Posted on 10/15/2012 7:14:40 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The short answer is: because he’s got nothing. There is no record to run on, no argument to make for four more years. The ideology that drives him is outdated and bankrupt. He has, in fact, implemented his policies – Republicans have had little means of stopping him – and those policies are the problem.
But there’s a slightly longer answer too. Obama’s advisors will read the mainstream media assessment of the vice-presidential debate – they actually think a debate that turned women across America off of Biden was a draw, or a Biden win – and conclude that what the president needs to do is find his inner Joe Biden. Appeal to his base by going on the attack, perhaps interrupting, being visibly annoyed at the trend of Romney’s statements, and vigorously asserting untruths in the interest of racking up effective soundbites.
Petulant attack-doggery isn’t Obama’s style, so I don’t predict that he will simply adopt the Biden posture for this week’s debate. What I do think is that Obama and his handlers will be looking to enhance the president’s trademark pace and balance in public speaking (which does descend rather often into a sonorous drone) with more Biden-like spice. This won’t come naturally to Obama, any more than his occasionally put-on “black accent” sounds natural. It’s not who he is, and he won’t be good at it.
Of course, the townhall format this week can be worked to Obama’s advantage, and no doubt will be. Obama need not be thrown softballs, but he will get questions framed to suit the answers he is likely to have – and he probably won’t be troubled much with questions framed in a confrontational manner.
Romney probably will be. He will have to think more quickly on his feet, turning hostile questions into jumping-off points for getting his message across, while conveying a sense of goodwill and avoiding red herrings. If there is a “silly question” for the debaters – say, “If you were an Oscar-winning movie, which one would you be?” – it may well be barbed with false implications about conservatism, Republicans, or even Romney himself.
Romney will have more choices to make in his approach and substance. There are a lot of things he could say; what will be the most effective? We can reasonably suppose he will perform again as well as he did in Debate 1.
Obama doesn’t have those choices, because he’s trying to stay in office – to tend cronies and inflict ideological constraints on the people – using arguments that don’t accurately represent what he’s been doing for nearly four years. He has no intention of changing course, regardless of what the current course is inflicting on the American people. Yet he can’t argue in the campaign for his current course – at least not to anyone but his base – because it is so ridden with failure and the scent of corruption. Americans continue to turn against his signature legislation, ObamaCare, and even the New York Times is beginning to doubt the effectiveness of his foreign policy.
So we can expect to hear more about Romney giving a “$5 trillion tax break” to the richest Americans, along with the other canards about Romney-Ryan policy (e.g., tossing Grandma off the cliff) being trotted out over and over by the Obama campaign. These mendacious soundbites have lost their impact, but what else does Obama have? Personal attacks on Romney?
If the president makes a decision on retaliating in Libya before Tuesday night, he may be able to speak at the debate from a perspective of putative decisiveness, the commander-in-chief moving forces around. A new line of tactical operations would blunt Romney’s justifiable criticism of how the White House has handled the whole matter. I don’t foresee this dynamic winning the debate for Obama – a belated military response has little hope of trumping the public’s nearer-to-home concern about the US economy, the national debt, and constitutional freedoms – but if it comes off, it will probably be gratifying for his Amen corner in the MSM.
Gratifying them is not enough, however. Whether he plays to his base or the MSM, Obama will not be playing to the constituency that matters: the majority of likely voters. His appeal to that constituency in 2008 depended on his being an unknown quantity, and that’s what he no longer is. Obama doesn’t have any more tricks in his bag. This is it.
Obama debate agenda: Threaten rioting and/or civil war. Brazenly lie. Throw the entire nation under the bus.
Romney debate agenda: Advocate peace and unification. Just tell the truth. Throw Congress and Federal Agency heads under the bus.
Given how bad the polling moved against Obama this week, Biden lost his debate badly.
So there!
As much I hope Obama goes down for the count in this debate, I am rather uneasy making early predictions like this.
If you remember before the first debate, there was a lot of pressure on Romney to hit a home run, as I remember, even calling it a “Hail Mary” (which of course he succeeded).
I don’t want to seem like a party pooper, but I think the BO camp might have some things up their sleeves, but I am anxious to see how and if they actually work out.
I would hope that Mitt would go straight to Candy Crowley on that -- "Candy -- you've done your homework. You know that's a lie. An outright lie. In the last debate, I told the president he was wrong to say that. Here we are two weeks later, and he's still saying it. There is no excuse. [Look at the camera] To you at home, I tell you that the president is lying to you. He will say anything to stay in power. We must stop this man."
Obama does NOT benefit from the format for this debate. They are going to have to talk to the audience and answer its questions not directly confront each other.
He is dead meat.
Hopefully, The Messiah has been coached to imitate Plugs Biden, making faces, gesturing, head-shaking, laughing, etc., and make a complete ass of himself ALSO (just as Plugs did). This would appeal to his dufus-base, and blacks who think Whitey is the enemy and condescending.
Even with pre-planted Obamabots in the Town Hall farce, Romney can, once-again, appear "Presidential", and cite PAST PERFORMANCE and destroy Obama on that basis, alone. He just has to keep his cool, and point out the false accusations as they are couched in the questions.
And no teleprompter.
Wow. i told my coworker exactly the same thing. they are so insane they will probably try to do a biden redo.
clueless!
Because he is not that bright?
Because Obama couldn’t do any worse than the first debate, he will do better this time.
Romney took the shirt off his back, he has nothing up his sleeves nor has sleeves.
This will be as bad or worse than the first one.
We all saw how well Mitt does in debates for much of the year not just two weeks ago. He is as good as I have ever seen. He is much smarter and quicker than The Disaster who is not very smart at all.
RE: they will probably try to do a biden redo.
So, Obama is going to smile, smirk and interrupt Romney? yeah that’ll work. /s
I agree, Romney is as good of a debater as I’ve seen. Even in the primaries, Newt really couldn’t lay a hand on him and we know how good Newt is.
Yeah it’s going to be a very amusing debate. When he ran for a first term, the foreign national could promise and promise. Now it’s a completely different story. Now it’s going to be “lie and lie” and everybody will know it.
“he will do better this time.”
No, he won’t. He’ll strut out like a peacock and sound like Mussolini addressing a black shirt fascist rally.
Buckwheat is boiling cauldron of hatred under that veneer of mumbling stupidity.
While I never supported Romney in the primaries, he is a much more disciplined candidate than Obama. Barry has nothing to run on. Everything is in the cellar since he swooped into office. Romney should be more than ready for the supposedly ready Barack Hussein Obama.
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