Posted on 10/16/2012 11:34:10 AM PDT by libh8er
NEW YORK: Millions of students in India, and indeed across the world, can take heart and derive inspiration by the hard slog that US presidential candidates put in as part of their preparation for White House occupancy. And that includes the grind that the incumbent president, whose four years in office you think would already have made him a master of all subjects , is put through.
Evidently not. Turns out that not only is President Obama's four-year record up for scrutiny, he has also to make an even stronger case for another four years while putting his opponent on the mat, particularly after his casual sparring during the first debate raised doubts about his intensity and passion for the job. And so, through the weekend, while much of America was enjoying fall weather, the world's most powerful man was locked up in a 17th century rural Virginia plantation resort, cramming for an examination with the diligence of a school boy approaching board exams.
The second debate will take place on Tuesday night (Wednesday 6.30am IST) at Hoffstra University in Long Island, New York.
So intense is the preparation that the President, a golf aficionado, has had to forgo the temptation three pristine courses nearby has to offer and ignore a Ferrari convention that the 1% he frowns at are tootling up to. Instead, he is being put through the paces by tough tutors, including Senator John Kerry (the putative secretary of state who plays the role of Romney in debate preparations) and former White House aide Anita Dunn, who poses as CNN's Candy Crowley, the moderator of the second debate set for Tuesday night.
Few doubt that President Obama is in top of the subjects ; he was, after all, a college professor who aced Harvard before he went into teaching.
His problem appears to be of style — of appearing nonchalant and dispassionate; of cool reasoning and reasoned analysis. It is a style that wins good reviews in a classroom but apparently not in Presidential debate against an opponent who changes political and ideological colours like a chameleon. To pin him down and shake him out requires Obama to be verbally sharp and predatory, and that is what his advisors have promised this time.
"He has to be more energetic," Obama advisor Robert Gibbs conceded on CNN on Sunday night. "This time around, I think you'll see somebody who is very passionate about the choice that our country faces."
The President has to do this in a respectful manner in a townhouse format in which an audience of undecided voters will get to pose questions. He also has to make sure there is no overkill to compensate for his passivity last time because there is at least one precedent (George Bush Sr) of blowing it in such a format by appearing argumentative, contentious, and dismissive.
Really?
He did?
Says who?
Anybody see any of his Harvard transcripts?
Anybody...?
No, I’m sure he’ll have to work really hard for it - like he did to win the Nobel Peace Prize //sarc.
So true. Once had a college final I totally crammed for - hard. Walked into the test and almost totally blanked out. All the information just sort of ran together and I couldn’t sort it out and put specific information to the appropriate essay question. I learned my lesson - bigtime.
More like he’s being fitted for an unnoticable ear piece so Axelrod, et al., can feed him responses.
This format is so ripe for stacking the deck by the moderator so I don’t have high hopes. Although, I do believe in prayer, so that’s what I’ll be doing during the debate (as I did during the first one).
Racist. /sarc
This is the Democrats’ fantasy of today’s pre-debate Obama: that he’s like a bright fifteen-year-old cramming for an exam, who, if he studies diligently enough will surely get an A and maybe even be accepted into Harvard even if his skin isn’t black.
The reality is that Obama is competing against another debater. No matter how hard Obama studies, if his opponent, Mitt Romney, studies harder, Obama will lose.
And Mitt Romney has already won a debate hands down against Obama, which should make him the heavy favorite tonight, no matter how hard each has been cramming over the past few days. Let’s hope Romney has been cramming hard enough to put Obama away tonight so that Romney’s poll numbers can go over the magic 50% level — he’s at 50% today — and the country can avoid the fiscal cliff that’s been threatening us for years.
Chuck Todd stating Romney could close out Uhbamuh with another strong performance was calculated. What he is hoping is Uhbamuh will be even or possibly a little better than Romney, at which point Todd can state Romney was unable to close out Uhbamuh and Uhbamuh is back in control of the election.
Chuck Todd stating Romney could close out Uhbamuh with another strong performance was calculated. What he is hoping is Uhbamuh will be even or possibly a little better than Romney, at which point Todd can state Romney was unable to close out Uhbamuh and Uhbamuh is back in control of the election.
I met a guy once that went to school with Barry Soetero at Punahou School on Oahu . He was on the basketball team with the only Afro-American in the entire school . It was assumed that as an Afro wearing Afro-American , Barry would be a star player . However my friend told me Barry was always quick to call Foul! That most of the times his foul objections were disregarded by the coaches and Barry would get all pouty . Sometimes he would just walk away from practice . Off to seek solace with his Choom Gang bros? Because of his whining and complaining no one wanted to play with him . He never was placed on the team for any official games . This was a big disappointment ,as he was this elite schools token Popolo . He told me he hung out with the biggest bunch of losers in the school and that’s how he ended his time at Punahou . Now you know the rest of the story .
Of course.
There are also pictures of him in the war room, getting Osama!
I'm not saying he never taught, but it was likely not a "Paper Chase" environment.
We're on the same side of this one.
"Aced Harvard?" We have a front-runner for idiotic sentance of the day here....
100% true. I've never "crammed" for a test in my life.
Where did they dig up this gem? Obama's records are sealed.
Mike Huckabee said today that the debate prep is memorization of one liners and lessons on body poses - all acting lessons.
^^^
THIS
"Let me be perfectly clear on this, Candy. While I may have been rushed on that hole, and while I may have inherited divots - devastating divots - from the previous foursome, and while I may have double-bogeyed, I can say without reservation that the par is 4."
"Thank you, Mr. President! Exactly right. Well done!"
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