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.
Too bad we´ll never know how he did well on these tests. Romney´s are all on record for people to see. Now I wonder WHY.
The bar has been set soooooooooooooooo low for Obama. All he has to do now is show up with a pulse and a heartbeat and his sycophants and stooges in the media will anoint him the winner of the debate.
Bet he has a teleprompter chip implanted in his brain!
Poor Bam Bam.
Having to study for for a debate probably really REALLY cuts into his golf schedule.
After a lifetime of not having to study anything he suddenly turns into a “crammer” before the big exam?
Doubt it.
How many people need to cram in order to speak intelligently about the job they’ve held for the past four years?
He was not a college professor; he was an instructor appointed because of connections. Do we know how he did at Harvard, or are those transcripts sealed along with the others?
Pray Hussein overdoes it in the debate.
I’m praying that nobama will use his opening statement to resign on the spot.
How many people need to cram in order to speak intelligently about the job they’ve held for the past four years?
GOOD POINT!
Count me among "the few."
When Obama said he created 5 million jobs say “ Yes 5 million jobs created in China , zero in the U.S.A “
Also when Obama talks about Romney's 5 trillion $ tax cut say”You're confused, that's the federal debt that you burdened Americans with which is greater than all 11 previous presidents combined. but you say Bush put you in the hole, no its you who put America in a crater”
Help me get these lines to Romney campaign.
He was a Visiting Fellow and a Lecturer.
At the University of Chicago Law School, this could mean that he did not have to actually stand up and instruct a class.
That's something my wife keeps saying. Before retiring she was a manager of a computer facility. You do the job, you can talk intelligently about what needs to be done, or speak of details about what you have accomplished. Obama glosses over details because he never really accomplished much. Women know he's an idiot.
There are pictures of him in front of a blackboard, FWIW. Lecturer isn't all that different from "Instructor" on other campuses.
You can’t cram a lifetime of fecklessness, laziness and stupidity into intelligence and articulation in a day or two. Obama is sinking in quicksand. The harder he struggles the deeper he sinks.
I love it whan Obama crams for the debate.
he’s like so many students cramming for exams. They don’t know it and no amount of cramming will get it into their brains.
You either know it or don’t. Cramming will never help and many times will make matters worse.
Those are NOT "off the rack" kneepads.
They are custom-fit, tailor-made kneepads!
I agree. On a certain level you both know this stuff and believe it. You cannot fake this or cram for it. Cramming for this stuff is like a bad actor who tries to memorize his lines.
Fundamentally, you cannot change Obama. He has great delivery with a speech written by others and playing in front of him on a teleprompter, but naked, alone, it’s very hard to speak when every word coming out of your mouth is measured.
Having said that, I too think the corrupt MSM will do everything they can to throw Barry a life line.
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