Posted on 10/08/2012 10:16:26 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Understanding why Mitt Romney so decisively won the first presidential debate is as important as the fact that he did. Why? Because once we know the reasons, almost everything about President Barack Obama and this election becomes clear.
First, Obama lost because he, like virtually the entire left, lives in a left-wing bubble.
Left-wing academics live in this bubble. There is no greater uniformity of thought than at our universities; their much-ballyhooed commitment to diversity is about race and ethnicity, not about ideas.
So, too, the great majority of news media people live in the same bubble, the left-wing herd that covers national and international news. Reading The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times or Le Monde or listening to the BBC is essentially reading or listening to the same selection and presentation of the news.
One reason leftists talk to, read and listen to only fellow leftists is that they are certain that there is no other way to think rationally, compassionately or morally. Therefore, there is no reason to debate conservatives, let alone expose oneself to their ideas.
Obama is a man of the left. Leftism is his Weltanschauung, his value system, his way of understanding the world. Every one of the president's mentors whom we know about was a leftist, usually a radical leftist. The church he was married in and the pastor he adored were leftist. His work -- "community organizer" -- was left-wing work.
When you live in a bubble -- be it religious or political -- you cannot successfully debate opposing views. You're not even familiar with what those opposing views are. This debate was the first time in Obama's presidency -- if not his life -- that he had to defend the policies he believes in against an articulate conservative.
He couldn't.
The second reason for his defeat was that Obama lacked two things that have been essential to his popularity for the past four years.
One was a teleprompter. Most people would sound articulate if they could rely on teleprompters to speak words they and/or others wrote. But there were no teleprompters last Wednesday night.
Were a Republican president as dependent on a teleprompter as this president has been, the media constantly would report -- and mock -- the fact.
Which brings us to the news media's protection, the other thing the president was deprived of at the debate.
In the increasingly inglorious history of the mainstream (i.e., liberal) media, nothing has matched their four-year protection of this president. To cite but one of countless examples, when President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act and incarcerated terror suspects at Guantanamo, the press was relentless in its attacks on him for allegedly undermining civil liberties. When Obama extended the Patriot Act and kept terror suspects in Guantanamo, the press was virtually silent.
A third reason for the Romney victory was the debate format. Moderator Jim Lehrer and new guidelines allowed the debaters to actually debate. The reason the liberal media have been so contemptuous of Lehrer is that, perhaps for the first time in the history of modern American presidential debates, the moderator did not attempt to dominate the proceedings. And what the left cannot control it fears.
According to Reuters, Obama spoke a full four minutes more than Romney did. But because Lehrer allowed Romney to actually respond to Obama, Romney didn't need any more time than he took.
Obama also lost because he is not intellectually deep. He is extremely bright. But he is not intellectually deep. If you read, rather than only listen to, any of his speeches -- from Berlin and Cairo until today -- you will discover how essentially empty they are. But because he never is challenged and because he delivers his largely nice-sounding vapidities so smoothly and authoritatively, many Americans are fooled.
He could not get away with this in the first debate. And though Obama surely will be much feistier and more aggressive in his second debate, if Romney is allowed to respond and challenge as he was in the first debate -- very possibly a big if -- there is no reason to believe that he will get away with his platitudes then, either.
Finally, Romney won because he understands how the economy works much better than Obama does -- and because he understands what America stands for much better than the president does.
The great unknown is whether enough Americans will come to realize all this by Election Day.
not tryign to be a downer, but romeny should have been so far ahead of obama BEFORE the debates even began that obama would have even bothered to showc up- This country should be sick to death of obama and the left trampling our constitutional rights, bullying supreme court, apologizing for america aroudn the world, bowing to dictators, bullying and insulting religions (other than muslim of course) attackign the Catholic church, commiting illegal actions with impunity- LYING repeatedly, but apaprentrly not caring because he knows the MSM will never hold ghim accoutnable- etc etc etc
Yep- Romeny did win- and that’s good- but all it’s goign to take unfortunately for obama to get back on top is to have a mediocre debate, which the MSM will spin into a supreme oratory masterpiece to prop their puppet up- and the peopel will fawn all over obama again- After the last debate- he should have fallen so low that it would be almost impossible to make it back up
This coutnry thinks obama is MORE moderate than romney for crying out loud, and the south- south carolina, obama was favoured heavily? In the bible belt? Are you kidding me? These are two very serious indicatiosn that this country may be beyond hope- There’s NO WAY an arrogant narcisistic president who spits in our faces should be anywhere close to romeny in the polls- but he is- even after a very strong debate by romeny- I’m just shaking my head in complete disbelief!
Race, gender, class.
They have replace Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
I wish I could remember who I saw this weekend that said that.
Race, gender, class.
They have replaced Father, Son and Holy Ghost as the trinity of the fastest growing “religion” of in the West. Progressiveism.
I wish I could remember who I saw this weekend that said that.
With a dismal record like Obama’s I would have been more surprised if Romney did not win the debate in fact.
Your statement would probably be true if Governor Romney had even 20% of the media on his side. He doesn’t even have 2%, as I’m sure you realize. The debate was his first real chance to get in front of the American people without much of a media filter. How can Mr. Obama have a better debate than the one last week? You can’t make a slacker into a real executive in a few weeks.
“Regular” media programming heavily favors the jackass.
I did no read your post. You start your first sentence with a small “n,” for Not, followed by “tryign” and then “romeny” - really? Romney?? There is no cachet here. I refuse to legitimize your comments by taking them in.
I generally concur with the points made.
I remember watching the debate and right out of the chute I knew Obama was in trouble. Obama opened with mentioning his wedding anniversary and even in doing that he stuttered and came out with a strained “Sweetie” MO’s way. It as a s cringe-inducing as when the did a General Patton with the “Kiss Cam” at that basketball game a month ago or the hand holding during the recent “The View” interview/love fest.
He also didn’t thank the Commission On Presidential Debates even after they agreed to a bench of liberal moderators, not to mention agreeing to scheduling the first debate on O and M’s anniversary. Romney’s opening was, in contrast, succinct and included thanking Leher, Univ. of Denver and the Presidential Commission.
But the moment I knew Romney was going to take it to Obama (and probably win) was his immediate approach of talking directly towards O and O not being able to keep any eye contact. I actually watched on C-SPAN and they had the side-by-side shot throughout the whole debate. It was maybe a little much since one gets drawn to the reaction of the candidate listening to see how they react but I didn’t want to risk some network feed switching at “biased” times. So when Romney was not only factually assaulting O but constantly looking at him at the same time I knew who was going to be dominant. It was the first time I said, “Oh my God!” that night.
After the debate and all the excuses for O’s performance I made it a point to see the first public events for Romney, Ryan and O. Sure enough Romney and Ryan had only notes which clearly had bullet points; they would glance and pontificate for a while then again quickly glance at their notes and go off on another subject. In the continuing basic contrast, O had his good ole’ teleprompter back in action and Obama was “feeling no SHAME.”
What a fraud.
Obama will be more aggressive in the next debate, throwing out some weak rhetorical elbows, but Romney will again be succinct and hard hitting (especially in regard to how the jobs report is reliant on outrageous stats due to changes in how the term “unemployed” is defined and the Libya coverup) and Obama will be right back to long, meandering “uh”-laced responses.
With Obama, it’s Race, Gender and NO Class.
O’Reilly was making the point that the election comes down to a vison of a self-empowered free nation or one based on European Socialism. I’d like to see Romney draw that contrast more clearly every chance he gets, in essence “four more years of Obama and we’ll be Greece”...
Who doesn’t think there would be riots in the US streets today if entitlements were cut?
not to worry. the way to defeat O is to make sure we get out the vote. WE are the solution. I trust the American people to come to their senses. 2010 showed there is a deep dislike of O and all that he has done. That is still out there it is still seething.
You are right, but as other have explained and you surely know the Won has nearly all of the media on his side. And it is the media which controls the perceptions of the somnambulistic uninformed populace glued to Dancing with the Has Beens on the idiot box.
It is an outrage that I share with you that such an empty headed and mean spirited Marxist can enjoy as much support as he does among people who should know better, should care more, but don’t.
I almost want to say, thank you Captain Obvious, as much what Dennis says has been obvious to us, or some to us since the beginning, and I think should have been published in the mainstream press at the time. He’s of course preaching to the choir, while the MSM keeps its conspiratorial silence, and a conspiracy it is, of dunces and wishful thinkers, who never had to explicitly agreed to conspiring it’s all just in their bloodstreams since their university brainwashing indoctrination.
A conservative? I only saw Willard and the Kenyan on stage, where was the conservative?
There is truth here. But the real reason Romney won is because the position of president is the Alpha dog spot in the world. Romney was clearly the Alpha dog on the stage. He had Obama and Lehrer on their backs, wiggling their legs in the air and exposing their bellies to him.
Viewers respond, appropriately, to the fact that one man or the other is dominant. It’s not the only important factor. But if Putin, Chavez, and Ameninnutjob can roll Obama as easily as Romney did, that explains a lot of Obama’s recent “success” in foreign policy.
[[Your statement would probably be true if Governor Romney had even 20% of the media on his side. He doesn’t even have 2%, as I’m sure you realize.]]
That of course is true, and just reinforces what I said- it won’t take much at all for obama to rise back up in the polls because the4 msm is in the tank for him to do so- and the fact that romeny despite a powerful performance, is only just a bit ahead- Yeas, romney gained what 8? or 12? Can’t remember now, but my point was that he by all rights should have had a 10 point lead over obama even before goign into the debate conmcidering how badly obama has treated this country- the fact that he is only just barely pulling ahead and is still behind in some states tells me that this country still beleives obama is going to do great things for them DESPITE all the crap he has doen to them for 4 years? It’s just mind boggling how they can think that-
[[How can Mr. Obama have a better debate than the one last week? You can’t make a slacker into a real executive in a few weeks.]]
I wsn’t saying that he would becoem one- infact he can’t- he hasn’t got a record to run on- he’s been a dismal failure for this coutnry- however, with the media so behind him, all he has to do is be only mildly more ‘charismatic’ and hte press will play it up as though he’s pheonix rising from the ashes, and his numbers will rise again- and I’m basing this on the unbeleivable facts that he shoudl be severely behind romeny, and htis coutnry, by all rights, should be ready to impeach him and htrow him out- but incredibly, they aren’t? I don’t understand it- I guess they htink they can get ‘free obama money’ fro mthe government or soemthing
I did no read your post.
KARMA'S A BITCH, AIN'T IT ?
[[I did no read your post]]
I won’t lsoe any sleep over it- I post to vent=- I coudln’t care less who reads whta I post to be honest0— If you care to comment on the content instead of fixcating on the delivery, then fine, I’ll discuss the content of said posts with you civily, if not, that’s fien too- but not sure why you feel you need to chime in? There is a reason why I keep typign hte same words wrong, there’s also a reason why /II don’t take the time to correct- if that’s not ok with tyou, well then oh well-
no- but deja vu is
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