I think there will be some chances for both Romney and Obama to briefly and starkly state their contrasting opinions between each other on the major issues — most importantly is the US a country (Romney) with individual rights/entreprenuership/responsibility/conservatism vs (Obama) rights granted by the government/dependency/liberalism.
It’s the core of the debate between the two parties right now. But in a townhall-style debate (which Rove pointed out in a recent interview on O’Reilly (I think)) they key to winning that debate will be responding to and empathizing with the questioner’s question.
So the 2nd Presidential debate is not going to be a straight discussion between Romney and Obamma (like the 1st debate), it is going to be constantly (by design) interrupted by the moderator introducing “new” questions from “sympathetic” selected citizens.
This format should favor Obama, as the moderators will be in charge of what questions will be asked and it’s a lot easier for Democrats to promise to address those concerns than it is for Republicans/Conservatives to deny them.
Anyway, Romney could pull that off. But while Romney cleaned Obama’s clock in debate #1, he did not spell out clearly and specifically their differences in the role of government which is at the core of the debate (and spelled out by Reagan in the video).
So tonight we get the VP debate. Unless Ryan scores some knock-out blows or Biden completely screws up, Biden is going to get the benefit of a very aggressive media push arguing that “the Democrats won.”
So that segues into the mushy Townhall debate and only gives Romney that last final debate to make a comeback.
I think Ryan should win the debate tonight, but he is facing a really tough media environment. And then comes the “mushy” townhall debate which should favor Obama.
My point with posting the above video is that (1) I hope Ryan addresses the tough issues in a one-on-one debate with Reagan’s vigor and that (2) when you watch the Reagan video, almost all the issues he addresses are the same ones we face today, only bigger. We need to do better.
” Anyway, Romney could pull that off. But while Romney cleaned Obama’s clock in debate #1, he did not spell out clearly and specifically their differences in the role of government which is at the core of the debate (and spelled out by Reagan in the video).”
Good point.