The Debates
 

The Presidential and VP Debates.

Well, number one was a bust for Obama. Romney was on fire and ignored the ancient Jim Lehrer, who seemed only to monitor President Obama's time.

But I am shocked that Obama was so poorly prepared. God, Mitt was good. Scary.

Obama did seem shaken...

I think your words pretty well sum it up. I was disappointed in the President's debate performance. The debate has not changed my mind about my vote.

Ed Schultz and Chris Matthews are tearing their hair out tonight on MSNBC. I agree with them. It's about winning, and Romney stepped up and fought to win. Obama stood there and dithered. He did not attack. What a wasted opportunity. I had no idea that it mattered so much to me that this thing not be close. But it's going to be.

There are a lot of points to be scored off the President's record, and Romney got some good ones in. Some were crap, like blaming the President for gridlock. The big mistake Obama made was courting the Republicans too long when he needed to be grabbing them by the balls and twisting.

Romney may be lying his ass off, but people who have not been following this closely will not know.

geez o pete what happened
 

Lord is all I can say.
As an independent voter who is very left wing liberal and just so happens to have voted for a democratic candidate every single time , I am a little concerned after tonight that Romney was the better prepared one .
With all that said: Hells bells I'm voting for the best man for the job , Mr president Obama :)
He will pull it off no worries

He didn't seem shaken to me. He seemed bored.
He also said, several times, things like "I agree with the governor" and "the governor and I agree."

I wonder what his deal is.

They said that the President actually had more time. Hard to believe. Romney just punched punched punched while the President ummed. I may be overreacting because I am disappointed -- it's fresh. But it looked to me like a blood bath. The President didn't fall on his face, but he just stood there and took it. I don't understand.

I say it's their 20th wedding anniversary and he was thinking about 20 years special nookie night..........:|

It certainly has been a while since anybody argued with him. I did not like the personal attacks Romney made, but Romney was in rare form. Romney certainly figured out how to avoid being penned down on anything........."I'm like Reagan...certain principles applied state by state" yeah and the principles are 'a stronger economy, fostering business yadda yadda yadda'.........

a big disappointment I hope those few swing voters will not decide based on tonight's performance...........I soooooooooooo hope Biden is on his game in a week or so

That's one of the things I love about Obama, no theatrics.

Why didn't he have anything inspiring to say about the role of government, the last question? I don't get it. Why would you let that pass? How could a Democrat let that pass?

OH god, I've got to let it go. Romney was on the ropes. I am not sure he could have been put away tonight. He was prepared. But it WAS a mugging. Anyway . . . deep breaths.

Jim Lerher SUCKED ASS and let Mitt Romney run over him time and time again as if Romney was BOTH the moderator and a debater.

Obama better buff up.

p.s. Gwen Ifill would have shut that shit down so quick it wouldn't have been funny.

Romney was clear and cogent. He made sense. It's crap, but if you don't know better. . . .

I thought his gestures were good. They helped him illustrate his points. The President stepped on his own lines a couple of times. Romney was on. He was ready. Out for blood.

Romney had a great performance- all based on lies. The big question is will it matter that he lied over and over again. I'm not confident that it will. Hopefully Obama's leads in the swing states will be enough. Thank god there is the 47% tape. Yep Obama blew it.

does anyone know why Obama said he agreed with Romney on Social Security???????????????????? huh?????

going to go smoke a bowl and watch something entirely mindless on the TV or I will 'splode along side Martina...............:fastdraq:

I've only watched a little bit, but so far I am disappointed :(

I kept waiting for that! Like, if Obama wanted to sink Mitt's ship, all he had to do was bring up the 47%!

He needed to illuminate Mitt as an out-of-touch millionaire who is lying his ass off about giving a shit about the middle class and one who is willing to say anything to get elected so he can keep lining his pockets. Instead, Mitt comes out looking forceful, prepared, in charge, and Presidential while Obama looked shaken.

I am disappointed and unnerved like you wouldn't believe.

Did anyone else hear the way Romney uses the term "poor" as odd sounding? "The poor" in places it seemed to make sense that one would say lower economic class or something similar? He also seemed uncomfortable referencing that group, as well. I don't know how to explain it, or how to put my finger on it, but it felt creepy.

romeny back peddeled ... he is for big oil co. and against the US becomming mor e independent .. he did not create teh health care for massachusetts it was already to go inplace .. he shouldnt be taking credit for that .. it was all democtaric designed. b4 he got here in massachusetts .. u cant go on state worth in college tution .. students need fed gov help .. period. thats not improving education when u have highly intelligent ppl in thsi world who deserve to go to college on their own and NOT ask mom and dad .. who usualy cant afford college .. i agree obama didnt seem comfotable in teh debate .. I would assume it didnt change the minds of the american public at all about Obama if theyhave been FOLLOWING Romeny to begin with ,, ** wipes both sides of Romeny's mouth **

Politico already has Chris Matthew's tearing his hair out comments up online --

According to Politico, there's a twitter thread called #SilentJimLehrer.

Okay, I am going to try to chill too. Sigh.

I am stuned that Obama wasnt the same speaker he was in 08,I thought tonight he would be stronger than he was.I still will vote for himcause I never thought Romney was a man of the people cause he is an ovr rich loud mouth who is in it for even more for him and his like.

Be as disappointed as you please with the President's performance in the debate, but he did keep the pressure on Romney. I rather appreciate that he kept bringing up Romney's clusterfuck of a deficit plan and the extreme vagueness of his policies--a running theme was that Obama was willing to reveal his policies and admit to their costs, whereas Romney kept playing a sad and bizarre shell game, presumably on the assumption that if he just pretends the costs of his un-policies aren't there, voters will imagine him to shit sunshine and rainbows.

That said, Romney was very well-prepared and well-spoken for a night of arguing. It's just that he's such a vapid excuse for a candidate that his performance was just that--a slick song-and-dance routine, and nothing more. His lying may or may not have won him the debate, but it is doubtful that it will win him the election--Romney simply wasn't thinking about the long-term consequences as opposed to the short-term ones. Obama, on the other hand, now has a whole mess of Romney lies that he can throw back in his face with poison added, in addition to the light shined on the magical faerie dust hole in his deficit policy.

Sure, if taken entirely in a vacuum, Romney did very well. The thing is... this isn't a vacuum. For all the unpleasant shit that can be said about the American voting public, they have been paying an unusual amount of attention this election cycle, and Romney was thus setting himself up for a long-term failure.

So when I was watching the debates, I was worried. But in retrospect, I think Obama was allowing Romney to tie the noose around his own neck. And I don't have any particular doubt as to whether Obama will hang him by it.

And it's we libs who are complaining about Obama's performance not having been good enough. Outside of MSNBC he's been getting a more favourable review, or so I heard.

I was actually speaking of a local channel, but after checking CNN (which might be a better indicator), well, shit.

It's not like Obama to just let himself get walked on for no reason, though. So I'm going to hold onto the hypothesis that Obama was letting Romney walk into a trap--Obama plays a long-term game, and if he somehow calculated that letting Romney run his mouth tonight would give him a prime opportunity to deal a killing blow later, it wouldn't surprise me if he chose to do exactly that. The debate may yet turn out to be a pyrrhic victory for Romney.

...Orrrrr perhaps it's just Obama's overconfidence getting ahead of him and he wasn't expecting Romney to be that on the ball. If that's the case, we can expect Obama to be far better-prepared in round two.

feeling less intensely about it -- but did you see the video of andrew sullivan's reaction?

http://www.thedailybeast.com/videos.html

Battleship Metaphor's and more...
 

Loved it that Medusa used the "sink your ship" metaphor: I found an early press release on last night's debate published by US News and toward the end of the article, I found a similar gem:

"Second, while the Romney campaign seems to bank on distinct moments in time to turn the race—first the vice presidential rollout was going to restart the campaign, then the Republican National Convention was going to spark a Romney surge—the fact is that elections are akin to aircraft carriers. They generally don't turn on a dime," (Robert Schlesinger; Oct. 3, 2012)

You can find the full article >>> HERE <<<

Well, I for one purposely didn't watch The Debate. I didn't want to see bullshit going back and forth like kids slinging mud at one another and who can outdo who, especially with that rich, lying, imbecile Romney...

This type of crap gets on my nerves and why waste my energy and evening on that shit. I'm an Obama fan and hope he wins. And either fortunately or unfortunately whatever is going to happen, is going to happen no matter what.

I wanted to enjoy my evening watching my DVR shows. Which, by the way, I did watch a few episodes of "Long Island Medium"

All I know is if Romney does win...We're all fucked...And, I didn't need to watch the debate to know that.

P.S. I saw a bit of recap while watching the news while getting ready for work and saw you had to throw in Big Bird, really Romney, really? That's what came to your head:wtf:(rolls eyes) Uh, yeah, Ok...Dimwit...