This debate hype is propaganda at its best.

[kentuck]

It's like saying the world heavyweight championship will be fought tomorrow night and the puny rich guy off the street will win the championship if he can sneak in one punch on the champion. It pretends a parity that doesn't exist in reality.

Forget everything that's happened in the past. It's a whole new match if the challenger can land a zinger on the President. Forget about his hidden taxes. Forget about his accounts in the Caymans and Switzerland. Forget about his lack of specifics on issues that affect the lives of common Americans across the country. It's double or nothing Baby!

Don't buy into the hype. The media is pushing a narrative where Romney cannot lose. Even if he commits a huge blunder and falls flat on his face, he still does better than expected and the spin will put him on level plane with the President which he has not earned and does not deserve. The debates are not the be-all end-all to this campaign.

[klook]

1. The Republican fantasy is

that Rmoney says something like "There you go again," or Obama looks at his watch at some point, or Rmoney says "Well, there was actionable intelligence before the Libyan embassy attack, and you guys did nothing, so you're just like Jimmy Carter, ha ha ha haaaaa!!"

Some Democratic fantasies -- as expressed in many DU posts -- are that Rmoney will get angry and red-faced and look like an idiot, or poop his pants (metaphorically at least), or pull the wrong zinger out of his memory circuit, or the moderator will ask about off-shore investments -- or tax returns, or Seamus's wild ride, or what it was like living in his son's basement, etc.

The reality will be different from both scenarios. I doubt seriously that the moderators will provide any real journalistic input. And Rmoney has no knockout punch. But I think he is going to be way more competent in this setting than we'd hope.