2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWhat would we be talking about if Obama had "won" the debate
I just read the op-eds in tomorrow's NY Times, which took President Obama to task for being such a milquetoast during the debate.
On the night of the debate, much of the commentary here was about how Obama failed miserably. Then on Thursday some of the commentary switched a bit to how Obama played the debates perfectly and allowed Romney to hang himself on his lies. Indeed, the first Obama ads revealing these lies was up and running early Thursday morning. Others started coming up with other possibilities. Al Gore suggested it was the altitude. And how the NYT op-eds return to the initial approach: WTF, Mr. Prez?
What is the case is that the past three days have seen report after report on Romney's lies.
It will be interesting to read Mr. Obama's book in 2018 about his 8 years as president. Maybe we'll find out about some super secret thing that was going on that had him preoccupied. Maybe we'll learn that his lackluster performance was planned and scripted.
Who knows?
But all of this has me wondering. If Obama had "won" the debate, what would the commentary and reporting have looked like, in contrast to the coverage we have seen?
Kolesar
(31,182 posts)There were trace amounts of posts about that before the debate.
Hydra
(14,459 posts)Due to the President's gaffe about how he and Romney have a lot in common when it comes to SSI.
I about fell off my chair when I heard him say that (out loud).
That's the sort of thing Obama has to stop doing.
First of all, it makes him sound like a Blue Dog Democrat (which according to a thread someone else started, is what he has sometimes said he is - controversial subject for another day)
Secondly, it lets Romney off the hook and blurs the issues and doesn't point out how much worse Romney's positions are.
Obama has to stop looking for 'common ground' with the Republicans and start pointing out the distinctions.
Point out why Romney is worse for women, gays, minorities, the poor, the middle class etc.
Hydra
(14,459 posts)I think we would all still be laughing about how much Mitt lied. As to the media? Hard to say what they would have said- I'm guessing something like "Romney still have 2 debates to go..." since they have nothing to report on if they admit that Obama has most of the votes sewn up atm.
2pooped2pop
(5,420 posts)he was at 80% on Intrade instead of the 65 he dropped down to.
jonthebru
(1,034 posts)mazzarro
(3,450 posts)I am not happy about his performance; so also is Bob Herbert -- see this article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-herbert/no-more-excuses_b_1941156.html?utm_hp_ref=media&ir=Media
Indpndnt
(2,391 posts)And that's what matters, not the 90 minutes on stage with Willard.
DJ13
(23,671 posts)Thats also the reason many are so disappointed in Obama's performance, it allowed Romney to maintain a slim hope of winning.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Sadly, that appears off the table now.
Indpndnt
(2,391 posts)Donkees
(31,418 posts)as the credits rolled
RichGirl
(4,119 posts)Which is not a good thing. Maybe we needed a smack down.