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发帖数: 29846 | 1 My Debate Thoughts
October 4th, 2012 by Rand Simberg
I watched, and I thought that Romney did well, but I didn’t think
overwhelmingly so. Apparently, though, there’s a consensus that it was a
wipe out.
I guess I didn’t realize how poorly Obama was doing because he didn’t look
any different to me. I’ve just never seen the Chicago Jesus that everyone
else seemed to. It’s almost like the scales have fallen off everyone’s
eyes, and I never had them. Was this the moment that everyone else finally
noticed that the emperor was wearing nothing but his birthday suit?
I’d also add that Obama has always been a hot-house plant, cocooned in his
own advisers and a fawning media. McCain was a terrible candidate and lousy
debater. I think that this was the first time he’s ever had to deal with
reality, and he just wilted. Jen Rubin agrees:
The liberal media, and MSNBC specifically, have no one to blame but
themselves, however. They have never given President Obama the sort of
scrutiny he got last night. They have mouthed the president’s false talking
points (“a $5 trillion tax cut for the rich”), egging the president on.
When Mitt Romney debunked these easily, Obama had nowhere to go. He looked
lost without the protective blanket of compliant media and over-eager left-
wing bloggers.
…the media, who too often view themselves as on the president’s team,
should share in the blame. They built him up. They parroted his excuses and
four-Pinocchio attacks. But they couldn’t save him when it mattered most.
They made the campaign about gaffes and polls, which are of no use in a
debate. They lambasted Romney, man of the 59-point job plan, for lack of
detail without ever urging the president to come up with any substantive
policy commensurate with the challenges we face. They might want to rethink
their approach to presidential boosterism.
Here’s a concept. How about reporting the news, instead of being Democrat
campaign surrogates and operatives?
[Update a few minutes later]
Related thoughts from Paul Rahe:
If Barack Obama seemed halting, uncomfortable, exhausted, and depressed last
night, it was because he was saddled with defending the indefensible. What
could he say? He had promised shortly after becoming President that his
program would bring unemployment way down. He and his allies in Congress had
sold Obamacare in part as a jobs bill. And the facts were there to be seen
— exceedingly high unemployment and underemployment coupled with persuasive
evidence that the growth needed to boost the economy was not in the offing.
Instead of coming out of a recession, we were on the cusp of a new
recession, and nearly everyone sensed it. For the first time in his life,
Barack Obama was cornered. For the first time in his life, he was to be held
accountable for his achievements. He was the ultimate affirmative action
baby, and he had always been given a free pass. He had always run — for
chairman of the Harvard Law Review, for the Illinois state senate, for the
United States Senate, and for the Presidency — on promise. Now he was an
executive running for re-election, and he was going to be held responsible
for what he had done and for what he had failed to do. And, to make matters
worse, he had been deprived of his security blanket. He did not have a
teleprompter to fall back on.
Yup. It’s the first job he’s ever had where he had real responsibility,
and he wasn’t up to it. And that was obvious to many of us, but not enough,
four years ago.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Another blind squirrel finds a nut. Michael Moore: “This is what happens
when u pick John Kerry as your debate coach.”
John Kerry is another person by whom I’ve never been as impressed as I’m
supposed to be.
[Update a few minutes later]
A good comment:
Yes, Obama has all the hall marks of a smart, yet lazy student. He is
charming and knowledgeable enough to get in a few good comments in class to
impress the teacher, but when it comes down to actually putting effort into
writing a paper or studying for the final he doesn’t. The thing is you can
get very far by being superficially smart. But, there is always a point when
some one finally catches you. Obama has just been caught my friends.
In the past Obama always had a higher job to run to to avoid doing and being
responsible for his current job. You can’t climb the ladder higher than
president though. There is no running now. Now we see what he is really made
of.
Now he has to answer to Mitt who is the old fashioned kind of smart student.
The one that puts in long hours of study and reads every assigned reading
and the optional ones too.
I think that everyone is starting to see that, even his media sycophants.
[Update a few minutes later]
You know, anyone who watched Obama get schooled by Paul Ryan in the health-
care summit, and by Netanyahu on Middle-East issues, saw a preview of last
night’s debate, if they were paying attention. It’s easy to get him out of
his comfort zone when confronted by reality.
[Update a while later]
More on the same theme from Victor Davis Hanson:
For so long Barack Obama has assumed that he will not face cross-examination
from the media that he simply has little grasp of policy details, and in
exasperation seems to look around for the accustomed helpful media crutch.
But there is no such subsidy in a one-on-one debate, and only now it becomes
clear just how the media for the last six years have enfeebled their
favorite.
I wonder if they’ll learn any lessons? Or if perhaps they’ll finally write
the guy off, which means going after him like jackals on a wounded gazelle. |
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