By Rob Kall/opednews.com
Some thoughts on the debate.
I changed the title from ” Thoughts and Tweets on the First 2012 Presidential Debate” to the current title. I do mean it. Whenever someone says Obama couldn’t do it all, or he made a mistake, it’s almost always wrong. Obama makes choices and takes actions based on strategy and intention. His performance in this debate was planned.
-This debate was a horrible failure on many levels. It was Lehrer’s swan song. He’ll never do another debate. It’s a sad way to exit.
-The debate omitted three very legitimate candidates who are on the ballot in enough states so they should be included– Jill Stein, Gary Johnson and Rocky Anderson. Percentage of approval in the polls is a despicable, disingenuous excuse for excluding participants in the debate. The three of them would have added vitality and real dimensionality to the discussion of issues.
-Obama was incredibly info-wonkish. He failed to remember that debates are as much about theater and appearance and power as about information. This failure may reflect on how he leads. Being smart and knowing a lot is not enough. You must use the information and combine it with your personality and understanding of how things work to get things done.
-Obama’s debate prep did not prepare him for how to deal with repeated, stubborn lies from Romney– or the prep was weak and ineffective, or, Obama chose to allow Romney to lie. What the hell, it’s so much a core element of the beltway character and millieu. Maybe he just took it for granted.
-Obama didn’t throw in the strong stuff against Romney– 47%, Bin Laden, General Motors. Maybe he’s holding them for the last debate, the one that people will remember most at the polls.
-Maybe Obama didn’t go after Romney because he wanted to get Romney feeling confident and perky, so he’d go out on a limb lying even more, so the video could be used against him in campaign ads.
-Craig Crawford has an interesting take in his Huffpo article, Obama Throws A Game, saying,
Had it been an NBA game he might be investigated. But this is presidential politics and for whatever reasons – maybe good ones – Barack Obama didn’t even try to win last night’s debate. Headlines such as ” Liberals Livid at Obama Performance ” won’t hurt him among swing voters. And it won’t hurt Democrats to lure GOP donors into thinking Romney has a chance at a moment when they were threatening to shift funds to House and Senate races.
And Crawford wraps up the article, saying,
” Perhaps Obama simply didn’t bring his best game because he hasn’t got one. I doubt it. No, I think he threw this debate on purpose. It’s worth remembering that those who’ve played basketball against him say he usually fools around in the beginning, but closes strong in the finish.”
-This political event, with over 4 million tweets, was the most tweeted political event yet. I tweeted through the debate, then did a lot of retweets and a few tweets on polls and comments by people on TV.
rob kall “@robkall
Cnn poll on who seemed stronger leader 58% Romney 37% Obama
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