Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Second Presidential Debate...A night for Obama and Crowley?

It is with great fear and in trepidation that I approach this debate tonight! As hard as I try to shake these gut instincts that I hope are wrong, it seems to be impossible. While I do not think Obama can take a page from Biden's play book and get away with it. What I am expecting is a debate in which Obama is crowned as the winner by most journalists and post debate polls. Here are some reasons why...
1. Obama set the bar so low in his first debate that any significant improvement will automatically make it seem as if he is the obvious winner. For those who really think that Obama gave the best he had in his last debate; I think you are sadly mistaken. Obama has always been a skilled debater and has demonstrated a knack for connecting with his audiences.
2. With as good as Romney is at debating he has one basic style that he uses in every debate. The old "pivot and attack" approach in which he responds to his opponents attacks by slightly pivoting or turning the criticism around and then turning the attack into a counter attack before most of the audience even knows what hit them. This format of debate will not be conducive to this strategy as their is very little time for counter attacks.
3. Unless the moderator with a long track record of adoring Obama (I'll get into that later) chooses some unexpected, difficult questions from the audience, this format clearly favors Obama and definitely not the strong suit for Romney.
4. We have already heard some tid-bits from the Obama campaign that he plans to go after Bain Capital and the 47% gaffe of Romney. Romney has always refused to make his own case on Bain and defend himself as forcefully as what he needs to. Obama has successfully taken Romney's investing experience and turned it into a detriment. The only way Romney can really defend himself is to brag on his accomplishments there, something he he always refused to do in a meaningful manner. All that matters is how the American people view these issues and polling data seems to indicate these two areas as especially damaging to Romney.
5. Why I left this for last I will never know. Drum roll please...Obama has an ace in his back pocket...I can feel the tension rising...Candy Crowley! Not only is she a liberal with a long track record but has already made it clear that she plans to defy the rules set forth by the debate commission. Why? She feels like it is her job to challenge candidates when she feels like their answers are out of line and that she should have the right to ask follow up questions. Remember, she already gets to choose what questions the audience asks, but evidently she wants to add her own gotcha questions as well. Lets look at some of her liberal bias after posting some links of artciles detailing her plans to throw away tonights rules.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/10/crowley-promises-to-defy-debate-contract-138596.html

http://patdollard.com/2012/10/both-sides-formally-protest-debate-moderator-candy-crowley-expressed-intention-to-influence-outcome/

  • She called the selection of Paul Ryan a ticket death wish..."CROWLEY: ...that this might be, looks a little bit like some sort of ticket death wish...do we really want to talk about these thing? Is this where we want to go when the economy is so bad? We could have stayed on that.
  • She felt it was important to take her daughter to an Obama and Hillary Clinton rally just to attend. While denying that she was a supporter she just felt like it was so historical for the country...She also was unabashed in her spport for Obama when he was a candidate in 2008, telling viewers that she actually made it a point to take her daughter to his announcement and also Hillary Clinton's because she was caught up in the historical moment:
    "I recall standing out in very chilly Springfield, Illinois, when Barack Obama announced. And a lot of people I talked to there said, 'Oh, you're an Obama supporter?' I said no, but you know, this might be history. I wanted to bring my kid. Same with Hillary Clinton. I brought my daughter, you know, because I think this might be history." Was Crowley ever as enthusiastic about an announcement from a Republican? Source-News Busters

    To sum things up I feel like Romney is heading into an impossible circumstance tonight. If he some how were to come out of this with a draw then it would be a major victory for his campaign. 

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