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First Presidential Debate Impressions
Oct. 5th, 2012 09:23 pmIt's been a couple days, so I have had a chance to think about the debate a little. At first I was very disappointed in Obama. I felt he lost. I felt he was on the defensive a lot of the time. I have never thought he was a great speaker, unlike most of my friends. I always suspected he would be a poor debater - like me - not having the natural ability to think on the fly and formulate thoughts into powerful little messages. That is why I was a little afraid of the debate. What I did not expect was that Romney would choose that moment as his hour of self-revelation, and that Obama's defenselessness would be so obvious.
We all know the etch-a-sketch jokes, how Romney remakes himself. It all sees quite harmless, and we all know it is something all politicians do to some extent. Impress the base during the primaries, then tack to the center. So I have been waiting for Romney's tack to the center. It did not come during the convention. I thought that was strange. I thought that maybe he was crazy enough not to tack to the center at all. I was hoping this was the case. Not so. He chose that moment to become Moderate Republican Romney - against tax cuts for the wealthy, against cuts to education, willing to sacrifice the tax breaks given to oil companies. Obama was caught completely off-guard by this broadside. Every inch of his tired face seemed to say, "I wasted hours preparing to debate the wrong Romney."
Romney's transformation was masterfully orchestrated. The new ideas he put forward were so catchy I heard reporters spouting them the next day without even realizing their thinking has changed. One of the NPR reporters on the radio said, "there are two ways to reduce the deficit: increase taxes or grow the economy." The folly of this phrase is in the fact that it compares apples to oranges. Increasing taxes affects deficits directly, but growing the economy is indirect, it is not even something you can actually do. The economy is not a mushroom. You can cut taxes or increase spending and HOPE that the economy will grow, but that is a different matter. By equating the two things, Romney presented a very appealing choice: who in their right mind would choose to pay more taxes instead of growing the economy? Of course the reporter should have caught on to the trick, but there are few people whose mind is always clear. But we cannot all be like Diane Rehm.
It remains to be seen how the debate will affect people in general, how long Romney's success persists, whether the ideological edifice he has constructed (which to this point seemed quite shaky) will stand or fall due to some unforeseen flaw. Obama conceded the point, and retreated. He waits, having yielded the field of battle, for an opening to present itself. Things settle, glory is fleeting, and Obama is very, very good at waiting and seizing the opportunity. This meekness that some people malign him for, it can be a strength as well.
We all know the etch-a-sketch jokes, how Romney remakes himself. It all sees quite harmless, and we all know it is something all politicians do to some extent. Impress the base during the primaries, then tack to the center. So I have been waiting for Romney's tack to the center. It did not come during the convention. I thought that was strange. I thought that maybe he was crazy enough not to tack to the center at all. I was hoping this was the case. Not so. He chose that moment to become Moderate Republican Romney - against tax cuts for the wealthy, against cuts to education, willing to sacrifice the tax breaks given to oil companies. Obama was caught completely off-guard by this broadside. Every inch of his tired face seemed to say, "I wasted hours preparing to debate the wrong Romney."
Romney's transformation was masterfully orchestrated. The new ideas he put forward were so catchy I heard reporters spouting them the next day without even realizing their thinking has changed. One of the NPR reporters on the radio said, "there are two ways to reduce the deficit: increase taxes or grow the economy." The folly of this phrase is in the fact that it compares apples to oranges. Increasing taxes affects deficits directly, but growing the economy is indirect, it is not even something you can actually do. The economy is not a mushroom. You can cut taxes or increase spending and HOPE that the economy will grow, but that is a different matter. By equating the two things, Romney presented a very appealing choice: who in their right mind would choose to pay more taxes instead of growing the economy? Of course the reporter should have caught on to the trick, but there are few people whose mind is always clear. But we cannot all be like Diane Rehm.
It remains to be seen how the debate will affect people in general, how long Romney's success persists, whether the ideological edifice he has constructed (which to this point seemed quite shaky) will stand or fall due to some unforeseen flaw. Obama conceded the point, and retreated. He waits, having yielded the field of battle, for an opening to present itself. Things settle, glory is fleeting, and Obama is very, very good at waiting and seizing the opportunity. This meekness that some people malign him for, it can be a strength as well.
