The four-debate series between this year’s Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates has ended. Monday evening President Obama and Governor Romney met for the third and final debate between the two Presidential candidates; Vice President Biden and Congressman Ryan held center stage a couple of weeks ago.
Foreign Policy was Monday night’s theme; Bob Schieffer of CBS’s Face the Nation was the moderator. The candidates, having each won one of the previous debates, faced off for the rubber match at
Not being a political operative, I am occasionally perplexed by the advice given to candidates, and the subsequent strategic initiatives they ensue. Remember the first debate in
The result was he delivered a dreadful performance that, should he manage to win on November 6th, will likely go down the personal low point of his first term in office. That is in part because in this ultra-partisan environment, the Right managed to seize the post debate narrative, and have controlled it since then. They characterized Willard Romney’s debate performance as transcendently brilliant, and conversely painted the President as uninterested, disengaged, somnambulant and at the same time arrogant.
Not surprisingly, I disagree with those characterizations of the President. At least to the extent that I do not believe he demonstrated any of those adjectives. He was victimized by his own Team, which saddled him with bad advice, and a worse strategic design. Still, as noted above, his performance was, dreadful; atrocious even. I submit that by itself, that one event fundamentally changed the trajectory of the Obama Campaign vis-à-vis the Romney Campaign in the 2012 Race for the Presidency.
In fact, Team Obama has yet to fully recover. Moreover, if Governor Romney becomes the President-Elect after the November 6th election, it is certainly my opinion that his victory can be traced back to October 3rd, and his resounding victory in the first of the debates.
But I digress. The point here is that on Monday evening, Willard Romney boldly, or at least shrewdly, stole a page out of the Obama playbook. The Governor has been widely panned, by Democrats and by many Republicans alike, for shifting positions for his convenience and perhaps more often for political expediency. Many of the Governor’s GOP Primary opponents citied his unctuousness as they assailed him in the Party’s 20 Primary debates. His performance in the first Presidential debate seemed to set the Gold Standard for deconstructing his previous positions, and reinventing himself on-the-fly.
Alas, Monday evening, based, presumably like President Obama in the first debate, upon the advice of handlers, the Governor decided to sit on his momentum, in the process hoping to persuade women and independent voters that he will not lead the Country into more wars…and by doing so, garner their votes. I have no idea whether this stratagem will yield its desired result.
Alternately, what I am certain of is that the Governor Romney of the Republican Primaries, and pre-debate Presidential campaign was a bellicose saber-rattler who described himself as severely conservative. He chided President Obama for establishing a timetable for leaving Afghanistan, he bashed him for opting not to leave 10,000 or more troops in Iraq, he suggested the United States should not take extraordinary measures to find Osama bin Laden, and he asserted that if bin Laden were found in Pakistan, we should seek permission from the Pakistanis before pursuing him there.
President Obama took actions employing the opposite of Governor Romney’s original and long-held positions on those issues. On these, and a host of other matters, Governor Romney praised and/or agreed with President Obama Monday night, all, ostensibly, in a strategic effort to avoid attacking President Obama in this, if you ask those loyal to Mr. Romney, “unimportant” Foreign Policy Debate. It is, of course, interesting that the debate became in full-throated unison labeled unimportant by Romney-ites, after the polls showed that President Obama won.
For three weeks now, Republicans across the spectrum have been on a variety of news shows, brazenly looking directly into the camera and stoutly denying that the litany of “brand new” positions being spouted by Willard Romney represent any shift, change, or alteration of his previously held positions. I understand the nature of politics is that circumstances and new information may result in one revising his or her positions. Indeed, that is the nature of the political universe. However, in most instances, when such arcs of change occur, the pivoter at least owns up to and explains the change(s) or deviation(s); especially upon direct questioning. Not Governor Romney, nor his boosters! What I find most alarming about these hocus-pocus antics is that the vaunted Fourth Estate are loathe to hold the Governor, or his handlers, or his operatives, or his supporters accountable for this outrageously rank disingenuousness.
Quickly, to summarize the snap poll results of Monday’s debate, CNN viewers, which oversampled Republicans, said President Obama won the debate. The spread was:
·
Winner 48% - 40%
President Obama
·
Leadership 51% -
46% President Obama
·
Likeability 48%
- 47% President Obama
·
Attacked more
68% - 21% President Obama
·
Can handle
Commander-in-Chief 63% - 60% President Obama
·
Did better than
expected 59% - 44% President Obama
In
the CBS News Instant Poll of uncommitted voters, President Obama scored a more decisive
victory. The spread was:
- Winner 53% - 23%
President Obama
- Better handle
terrorism and national security 64% - 36% President Obama
- Trust to handle an
international crisis 71% - 49% President Obama
- Better handle
In
reviewing the overarching debate series, President Obama and Vice President
Biden were deemed to have won three of the four contests. With only 13 days remaining before Election
Day, and with Early Voting already underway in a host of states, the race
remains tight, and the outcome uncertain.
A number of Republicans are engaging in psychological warfare,
continuing to utilize the advantage gained after the first debate to attempt to
shape the campaign narrative. Almost as
if planting a pre-hypnotic suggestion, they assert that their polling indicates
Governor Romney has surpassed President Obama, and some add that by November 6th,
the gap will be even greater.
Maybe;
maybe not! Regardless of whom you
support, don’t get ahead of yourself. Most
important, exercise your franchise
and vote. The Poll-of-Polls is the one that tallies
the post-election results, and ultimately, the only one that really matters.. We’ll know in due time; it is certainly not
over yet. If you follow the polls, learn
to recognize the distinction between national polls, and those from swing
states; appreciate the importance of the latter. I think (hope) you get the point.
When
then Governor Ronald Reagan ran, and
succeeded at winning the Presidency
in 1980, an actor went on to occupy
the White House. In my view, nothing better highlights the “Etch-A-Sketch” character of Governor Romney than his comments during
Monday night’s encounter with President Obama.
As
Van Jones, a former Obama Administration official said on the
CNN post-debate show, "If this debate had gone on for 30
more minutes, Romney was going to endorse Obama."
The Governor clearly validated his thespian chops in “The Great Debate: Act III.” I’m done; holla back!
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