^^^^^This. Obama won another tactical victory, like he did in the second debate. But Romney accomplished absolutely all of his objectives and presented himself well. Obama's entire campaign strategy has been centered around trying to define Mitt Romney as an unacceptable alternative to himself by discrediting him. This debate was Obama's last chance to re-establish this narrative, which Romney annihilated during the first debate. On this point, Obama failed completely. As a result, this election is going to be a referendum on Obama after all. That is what Mitt Romney was setting the stage for last night. The undecideds will break heavily for the challenger (Mitt Romney) at the end, just like they always do. If this election is close to tied in the polls going into election day, Mitt Romney will win by a comfortable margin. This is why Barack Obama conducted himself like the challenger last night and Mitt Romney conducted himself like the incumbent sitting on a lead. Because they both know that is pretty much the scenario they are facing right now.
Here's the facts. Romney was trailing going into the debates. Now, he's ahead. Romney won the debates (plural), plain and simple. You can keep talking minutia about this debate point or that point, etc. But it's not a boxing match. You don't win debates on points scored. You win debates by the net gain caused by..... the sum of: (1) undecided voters deciding to vote for you; plus (2) your opponents voters switch to vote for you.....minus the sum of: (1) undecided voters who decide to vote for your opponent; plus (2) your voters that switched to vote for opponent. Spin it any way you like. Romney won the debates because he swung more voters during the debates to his side. You have to view the debates as a series, as one unit, not as separate distinct events. Romney was trailing coming into the debates and now he is ahead. Although some of you are falsely claiming that Obama has stemmed the tide and now the polls are going to reflect this huge shift, it won't happen. The polls may balance out towards election day but the overall effect of the debates was a Romney win.
Here's what went down last night, from someone who knows. Listen up readers, because you don't get this type of analysis for free very often. 1. Romney's behavior suggested that he's ahead in this race. Significantly ahead. 2. Obama's behavior suggested that he needed a hail mary to win this race. He was petty, petulent, angry, and small. Partisan attacks, sarcasm, condescension are just not Presidential. Sorry. 3. After being tied up like a goat and f'd for 90 minutes in the first debate, Obama still had something to prove to his base. He spent the last two debates, as well as the VP debate, shoring up his base. This is done through aggression and partisanship. Romney on the other hand, was targeting undecideds and independents, because his base is already there. This was tricky for Romney to defend against Obama's juvenile attacks while at the same time appealing to independents, but he pulled it off very nicely. 4. Romney's #1 goal last night was to appear Presidential and appear as though he could be Commander in Chief. He achieved both objectives, and even the liberal CNN poll on the topic agreed. 5. The crowd that Romney has to win over during the next two weeks thinks like this: "Obama hasn't worked, but George Bush didn't work." You don't win over that crowd by appealing to the base. You win by putting distance between your policies and Bush, and Romney did that from the onset. Obama won the partisan food fight of who can launch more attacks on the opponent, but Romney won the chessmatch -- positioning himself in the eyes of independent and undecided voters.
based on what poll? PPP(Democratic Polling): Indies more likely to vote for Romney after debate: 47% less likely: 35% Obama more likely: 32% less likely: 48% In CNN's poll, 48% said Obama won, 40% Romney. But as far as changing votes, 24% said they were more inclined to vote for Obama, 25% for Romney. On the question of who was qualified to be Commander in Chief: 60% said Romney was. 63% said Obama was. Both have Romney swaying more votes.
A word on the debate moderators and the debate formats. The format for the first and third debates were pretty much the same. And both Jim Lehrer and Bob Schieffer both handled them in a very similar style, both doing excellent jobs. As far as I am concerned, this is a really great format for these debates. I hope the town hall format is scrapped and they just go with this format exclusively from now on. If they want to alter whether they are standing or sitting or whatever, fine. The Vice Presidential debate conducted by Martha Raddatz was OK, but she did treat the candidates somewhat differently, interrupting Paul Ryan quite a bit more often. And she intervened in the discussion generally a bit more than was desirable. Nevertheless, she did not blatantly jump in and help one of the candidates or start listing out left wing talking points. This debate was moderated well but not excellently. The second debate moderated by Candy Crowley was a model for how much a moderator can screw up a debate and show partisan bias. She actually intervened in the debate to help President Obama, which after the first debate he did appear to his supporters like he was in need of. And the information that she interceded with was debatable at best. Wasn't that what the candidates were supposed to be doing? Needless to say, she destroyed any lingering claim to being a non-partisan journalist that she had, and ended her presidential debate moderating career once and for all. Grades: Jim Lehrer - A Martha Raddatz - B Candy Crowley - F Bob Scheiffer - A
Did both candidates really spend half the debate talking about how they will each **** with other countries while neglecting domestic issues? Oh boy, can I vote for both of these guys?
Crowley - A++++, see the besmirched undershorts of mojoman = you're doing something right. Raddatz - didn't really watch/don't really care Lehrer - INC - didn't really watch, but from what I hear he was asleep. Schieffer - C-, should have stopped the fight earlier, also let them wander outside the format, and ignored 3/4 of the world with his questions.
I didn't realize the Earth had shifted during the debate so that Syria is Iran's route to the sea because that was certainly not the case when the debate started. The Navy comment was a major mistake. Romney had been spewing that on the stump and Obama was clearly ready to knock that hanging curve 485 feet.
