In first debate woes, Obama's not alone
President Obama speaks during the Presidential Debate at the University of Denver on October 3, 2012 in Denver, Colorado.
/ GettyAfter a widely criticized performance in this week's debate, President Obama proved he's not immune to the pitfalls of the modern presidential campaign cycle. But the president can take solace in a look back at history: He's hardly the first sitting president to flub the first debate of a general election campaign - and he wouldn't be the first to win the election despite it, either.
According to Alan Schroeder, a professor at Northeastern University and the author of "Presidential Debates: 50 Years of High-Risk TV," the president joins a long line of incumbent presidents -- including Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and both Bushes -- who essentially bombed their first time back in the ring.
"More often than not, the first debates have been very difficult for incumbent presidents," he said. "They're out of practice, which is a big part of it, they don't have as much time to devote to debate preparation as people whose full-time job is running for office."
Not to mention the fact that most sitting presidents aren't used to being directly challenged even in the privacy of the West Wing - much less in front of 50+ million viewers on live national television.
"There's kind of an attitude adjustment," Schroeder said. "Presumably the debate was a wake-up call for Obama. I remember back in 2000, Al Gore had a really bad first debate, and when the 'Saturday Night Live' parody came out, his advisers forced him to watch it. I'm wondering whether the Obama people might not have a similar thought after this weekend."
Terry Holt, a Republican strategist who worked on George W. Bush's 2004 presidential campaign, recalled the aftermath of the Republican incumbent's weak showing in the first debate of the general election - though he brushed off the notion that Mr. Obama's situation is comparable.
"After three or four days of ruminating about how they did, the president hunkered down," Holt said. "President Bush recognized that the debates were important moments and that he couldn't rely on his record and his leadership - that he had to rise to this occasion and be sharp and focused and determined. So he looked at his own debate performance and said, 'I've got to do better.' But it took us awhile to get to that point."
Mr. Obama, a famously intense competitor, is already signaling a possible shift in attitude. While he was panned in the debate for being passive and uninspired, on the campaign trail Thursday he went after Romney aggressively, mocking his one-liners and ribbing his "spirited" performance in Denver.
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"What happened last night is that people who didn't like Mitt Romney found that they could like him, and that in fact he had something important to say."
This sentence is obviously unfinished ...
I am afraid that for scores of Americans, it doesn't matter if what Romney is saying is true or not. All that matters to them, is that he "appears" to be believable. All is sadly in the appearance only in this country.
Therefore, I would rather read:
"What happened last night is that people who didn't like Mitt Romney found that they could like him, and that in fact he had something important to say, nevermind how truthful or not"
Posted on October 7, 2012 by jcarroll
Romney is like the man on the horse at the circus who can change his coat from the inside to the outside without you see how he did it; or like the person running the shell game at the Midway of a County Fair.
Even tho, it appeared that he won the first debate- he lost. Romney proved beyond any doubt that he is a liar on his tax plan. Romney proved that he will gut Social Security, Medicare, Obama Care and any program that benefits anyone but the rich. He gave us a perfect example: PBS and "Big Bird." Romney proved that he is still a high school bully by breaking the rules of the debate and playing by the rules of a Bain Vulture Capitalist. Visit the Internet Free Press and see how you can help PEOPLE POWER PRICE CONTROL and Consumer Price Control bring down the price of gasoline below $3.00 per gallon.
Truth be told, the only incumbent president that ever won the first debate was Bill Clinton in 1996. He thoroughly demolished his GOP challenger Bob Dole.
Federal subsidies to PBS equal what the Defense Department spends in 6 hours, SIX hours.. Rural PBS stations that receive a high proportion of federal funding will shut down and kids whose parents that can't afford cable will lose access to many programs including Sesame Street. Romney is not only a bully he's nuts...
Wait, what happened to in 2008, it was so scary, that Palin would be one-heartbeat away from the presidency, how scary and horrible if McCain would win, because Sarah Palin would be VP......now you are claiming, VP debates don't matter and the VP doesn't matter, huh ??
Not vert bright today george. The VP debate doesn't matter because it wont be a determinent of the election. And just because Ryan is a better debater than Biden doesn't mean that he would be a better VP. Palin on the other hand couldn't pour pi$$ out of a boot if the instructions were on the heel.
How about tough times don't last - tough people do?