2012 Presidential Debates

[deep]

Romney clearly won the debate.

all the polls will go that way

CNN, they are all saying he won.
MSNBC, is all upset that Obama was too soft, basically conceding that Romney won.
On CNN that had that dumb graph where undecideds turned the dial up or down. Romney clearly won that group.

Also, talking longer for Obama, actually makes him a bigger loser in tonights debate.

Obama will go down a bit in the polls. Lets hope Biden can best Ryan next week.

 

[PhilsFan]

Everyone took Obama being calm as him being soft. Romney certainly had the flair.

 

[INDY500]

Answer:

Lets hope Biden can best Ryan next week.

Question: Name one strategy that won't be brainstormed at Team Obama tonight.

 

[digitize]

Nobody won. Obama and Romney lost. That debate was utterly abhorrent. Like, miserably fucking disgusting. Insulting to the collective intelligence of this country. I am actually borderline angry about it.

 

[maycocksean]

Everyone took Obama being calm as him being soft. Romney certainly had the flair.

My democrat friends on Facebook are frustrated that Obama didn't hit harder. . .really annoyed that he didn't bring up the 47%.

My republican friends are feeling pretty good. . .

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

Everyone took Obama being calm as him being soft. Romney certainly had the flair.

If by "flair" you mean rambling a lot in an attempt to squeeze in everything he wanted to say, and trying to dance between appealing to the conservative base and the center all at the same time, then, yeah, sure, he had flair. He was certainly the most animated I've seen him so far, I'll give him that much, I guess.

I find it weird that people are being all surprised now at Obama being calm. Isn't that how he often presents himself?

 

[digitize]

Obama wasn't calm. He was incompetent.

 

[Irvine511]

I remember when John Kerry cleaned W's clock in the first debate in 2004.

 

[PennyLanePHINS]

He had flair and confidence about lying.

Obama sucked too. Will it go down as one of the worst debates of all time?

I feel like they say a lot without going into explanation about how to accomplish it.

 

[Moonlit_Angel]

Obama wasn't calm. He was incompetent.

Eh, I'm talking mainly in tone and speaking manner more than anything else.

I don't think there was a winner. It seems to me the whole thing was more of a draw-Romney stammered and interrupted a lot (he said, "I love Big Bird", for crying out loud), and Obama didn't fight back often enough the way his supporters wanted him to.

 

[digitize]

He had flair and confidence about lying.

Obama sucked too. Will it go down as one of the worst debates of all time?

It wasn't a debate. It was a sequence of horrid stump speeches thrown at each other with no guiding ideology holding them together. The candidates often spent time contradicting themselves and concocting ways to justify it, or just ignoring that fact. It was a complete fucking disaster.

 

[mikal]

I thought Obama appeared to be Presidential. Romney appeared to be disparate....someone who knows how grim things look for his campaign. He may see a slight bump just because he avoided major catastrophe, but it won't last long.

 

[maycocksean]

It wasn't a debate. It was a sequence of horrid stump speeches thrown at each other with no guiding ideology holding them together. The candidates often spent time contradicting themselves and concocting ways to justify it, or just ignoring that fact. It was a complete fucking disaster.

It doesn't sound much different than most of the debates I've seen in recent elections.

 

[digitize]

It doesn't sound much different than most of the debates I've seen in recent elections.

I skipped them all in 2008 and I was 11 in 2004, so it's hard for me to judge. My overall impression, though, is that to call these elections "debates" debate is to insult actual debate.

 

[Irvine511]

I got bored and chatted with a fiend i hadnt seen in a long while instead. I learned much more talking with her about life in Harare than I did from the debate.

It seemed like Romney was clearly better prepared, and that Obama missed many opportunities. But Obama didn't strike me as bad. Just average. And I didn't see the same panic I remember from the Bush team in 2004 after the first debate.

Unless there's a major story, these debates tend to only move te needle a point or two. There are two more to go. And most voters have made up their mind already. The press loves a horse race, so they are going to pounce in this for drama.

An I'm wondering if its ok for the Dems to complain about the moderation.

Or is it only Republicans who are oppressed by conniving, conspiring media and polls, ever? I'm sure whatever polls show movement to Romney will suddenly be highly accurate and not skewed.

 

[PennyLanePHINS]

I can't help but wonder how Hillary Clinton would've done against Romney. I think she would go for the jugular more.

We might see in 2016...

 

[deep]

A nervous but competent beginning by Obama, but I'm struck by the visuals. Romney just looks like a classic president and Obama a very different one. The visuals are with Romney. And his answer was a total re-boot on compassion. This first round goes solidly to Romney. ~ Andrew Sullivan

looking at some of the posts in here, it seems some people are not able to get their personal bias in check and give an objective opinion, let's hope they could do better if they ever get jury duty.

 

[Irvine511]

looking at some of the posts in here, it seems some people are not able to get their personal bias in check and give an objective opinion, let's hope they could do better if they ever get jury duty.

Thank goodness we have you to show us the way.

 

[deep]

You don't like (or believe) Andrew Sullivan?

 

[anitram]

I missed the debate as I had a bday dinner to attend, but I recorded it. Was it really that painfully boring?

Never thought Obama was a great debater so it wouldn't particularly surprise me if he turned in a mediocre showing (or worse by the sound of it?).

 

[Irvine511]

You don't like (or believe) Andrew Sullivan?

I just don't view you as the steady voice of objectivity.

Andrew gets dramatic at times. He and Aaron have also jus moved to NYC, so he's probably pretty stressed to begin with.

 

[deep]

I have often admitted my bias. I try and take it into consideration.


Just looking at the consensus of the cable networks, CNN, MSNBC, and NPR when they all say Romney clearly won and then some people in here say they watched it and did not see it that way it makes one wonder.

 

[deep]

I was thinking about this earlier today, this could be a good outcome for Obama. There is always round 2 and round 3. The expectations have just been dramatically raised for Romney. Could round 1 have been a rope a dope, or as some say - judo?

 

[Irvine511]

If I were Obama, I'd be more concerned about the optics. O looked bored and irritated.

The substance? Well, give 'em enough rope ... I we had any honest Republicans in here they'd be aghast at how centrist their candidate was tonight.

 

[LemonMelon]

Watching the debate on youtube.

The moderation is incompetent ("we're going to talk about a lot of things in a specifical way" is a brilliant sentence) and transparent in its Republican bias. Awful. He's a fucking replacement ref.

Obama sounds bored and complacent. He's not saying anything "wrong," per se, but his delivery sounds weary and sloppy. Too many pauses and uhhhhs. Romney sounds desperate. He's mugging for the camera; it looks unnatural. I will say that he sounds prepared...perhaps too much so. Every point he makes is broken down into numerous sub-bullets outlined in Word and subsequently memorized.

I can't tell who's winning. Don't care. I could fact-check Romney's statements and they won't jibe with what he was preaching 2 years ago. His delivery is meaningless to me.

 

[LemonMelon]

"I didn't approve of a $5 trillion tax cut. I approved of a tax cut that wouldn't increase the deficit."

Oh damn.

That was fucking smooth, Mitt. Utterly meaningless, but it sounded good.

 

[deep]

If we had any honest Republicans in here they'd be aghast at how centrist their candidate was tonight.

this election has always been about a few hundred thousand votes in a handful of states

Romney is almost comical, 'No I won't have a 5 billion dollar tax cut if it raises the deficit." He says it with a straight face, sounding sincere. and that may be enough to flip the required votes. This election could be a squeaker like 2000. And with that the way the votes are counted of if some votes are counted could be the difference.

 

[LemonMelon]

Mitt sidestepped the voucher debate entirely. Another instance of Mitt ripping the label off of something instead of outright denying it. "No, I don't approve of vouchers, I just don't approve of Obama's medicare plan."

Obama should have drank some coffee or shot some bull's blood or something. Kind of sad that Mitt visibly ran away with this one without saying a damn thing.

 

[deep]

it seems like some people have been telling lies about Romney
he is much more reasonable, not in favor of any of those extreme things.

 

[u2popmofo]

While everyone is sharing their partisan impressions of the debate, here's a feel good reminder of the less than democratic interests and behaviors of the two parties we have fronting our country.

As Obama, Romney Hold First Debate, Behind the Secret GOP-Dem Effort to Shut Out Third Parties