By Matt Towery
Thursday, October 04, 2012
Mitt Romney, as was clear to all who watched the first
presidential debate, channeled Ronald Reagan right down to the glistening hair
and respectful smiling face that listened as his opponent tap-danced and
stutter-stepped his way to a resounding thumping in the contest.
Several post-debate polls for varying news organizations
such as CNN and Newsmax showed that the voters who watched the debate viewed
President Obama's lackluster performance as a clear victory for Gov. Romney. So
clear, in fact, as to outdistance the margin of perceived victory measured in
most past presidential debates where same night post-debate surveys were
conducted.
Most supporters of
Obama will write this off to a one night off performance by their man. But a
deeper examination of what took place would suggest that the president has, in
many ways, created a deep hole from which he must now climb in the next two
contests.
What has not been
mentioned enough is the fact that this first debate was actually an
introductory event for Mitt Romney. Most Americans did not watch the endless
Republican primary debates earlier in the year. As a result, the image they had
of Romney had been formed by brief moments from stories from the evening news
or from some late night comedian. This was Mitt Romney's opportunity to
introduce himself to most voters on his own terms.
And because
President Obama has avoided long press conferences or other opportunities to
speak extemporaneously, many voters who have seen him on cozy shows such as
"The View," or in very structured interviews, such as his recent
appearance on "60 Minutes," are having a hard time reconciling the
Obama they thought they knew with the one who debated Romney in Denver.
Certainly the
president will come out swinging in the next contest, and in coming days many a
comparison will be made to Ronald Reagan's weak performance in his first debate
against Walter Mondale during his 1984 re-elction bid. Reagan seemed weak and
at times confused and came back to clobber Mondale in the next debate. But
there is a big difference here.
First, Reagan was already known as the great
communicator, and no one had ever suggested that he could only speak without
the help of a teleprompter. When Reagan "bounced back" in his second
debate, there was a high level of past performance to which he returned. No
such record exists for President Obama. He bested John McCain in 2008, but
McCain was himself a weak debater who often was lost in the same high weeds of
policy and insider type talk that we heard from Obama in the Denver contest.
Reagan had no long
term history of stuttering, grasping for words or uttering "uh" or
"look" every few sentences while trying to respond to questions or
make a point. To be honest, these stylistic problems that Obama highlighted in
the first debate have been his hallmark throughout his presidency -- it is
simply a matter of no one ever calling him out over them.
But Obama's debate problem runs deeper than a matter of
his style and manner of delivering a message. In the first debate, he embraced
several terms and pushed several concepts that could become deadly in a final
contest where domestic policy can once again dominate the contest.
First, he chose to
proudly adopt the term "Obamacare" as one that from now on will be
considered a non-confrontational term. If Romney plays it right, Obama's
decision might be tantamount to Herbert Hoover having proudly claimed ownership
of the oh-so-nasty reference to the shanties and homeless hovels referred to in
his days as "Hoovervilles." Obama now owns the term for better or worse.
More importantly, Obama has left open a huge door through
which Romney may walk, should he so choose. By making a big issue out of the
lack of specificity to Romney's proposals, such as cuts to future budgets,
Obama is wide open to a last minute laundry list of specifics from Romney in
the final debate. That would leave President Obama grasping at challenges to
the proposals and with only days to come back with attacks. A basic rule in
debate -- never let your opponent be vague and fill in all of the blanks late
in the contest.
Given that President Obama's greatest problems are
currently in an area most Americans don't follow, foreign policy, Romney has a
sporting chance of taking two debates in a row. If that happens, the emperor
may have no clothes, and once the public notices, the polling numbers may start
to truly move toward Romney.
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