The Debate Expectations Game=How Romney botched it and Obama played it perfectly

[babylonsister]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/28/the-debate-expectations-game.html


The Debate Expectations Game
by Michelle Cottle Sep 28, 2012 4:45 AM EDT
How Romney botched it and Obama played it perfectly. By Michelle Cottle.



Is there anyone left out there who hasn’t yet offered Mitt Romney advice on his upcoming debates? Anyone at all? You there, back in the corner Tweeting about Honey Boo Boo: Any words of wisdom for Mitt? If so, speak right on up, because the political world has ruled (perhaps a wee bit hyperbolically) that, unless Romney kicks some serious Obama ass next week in Denver, his White House dreams are deader than disco.

The panic is understandable. Despite Paul Ryan’s awesome Power Point slides and P90X-honed abs, Romney’s poll numbers have been sliding in exactly the wrong direction postconventions. A crisp, clear, resounding debate victory is the governor’s best shot at turning this baby around.

Why then does Team Romney seem dead set on making such a breakthrough performance nearly impossible?

It’s not that Romney isn’t practicing. Quite the contrary: hardly a day goes by when we don’t hear about how fired up the governor is about the debates. For weeks now, he has been hitting the books whenever and wherever he can—on the trail, at his home in Boston, at his other home in New Hampshire. He and Rob Portman, the campaign’s stand-in for Obama during practice sessions, recently conducted five mock debates in two days. And lest anyone fret that Romney doesn’t understand the need to make a strong impression, earlier this week his running mate assured supporters in Colorado that the governor will “absolutely” be taking it to the president.

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By contrast, Team Obama continues downplaying their man’s prep work at every turn. The campaign has been stingy with details about practice sessions, even as press secretary Jen Psaki is sent out to bad-mouth the president’s chances. One week she’s lamenting her boss’s loquaciousness: “The shorter format of the debates is not always conducive to somebody who gives comprehensive, substantive answers.” The next she is explaining that world crises have cut into his schedule: “He’ll have less time than we anticipated to sharpen and cut down his tendency to give long, substantive answers.”

Poor, poor Obama. So unsuited and ill prepared for the rigors of high-stakes debating. Of course he cannot be expected to fare very well against the leaner, meaner, sharpened-by-the-primaries, vastly more practiced Romney. All things considered, we should consider it a win if the president even manages to remember Jim Lehrer’s name. Really.