I think last night will hurt Trump more than the 1st 2012 debate hurt Obama

[democrattotheend]

I've noticed a lot of people, mostly Republicans trying to console themselves, pointing out that President Obama came back from his disastrous first debate with Romney in 2012. I think it's a bad comparison for a couple reasons.

First of all, Obama didn't sound half as ridiculous in the first debate with Romney as Trump sounded last night. What he said wasn't terrible, the problem was almost all in the delivery. Obama may have given a shaky performance but he didn't make any major gaffes like bragging about defrauding the government or calling it smart business to root for the housing market to fail.

More importantly, Obama was an incumbent president in 2012. He had been president for four years; he didn't have to make comfortable with the idea of him as president. Trump, in contrast, is a political novice who had to prove that he knew what he was talking about and come across as presidential so people could envision him as president. He not only failed to do that but confirmed many people's suspicions that he doesn't take the job or the office seriously.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. I'm sure Obama never called taxpayers stupid or took contradictory positions on NATO inside 30 sec.

[Wounded Bear]

2. Obama was leading before the debate...

Trump wasn't, not really.

[bettyellen]

3. It was telling that they said they did not have a big drop off starting thirty minutes in....

And that is exactly when she started pummeling him. People were unable to change the channel. And more people watched. It's giving her lots of fodder for commercials too.