As he prepares for the second debate, Obama faces a major dilemma: how to be more aggressive without jeopardizing his alleged likability, the main thing he supposedly has going for him with voters.
The Barack Obama the public usually sees is not the real Barack Obama. The former is a carefully manufactured media image designed to appear eminently reasonable, highly engaged, ultra-caring, inordinately intelligent and as one who transcends the pettiness that plagues so many politicians. The real Obama is none of those things.
These things wouldn't matter as much if the liberal media hadn't insulated Obama from scrutiny and covered over his policy failures, his ideological extremism and his corruption. They've allowed the fable of his extraordinary gifts to remain largely unchallenged.
The media haven't even complained on behalf of their own interests — about Obama's infrequent news conferences or the tight control he exercises and careful scripting he employs when he does deign to meet with them.
That's one explanation for the pronounced disconnect between Obama's likability and the unpopularity of his policies. If the press weren't always sheltering him and spinning the news in his favor, it would be a wholly different ballgame.
But having hidden behind this shield, Obama exposes himself to severe injury when it is removed, which is precisely what happened in the first debate, as reflected in his sustained drop in the polls after it.
Much of Obama's support was soft because it was based on false images. Stripped of media protection during the debate, his profound weaknesses were exposed for 70 million to see, and there's no going back. Unhappily for Obama, Americans also saw the real Mitt Romney, who is a far cry from the demon depicted by Team Obama.
If Obama is more aggressive, he runs the risk of appearing obnoxious and shattering the myth of his likability, not to mention that Mitt will be ready for this ploy.
Though it is true that Obama is not Joe Biden, he has shown himself quite capable of being condescending, petulant and downright nasty, as we witnessed in his treatment of John McCain and Paul Ryan.
Granted, moderator Jim Lehrer was mostly passive and Romney was effective at controlling the debate and making sure it was essentially an unfiltered contest between him and Obama — the way it should have been.
And there's no doubt the atmosphere of the second debate will be much different.
Town hall formats usually play to liberals' and demagogues' advantage, with fawning audiences applauding every nod toward socialism. Not only that, but moderator Candy Crowley has indicated that she plans on being proactive, despite an agreement between the two campaigns that she is to have a neutral role.
Though Mitt will have his work cut out for him, too, I view him as the odds-on favorite to prevail again.
As a debate opponent, Obama is made to order for Mitt. Obama is very weak on policy details — a weakness based on years of promoting the "big ideas" and leaving the unglamorous nuts and bolts to others — and Romney is especially strong. No matter how much he prepares or strategizes, he can't make up for years of inattention to detail and insulation from reality.
Romney is quicker on his feet than Obama. Obama is long on clichés and short on specifics. Obama is such a dogmatic ideologue he is blind to his policy failures. He's oblivious to the reality that his endless expansions of government have injured, rather than healed, the economy and that his quixotic policies of appeasement are making us weaker, so he misinterprets evidence of his policy failures as proof that he just didn't go far enough or that his policies haven't had enough time to work.
Obama is woefully inexperienced in the private sector — in the real world, apart from politics — and Romney has vast business experience.
Having been coddled and humored by his advisers, Obama is not in tune with his strengths and weaknesses or with the quality of his performances, as shown by his delusional belief that he won the first debate and that the transcript reinforces that fantasy. This further demonstrates that he doesn't understand the issues intimately enough to overcome his weaknesses in time for the second debate.
Obama still believes his best weapon is that he cares more than "47 percent" Mitt — the rich, greedy capitalist — about the downtrodden. But Obama's policies have devastated most of those he professes to care the most about, and Mitt gives 30 percent of his income to charity. If Obama overplays the class warfare card, I think it just might backfire on him as much as his newfound aggressiveness.
In short, Obama's tired tricks don't work well against Romney, and Romney's formidable strengths particularly expose Obama's shortcomings.
Though anything can happen, especially in the town hall format, I think Mitt will win it again going away.
David Limbaugh is a writer, author and attorney. His latest book, "The Great Destroyer," reached No. 2 on the New York Times best-seller list for nonfiction. Follow him on Twitter @davidlimbaugh and his website at www.davidlimbaugh.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2012 CREATORS.COM
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Sir;... Insulation from reality... I imagine no president could wear a wet suit and rubber gloves and a fur hat and be insulated from reality, but clearly, some republican presidents preferred to fashion their own reality out of the outworn ideas of the past...It looks very much as if Feudalism is their goal, or perhaps they want to turn America into a vaste concentration camp system...
Insulated from reality is a description I would very much hang on you; but then, it would apply to most of the rich as well... Money is a great insulator... Money accounts for the nutty economic ideas so many of the rich hold; but there is no explaining why so many on the right hold those same ideas...If it were not for false predicates and gimmicks; not a fraction of it would get past even casual examination... The thing is, that most people can be very aware in their own affairs how to profit on human kind without the slightest correct notion of economics... Government prejudiced toward business can be easily plundered for profit, if not exactly fair profit....What ever they may believe, and what ever insular misconceptions of economics they may hold; what they do for individual profit if magnified and multiplied across the reach of society is absolutely death for the economy and for the society...
Just as one employer wants to pay his employees little, and wants all other employers to over pay, -the downward pressure on wages destroys the tax base and markets.. The more the home market is pulverized by profit taking the more the class must rely upon exports that bring on wars for markets or colonial wars...So long as the cost of wars can be laid on working people it does not much affect profit; but when the working class can no longer afford wars, and there is no domestic market, revolution or decline is the only outcome...
How long have self serving insulated profiteers exported our means of production, our capital, and how long have they sold into this market while this market produced little for export??? In this fashion and through credit they have drained this people of wealth... The republican 47% blame the victims, but only as victims too... We have all been hurt for the profit of a fraction...And our government has been broke as well...
Why does it borrow when it can tax???... On the one hand it is good to force the workers up against the wall with taxes so they have no choice but work for nothing, or die on the street...It is good to break government so that to pay its bill it sells all our mineral rights and finally our civil rights to the rich...This perfect situation for the rich is eneconomical for the people... They must give their lives for nothing, and we can be back where wages are set by the cost of keeping life in limbs...
Yes; the insulated rich have no idea of economics... Mr. Romoney is not just a liar, and a profiteer, but is an idiot as well... You are an idiot too, and I mean that with all possible respect... Pull all the unseen hands and gobbodlygook out of the equasion, and see what is going on...You won't and perhaps, can't; but we are being destroyed by so many traitors, of which you are one... Don't think I appreciate it...I can't hide from my reality which grows worse the longer you folks hang around... I have been robbed as the price of having my life... You hear that from the republicans: Your money or your life... In fact, they want both...It was always a matter of time, and when it runs out for the poor, it runs out for the rich...
Thanks...Sweeney
Comment: #1
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Mon Oct 15, 2012 1:26 PM
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Sir;... One who thinks before he speaks is a fine example of intelligence, but no one who thinks while speaking ever looks very smart, and usually looks like they are fabricating as they go...
Mr. Romoney is a practiced and perfected liar...His handlers often find it necessary to correct him before he has left the room, and by then the damage of the lie has been done; but it is meaningless... The effort the republicans put into the destruction of the political process will destroy them as well... They have had peace for so long from working people that now they take it for granted; and that is a terrible mistake...
Thanks... Sweeney
Comment: #2
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Mon Oct 15, 2012 1:34 PM
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Sir;... It is indeed a tired trick, when you find some one willing to put their foot in their own mouth, to encourage them to: Proceed...
The most powerful thing a man can have in life is the last word... Caesar and Napoleon both wrote their own history, and in doing so can always claim good fortune was skill, and ineptness was misfortune...General Lee with Jackson looked brilliant, but after Picket's Charge, Longstreet looked prescient...As much as the president seems man enough to take the abuse for mistakes in Libya; only a fool would jump in to abuse him for an honest effort; and up steps Mr. Romoney to play that part... I hope the American sense of fair play is still evident enough for the people to see Mr. Romoney as the sniping opportunist that he is...
You can compare a presidency to a ball game, and a persident to a pitcher... Is it fair for a replacement pitcher to get the win and not get the loss??? Is it fair if some fickle manager for reasons pecular to himself pulls out a pitcher doing well, and replaces him with some one with a poor record??? Well; the public is fickle, and the man who wants to pitch thinks he would do a better job; but if he is willing to conceal his personal record -and he has no foreign policy experience; but is willing to distort the public perception to be elected, he needs his hat handed to him; and that is what the president did...
Now only is the original and Greek sense of the word is Mr. Obama's communication, and explanation of our foreign policy aims an apology...The benefit of the doubt is such that a simple explanation of events should be enough to cloud any question of guilt, if there is some question; and while it is true that America has often blundered into war, it is also true that the last administration rushed headlong into war without thought or planning, accepting no criticism, and entertaining no doubts... The world deserves an explanation as much as the American people deserve expiation... We did not do that... The profound good sense of this people was lead into chaos by people they elected and trusted, and it was done on borrowed money to give money to the rich...
The people know it was about oil... If they look they would see that we still export much oil, and we have no choice because except for food we produce little of use or value... If Mr. Obama were not such a firm believer in Free Enterprise he would have pointed out the part played by waste, speculation, and profit in price... He was smart to not show himself attacking profit, but profit on gasoline has a much more significant effect on price than he could possibly have as president legally or illegally...The congress can regulate commerce, but he can do nothing alone...
I hope the American people can see that they have a president... Clearly; he figured out how to carry his own water since what ever he was drinking last debate disoriented him... All Mr. Romoney could say was: Here I am, and this is the sort of man I used to be...That nonsense may work for all those with an irrational hatred of Mr. Obama who challenge his right to be president in much the same way as they challenge the rights of all blacks to full rights and citizenship... No rational person would ever replace an known quantity for an X or a Y...If we need solutions, we also need certainty, and only in the most cursory way possible has Mr. Romoney even deigned to reveal his honor...
We have too long equated honor with wealth, and dishonor with poverty... For Mr. Romoney to believe that he is too good to be challenged on his honor when he presents himself only on his honor, having nothing but money and Mormonism to recommend him against his checkered past- is the nadir of contempt... Of course he can fool republicans... They are more easily fooled than those who are poor and must live by their wits and constant defense... Certainly, they are hateful, but only because they are fearful, and with good reason; because the rich have forced the support of the poor onto their backs, and the number of poor is growing with every export of capital and jobs...
If you were trying to save a drowning man, and he was about pulling you under to have a moment more of life; then you would hate him against your nature... And hate and fear is against human nature as much as it is against our nature in the home of the brave... But the total want of solutions from right and left because the only sensible option is revolution -is a cause for fear...Far be it for me to tell the people on the right, so often fooled as to seem foolish, that they should do what is right, even if that means becoming poor, and like the poor demand justice- which is demanding revolution...
The right needs some faith in our Declaration of Independence, and in the words: All men are Created Equal...No one but the unjust need fear justice; but then justice is the solution to all our problems as well... Though Mr. Obama searches in vain for solutions, he does so sensitive to human need and misery, and that is what makes him moral... Who can say Mr. Romoney is moral in any sense of the word??? Does he actually contribute to his society, or only take out of his society his own security and well being??? Does he fulfill his obligation to society??? He does not care what sadness and misery he leaves in his wake, or what pain his election anticipates...I am not in the least part convinced that he is even human... He could play the Terminator, or Lord Voldemort, or Janus with equal heartlessness...
Thanks...Sweeney
Comment: #3
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Wed Oct 17, 2012 6:58 AM
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