Pundits Agree: Romney Wins Round One—and It Wasn't Even Close

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Daniel Politi - Slate.com


http://i.imgur.com/9UOBB.jpg

Let no one doubt New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie again. He went offscript last weekend, predicting that the narrative of the race would change Thursday morning. And lo and behold, he was right. At least for a little while, the chattering class will put a pause on all the talk about how Mitt Romney is falling behind in the polls to talk about how he managed to beat President Obama at the podium. Romney went on the offensive, forcing the president, who looked none too happy to even be there, to defend his policies. And perhaps most perplexing of all, Obama failed to mention the infamous 47-percent remark and Bain Capital, two issues that his campaign has been hammering home for months. Let’s take a look at some commentary.

Obama, like other presidents before him, “fell victim … to high expectations, a short fuse, and a hungry challenger,” writes the National Journal’s Ron Fournier. “Romney smiled and cracked jokes … Obama smirked.” It seems commentators didn’t need to watch until the end to come to that conclusion. Buzzfeed’s Ben Smith called the debate for Romney some 40 minutes in, saying the Republican’s “core success was that he won by not losing.” In Time’s Mark Halperin’s report card, it wasn’t even close. Romney got an A-, while Obama received a B-.

Although Romney may have not offered details about his plans that political junkies wanted, “someone tuning in for the first time, would surely have come away feeling that Romney was the candidate with a firm grasp of what he wanted to do and Obama the guy slightly out of his depth,” points out Bloomberg Businessweek’s Joshua Green. Indeed, writes the New York Daily News’ Joshua Greenman, Romney was “more incisive, more fluid and good-natured through it all,” and managed to be tough “without being vicious or disrespectful.”

Part of the problem was that Obama got on the wrong side of what the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza calls the “fine line between sober/serious and grim/uninterested.” He seemed to be taking on the same persona that worked for him in 2008 when he was an untested leader and was eager to prove he was ready for the job. “But now that he has been in the job for four years, Obama’s demeanor came across far less well.” The Chicago Tribune throws Obama what might be the ultimate insult, describing him as “that guy at the meeting who’s surreptitiously checking his email.”

Even Democrats were not too impressed with Obama’s debate performance. “Energy and focus all in Romney’s hands on this,” writes Talking Point Memo’s Josh Marshall, pointing out that even though Romney repeatedly “left himself open to wounding hits from the president,” Obama chose to “not go there.”

John Hinderaker at Power Line, a conservative blog, is veritably giddy: “It wasn’t a TKO, it was a knockout.” Romney “was the alpha male, while Barack Obama was weak, hesitant, stuttering, often apologetic.”

There were “no haymaker punches thrown and not much in the way of one-line zingers,” write Steve Holland and John Witesides at Reuters. “Romney, however, may have done himself some favors with crisper answers than Obama, who sounded professorial and a bit long-winded.” What’s undoubtedly frustrating for Democrats is that this was exactly the thing many had warned the president about before the debate.

And what seems to be, so far at least, the pretty unanimous view that Obama lost the debate may hurt him more than how he actually did at the podium. “Much worse for Obamas than the debate is the media's harsh verdict on his debate performance,” writes the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein on Twitter.

[Acid Trip]

Obama got his ass handed to him.

I can't wait for Ryan vs Biden.

[Muddy]

I thought the debate was civil and they both hit the same points about 35 times..

[Acid Trip]

I thought the debate was civil and they both hit the same points about 35 times..

Civil yes, but man did Obama look defeated. He stuttered, stammered, and told the same sad stories for the 100th time. Then when Romney spoke he stared at the podium and clenched his jaw every time Romney hit a talking point.

Romney rarely looked down and directed all his comments directly at Obama. You'd think someone would have taught Obama the basics of debating.

[Richard Cranium]

:rofl:

http://i.imgur.com/piKV7.jpg

[FBD]

Civil yes, but man did Obama look defeated. He stuttered, stammered, and told the same sad stories for the 100th time. Then when Romney spoke he stared at the podium and clenched his jaw every time Romney hit a talking point.

Romney rarely looked down and directed all his comments directly at Obama. You'd think someone would have taught Obama the basics of debating.

:lol: what else can you do when empirical reality doesnt back you in the least? you can simply look sad and defeated like obama did.

[Muddy]

:rofl:

http://i.imgur.com/piKV7.jpg

:lol:

[perrhaps]

Is an ass-whuppin' covered by ObamaCare?

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Justin Ravitz - Us Weekly


Wednesday night's first presidential debate of 2012, in which President Barack Obama and Republican hopeful Mitt Romney duked it out, inspired a lot of, well, debate!

Moderated -- some say poorly -- by PBS' Jim Lehrer, the much-anticipated discussion covered the candidates' views on the economy, health care, the role of government and more. Much of Hollywood weighed in on the debate via Twitter, with widely-ranging views on Obama and Romney's notably different debate styles, Lehrer's difficulties and some of the more memorable sound bytes of the evening (including Romney's Big Bird mention!).

Here, Us Weekly rounds up a handful of the celeb tweets from Wednesday's debate.

John Cusack: "Watching the debates -- it's so strange the president seems almost apologetic about his policies that help people and didn't call out Romney"

Trevor Donovan: "I think Clint Eastwood's empty chair showed up tonight in Denver......"

Jesse Tyler Ferguson: "Is that a tiny distant violin telling me to wrap up my speech? Oh no, it's just Jim Lehrer."

Kate Walsh: "Mitt Romney will abolish PBS...but he DOES like Big Bird and Jim Lehrer. Thank God The Count's not alive to see this."

Elisabeth Hasselbeck: "Both are good men. #Debate2012 but we need a great president. #It's not about liking Obama - It's about needing Romney"

Lisa Vanderpump: "Wow presidential debate was pretty interesting,but think @BravoAndy should host the next one,then we could really get into it #hearthetruth"

Kathy Griffin: "Aww s**. Romney did the Nixon upper lip wipe. I think his "I'm taking away Big Bird" statement just sunk in"

Ivanka Trump: "#Romney really rose to the occasion tonight! #BigNight #Debate2012 #debate #CantAfford4More"

Gilles Marini: "Just watched the #Debates . Well I wish they were saying what they really think! Way to blurry and walking on eggs. I wanted more!"

Aubrey O'Day: "#debate: I didn't learn anything new. Romney was solid (but my expectations were low). Obama didn't come hard enough, he seemed listless. :/"

Sherri Shepherd: " If you were for Mitt b4 the #debates you're still w Mitt... if you're #TeamObama then despite tonight's weaknesses your mind hasn't changed"

Kirstie Alley: "Not usually this politically general... but debate was lack luster at best... Bill Clinton.. show em how it's done!!!"

Joy Behar: "Romney was aggressive and still not likeable. #current2012"

Rob Lowe: "Worst moderator ever."

Sarah Silverman: "U can't say we have religious freedom AND that we're all children of the same God, Bro!!"

Olivia Wilde: "We know you'd rather have a private plan, Mitt, to go with your private plane, and your private planet when your battery dies. #debate2012"

Bob Saget: "I'm really enjoying these debates. I can't wait til they have the swimsuit competition."

Eva Longoria: "I'm in New Zealand watching the presidential debate! Obama is killing it on health care! #Obama2012."

Lady Gaga: "I believe its important to note before this begins that Romney is a millionaire and paid well below the average tax rate, paying only 13.9%."

Albert Brooks: "Next debate will be moderated by Miss Piggy before she loses her job . .. Between these two explanations of health care I don't know what the fuck is happening."

Mark Ruffalo: "#Romney Okay. This is a great performance. I almost believed that Mitt cares about the hurting 47% that he said he didn't care about. Oscar?" And: "What I think is going to be awesome to see is how Obama deals with tonight. The next debate is going to rock. Rocky Balboa??"

Chris Rock: "Obama is waiting for the right moment to pull out Bin Laden's skull from behind the podium. Wait for it. Wait for it... #debate#PresDebate."

[Muddy]

:lol: @ Chris Rock..

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I thought Romneys respect for Obama as the president when he spoke to him gave him a huge edge in likability

[Teh One Who Knocks]

I thought Romneys respect for Obama as the president when he spoke to him gave him a huge edge in likability

:thumbsup:

And it was completely disrespectful of Obama to not look at Romney.

[Muddy]

I thought Romneys respect for Obama as the president when he spoke to him gave him a huge edge in likability

Agreed..

[Acid Trip]

Just shows how fucking stupid celebrities are. Half of them are complaining about PBS when the point of that remark was wasteful spending we cannot afford.

Why borrow money from China for a shit network like PBS? It's just not worth it.

[Muddy]

Just shows how fucking stupid celebrities are. Half of them are complaining about PBS when the point of that remark was wasteful spending we cannot afford.

Why borrow money from China for a shit network like PBS? It's just not worth it.

I love PBS, it's far from a shit network unless you really love Honey Boo Boo and the likes... Should it be subsidized? No.

[Goofy]

Bob Saget :lol:

When is the election btw?

[Richard Cranium]

Nov 6

[Richard Cranium]

Gov. Mitt Romney defeated President Barack Obama soundly in the first presidential debate in Denver, and even Obama’s supporters knew it. The media quickly went to work spinning excuses for their candidate, claiming that "the deck was stacked against Obama" from the start, and that Romney had not fought a fair fight.

Here are the five biggest--and worst--excuses for Obama's defeat:

5. We won’t know for 2-3 days whether Mitt Romney actually won. The idea here seems to be that the polls will tell us who won, although even CNN’s instant polling of those who had watched the debate had it at 67%-25% in Romney’s favor. This excuse has a purpose: to buy time for so-called “fact-checkers” to attack Romney’s arguments and change the narrative from “Romney won” to “Romney lied.” Speaking of which...

4. Romney lied with a straight face for ninety minutes. This excuse betrays the fact that so many on the left never leave their own media bubble. They believe what they tell each other about Romney and his policies, rather than listening or learning the truth. A good example was Rachel Maddow’s battle with Rudy Giuliani afterwards, in which she insisted Romney lied about a $5 trillion tax cut that he has never, in fact, proposed. Sad.

3. The free-flowing format was bad and let Romney dominate. On the contrary, the format allowed Obama to deploy his favorite defense, the filibuster. It just so happened that Romney didn’t let him get away with it, insisting on the right to reply to repeated distortions of his position. It is Obama’s fault, not the format’s, that he didn’t know when to stop talking, letting himself lose focus while the words kept coming out.

2. The moderator, Jim Lehrer, let Romney win. This is the Obama campaign’s official excuse, judging by the post-debate comments of Stephanie “Felon” Cutter, who argued that Lehrer allowed Romney to dominate. Actually, Lehrer was his usual liberal self, and was tougher on Romney than on Obama, interjecting more often with follow-up questions and letting the president use a full four minutes more than his challenger.

1. Obama didn’t show up tonight. This was the lament of Chris Matthews, who suggested--colorfully--that Obama had not tried hard enough to win the debate. The idea, once again--it is always the same when Obama suffers a setback--is that the president needs to fight harder, to be more aggressive. In fact, Obama was often too hostile. What needs to change are the ideas, not the tactics. And it’s too late for that.

[Goofy]

Nov 6

Right after Guy Fawkes night :tup:

[DemonGeminiX]

Eva Longoria: "I'm in New Zealand watching the presidential debate! Obama is killing it on health care! #Obama2012."

:huh:

What the fuck was she watching?

[FBD]

Gov. Mitt Romney defeated President Barack Obama soundly in the first presidential debate in Denver, and even Obama’s supporters knew it. The media quickly went to work spinning excuses for their candidate, claiming that "the deck was stacked against Obama" from the start, and that Romney had not fought a fair fight.

Here are the five biggest--and worst--excuses for Obama's defeat:

5. We won’t know for 2-3 days whether Mitt Romney actually won. The idea here seems to be that the polls will tell us who won, although even CNN’s instant polling of those who had watched the debate had it at 67%-25% in Romney’s favor. This excuse has a purpose: to buy time for so-called “fact-checkers” to attack Romney’s arguments and change the narrative from “Romney won” to “Romney lied.” Speaking of which...

4. Romney lied with a straight face for ninety minutes. This excuse betrays the fact that so many on the left never leave their own media bubble. They believe what they tell each other about Romney and his policies, rather than listening or learning the truth. A good example was Rachel Maddow’s battle with Rudy Giuliani afterwards, in which she insisted Romney lied about a $5 trillion tax cut that he has never, in fact, proposed. Sad.

3. The free-flowing format was bad and let Romney dominate. On the contrary, the format allowed Obama to deploy his favorite defense, the filibuster. It just so happened that Romney didn’t let him get away with it, insisting on the right to reply to repeated distortions of his position. It is Obama’s fault, not the format’s, that he didn’t know when to stop talking, letting himself lose focus while the words kept coming out.

2. The moderator, Jim Lehrer, let Romney win. This is the Obama campaign’s official excuse, judging by the post-debate comments of Stephanie “Felon” Cutter, who argued that Lehrer allowed Romney to dominate. Actually, Lehrer was his usual liberal self, and was tougher on Romney than on Obama, interjecting more often with follow-up questions and letting the president use a full four minutes more than his challenger.

1. Obama didn’t show up tonight. This was the lament of Chris Matthews, who suggested--colorfully--that Obama had not tried hard enough to win the debate. The idea, once again--it is always the same when Obama suffers a setback--is that the president needs to fight harder, to be more aggressive. In fact, Obama was often too hostile. What needs to change are the ideas, not the tactics. And it’s too late for that.
:lol: and I thought they were all just waiting for him to kick romney's ass in the debates? what a joke. like I said before, its hard to defend your record when you only won by not having a record before (and the little record you did have was ridiculously suppressed)...and now that he's got something we can put his name on? its a got dam shame what he is, what he's done, and where he'd take us next should the progressive operatives happen to steal this upcoming election for him.

its sad the fkn echo chamber hollywood has become.

fuck racists like chris rock, that dude is a prick. fuck everyone that stands behind obama because he's a black man - you're all friggin racists.

[Richard Cranium]

:facepalm:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jm9BoM2Q81c

[RBP]

oh good lord. :lol:

[Lambchop]

Is Lady Gaga bullshittin' or did Romney really use schemes to pay less tax?

[perrhaps]

Is Lady Gaga bullshittin' or did Romney really use schemes to pay less tax?

Yeah, the bastard gave money to charity to reduce his tax $$$.

[Iffy]

The whole tax rate argument is ridiculous. He is essentially paying taxes twice on money he earned. I don't get what is so hard to understand about the tax rates being different for income and investments. Let's just tax the shit out of capital gains so those with money will just hold onto it instead of reinvesting it into the economic foundation that supports this country. :rolleyes:

Disappointed in Olivia Wilde. I thought she had the brains to go with the looks :meh: I'm sure she has all sorts of caring and respect for those 47%

[Muddy]

Lets dump all taxes except for an inflated sales tax.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Disappointed in Olivia Wilde. I thought she had the brains to go with the looks :meh: I'm sure she has all sorts of caring and respect for those 47%

Seriously? :-s

You didn't know she was a hardcore lefty? Man, she's been promoting socialism for as long as she's been in the spotlight.

[Lambchop]

Yeah, the bastard gave money to charity to reduce his tax $$$.
Ah, that old trick.

[FBD]

What ol trick? Looking at how much you made, seeing how it fits into the tax bracket, and giving away enough to bump you into a one-lower bracket? If you are beyond the standard deduction, you're crazy if you dont at least look and see, sometimes you can give a relatively paltry sum away and have it bump you down. I do that shit. that's what's called "playing by the rules." Its not trickery. If congress changes the rules about it, fine, but until they do - it is playing by the rules. Lady fkface is simply a dishonest ideologue and is willing to misrepresent something to get a situation to go the way she wants it to.

That is called "that ol trick."

Trust, Lady Giggnutz does the same thing, or at least her accountant does, with her money. If she doesnt, well, there's her "extra free gift of money to the feds."

[Acid Trip]

I never understood why people get so bent out of shape about his charitable donations. Yes, he gives large sums of money to his church and gets to deduct it from his taxes. Everyone in the country can do the same.

Democrats just want you to give to their charity called the Federal Government.

[Iffy]

Seriously? :-s

You didn't know she was a hardcore lefty? Man, she's been promoting socialism for as long as she's been in the spotlight.

Yep I guess I've never really run across anything on the subject. Not like its surprising given the whole pro-dem attitude of Hollywood. Bet most of them are Republican behind closed doors...especially when its their own money