Mitt goes Bolshevik, Barack goes to sleep

Heavens, Mitt Romney is in favor of regulation of banks, more jobs, more education funding, no tax cuts for billionaires, progressive taxation, the middle class, the safety net--and he's the Sir Galahad of Medicare and Ardent Lover of Social Security to boot.  

If all I knew about the two candidates is what I saw last night, I'd vote for Mitt Romney because he seemed more liberal.  Yes, Romney easily won last night's debate and he did it be taking a turn to the left. 

Pres. Obama, meanwhile, seemed tepid and tired.  He spoke to the moderator, not the audience.  Romney, meanwhile, looked at Obama and acted like he wanted to mix it up.  Obama looked like he wanted to go back to sleep. 

Romney also seemed like an officious and even manic jerk, running roughshod over poor befuddled Jim Lehrer.  (Lehrer has done debates before, and has pretty much always done a very poor job of it, as he did again last night.)  Romney interrupted both Lehrer and the President repeatedly, hogged time, filibustered, bloviated, smirked, and compared the President to one of his lying sons. 

Mitt even fired off several lies of his own--pre-existing conditions covered in his health plan, $716 billion cut from Medicare, $90 billion in aid for solar, no tax cuts for billionaires in his economic plan, "death panels," and "of course, I won't change Medicare".

But yeah, Romney came out better in the debate, not so much because he won, but because Obama lost it.  Romney fired his shots, and Obama hemmed and hawed.  It was the worst performance by a presidential debater since George W. Bush in 2004.

Down the road, people may start to notice that Romney "won" by sounding Democratic.  When Obama himself starts to sound Democratic, he may get his groove back.

Comments

[Hypatia]

I think people did notice that Romney scrambled for the center and in a big way. Good for him, he did what he had to do. Obama....didn't. If history is any guide he'll rebound for the next debate.

If he doesn't, maybe plead laryngitis for the final one and dispatch a certain former president to slap Romney around for him. Obama did try - he mentioned "math" and "arithmetic" but somehow it didn't have the same punch.

[lillianjane]

I couldn't watch, but assumed that Obama would win because speaking is his strong suit. Well, everyone has an off night. I do hope he will get the Big Dawg to advise him nest time instead of Kerry, who isnt much of a debater.

[Hypatia]

He's not that good a debater. Hillary used to hand him his hat on a regular basis during primary season, little good though it did her. The most bothersome thing was his inability or unwillingness to shift gears when things started going against him.

[John Petty]

Also kind of pathetic the way he was saying things like "Gov. Romney and I agree" on this or that.