WASHINGTON — Well, apparently I am not crazy after all. The
polls have caught up with me, and they — après le débat
— are coming around to my point of view. Governor Mitt Romney is
ahead in the race for the White House, and let me add he will
probably be residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2013.
I have been saying it for weeks, recognizing that the polls are
weighted too heavily toward the Democratic candidate, employ too
small a sampling — as little as nine percent of the electorate —
and do not take into account the most important issue, that being
the economy. Still, before the debate the polls were heavily
against me, and my colleagues were beginning to question my
judgment. No, make that my sanity. Now they are again reassured. I
am allowed to work alone in my ninth-floor office with the window
open. The polls show Romney pulling ahead even in battleground
states after he demonstrated in debate last week that we need
something more than a ceremonial president in the White House. It
is a dangerous world that we live in.
President Barack Obama looked great at most official functions.
But beginning with Ron Suskind’s fine book, Confidence
Men, and continuing on to Bob Woodward’s recent
The Price of Politics, it has been increasingly apparent
that this president does not sit through meetings — even national
security briefings! — does not know how to make or implement
policy, and much prefers to gabble on and on, preferably with the
assistance of a Teleprompter. And to think the official party line
on Obama has been that he is eloquent. I think the wind
came out of that legend when in debate the other night Romney said,
“Look, I’ve been in business for 25 years. I have no idea what
you’re talking about.” All true blue Obama fans — and even I —
expected the President to come back with any one of a half-dozen
witty zingers. How about a rude reference to Bain Capital? Yet
Obama looked glassy-eyed and the ref, Jim Lehrer, stepped in.
Moreover, Obama continued to be wobbly and evasive in response to
Romney’s challenges. Some Obama fans blamed the ref, though if not
for him Obama could have suffered bodily injury.
After nearly four years in the White House our ceremonial
President is presiding over the weakest recovery of modern times.
He presides over low growth, high unemployment, and trillion dollar
deficits every year of his presidency. All he is offering the
electorate in the next four years is more of the same. Jimmy Carter
could not get reelected with such a shaky strategy, and neither
will Obama. Furthermore, last month his foreign policy went
poof right in front of him. His nonsense about leading
from behind, deferring to international organizations, and paying
obeisance to Arab militants has been seen for what it is, a warrant
for invading our diplomatic installations in foreign lands. In
Libya the animals slaughtered our ambassador, and the evidence is
clear, to wit, the ambassador was seeking more security at the time
of his death and being rebuffed. Remember Benghazi!
The debate last week was a classic. Romney put together the
finest showing of any presidential candidate in the history of
televised debates. He did it in speaking of his record and in
speaking of Obama’s record. Yet he did something more. James Rosen
of Fox News noticed it and remarked lapidarily: Romney “delivered
one of the great defenses of the free market ever given to an
audience of this size. Obama seemed intimidated and adrift with the
material. His constructions were lengthy and complex, whereas
Romney’s were clear and commanding and fluid. Even if Romney loses
on November 6, this still goes down as an epic electronic-age
primer on various models of economics that Ronald Reagan couldn’t
even deliver; and Milton Friedman never addressed an audience of
this size. At all points, Romney returned to the theme of
competition as a driver of reduced costs and improved quality.” And
Rosen concluded: “Romney also delivered the sharpest elbow of the
night, with the reference to Obama’s campaign contributors: the
closest thing to the pressing of a charge of corruption.”
Now let me make a prediction. Romney will not lose on November
6. Obama will continue to perform wretchedly in debate. He is not
going to do better. What you saw last week was the essential Barack
Obama, community organizer, part-time senator.
