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The Spectacle Blog
Barack Obama’s narcissism showed last night, not surprisingly for a guy who had called his debate preparation “a drag.”
He will not be happy to hear that even his strong supporters believe he lost the debate.
It is fairly amusing, actually, to hear the Obama spinners say that Romney won “on style” on Wednesday. After all, many people outside of the Democrat base are primarily attracted to Obama based on his style. Obama’s people are trying to minimize the Romney win last night by saying it was about style rather than substance, but that could actually be a positive for Romney who is already believed to be quite substantive.
In a way, Romney — who did not seem to be going out of his way to appear likeable — scored his biggest victory by appearing much more likeable AND much more on top of details than the man who was elected in large part due to a magnetic appeal which may have been glued to his teleprompter and thus unavailable to Obama last night, an observation which was obvious even to Obama’s foul-mouthed million-dollar supporter, Bill Maher.
If Obama thought that preparing for a debate that he was going into with momentum and a fawning media was a drag, imagine how he’ll feel — again keeping in mind that his narcissim makes him bristle at any criticism — having to prepare for another debate which he’ll now go into as a debating (if not electoral betting odds) underdog.
So, my prediction: Obama will come out very aggressive, even mean, in the next presidential debate (October 16th). He will act like a pit bull…and will leave Romney with yet another victory — in both style and substance — while doing continued harm to his strongest point, that he’s considered cool and hip and likeable. He was none of those things last night. I predict that he will over-react in his efforts to undo Wednesday’s damage and thus compound the damage.
At least, I hope that’s what happens.
View all comments (32) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Ross Kaminsky
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/10/04/a-prediction
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Mike G| 10.4.12 @ 10:52AM
I hope you're right. If Obama comes out mean, all he can engage in will be personal attacks which have nothing to do with running a country. That will leave Romney to control the substance and facts of the debate.
Ian Cognito | 10.4.12 @ 10:52AM
What can Obama do? All he has done in office is ruinous. There are NO positives to claim. If there were, we'd all see them in his campaign messaging. Sans the teleprompter (the real current US president) Obama is lost. He looked petulant and doodled a lot. The voters saw for the first time what this president does each day = bark at bad news messengers, display postures that convey he is irritable and DONE with them and their information, doodle to appear engaged, and spout platitudes when asked a question. Romney receives 58% of the vote - write it down.
Crassus| 10.4.12 @ 11:11AM
The headline after the second debate:
OBAMA REBOUNDS STRONGLY WITH AGGRESSIVE PERFORMANCE
The media is already writing the story as we speak.
Simon Templar| 10.4.12 @ 11:13AM
The fraud will attempt to mimic Romney in both substance and style and counter move by dropping a lie or revelation about Romney right in the debate that will be an attempt to throw Romney off balance and rattle him.
This is the fraud's modis operandi.
Remember, when people are in stress, they revert to their tried and true and typical course of reaction that has worked for them in the past.
He will be prepared next time and will turn on that sickening lying smile and charm.
Let us not get too cocky but be very prepared. The Left are masters of deception, they have had a lot of practice. How do you think this fraud actually got elected?
darcy| 10.4.12 @ 11:47AM
Romney showed last night that he is not the least tentative when correcting Obama's lies, as when the $5Trillion issue was parried. Romney will do just fine because he has a mastery of the facts and doesn't have to spend mental energy figuring out which lie works the best, given the topic, as does Obama. So Romney comes across as confident and assertive, while Obama comes across as the obfuscating bumbler that he is.
Simon Templar| 10.4.12 @ 2:19PM
I have no doubt that Romney will do as he did last night but his opponent will not be an easy push over and will prepare himself with a whole host of manipulations and distortions the next time around.
The point is be prepared for the fraud's second chance to retaliate.
CJW| 10.4.12 @ 4:23PM
I used to think Obama was smart, but after last night he is of average intelligence at best, and intellectually lazy, as evidenced by his failure to attend his security briefings. He uses cliches and slogans that appeal to the mindless lefties and MSM, reduntant. He does not understand taxes, economics, and the deficit.
Romney has a sharp analytical mind that cut throught the Obama BS. Obama is not used to being challenged or questioned, and is unable to debate using facts and logic.
It appeared O mimicked Bubba's mannerisms, such as sucking in his lips, turning his upper body while speaking, putting out both hands, and LYING.
chuck| 10.4.12 @ 9:48PM
And WTF was it with that huge sh!t eating grin that he flashed a couple of times? I guess he really does enjoy having his ass reamed out!
CJW| 10.4.12 @ 10:22PM
Biden does the same grin. He could be talking about anything, rambling on, and he shows his teeth in an exagerrated fashion.
Some body language person must have told O to smile so it appears Romney is not getting to him, he is trying to minimize the Romney points.
But the smile is phoney and forced.
Don't forget, he had Jean Francois Kerry as his debate prep opponent.
spike59| 10.5.12 @ 5:37AM
Some body language person must have told O to smile so it appears Romney is not getting to him,
=================================
i've seen it over and over in boxing matches; the guy flashing the 'that didn't hurt' grin could be expected to kissing the canvas in seconds
Derek Leaberry| 10.4.12 @ 11:51AM
My prediction is that Republicans will rue a Romney victory by the winter of 2013. We'll be in recession if we aren't already. Romney will have flip-flopped once again on social policies like judicial appointments, homosexuals in the military and abortion. The budget for Romney's first year in office will be larger than Obama's last budget and all attempts to cut budgets and reform entitlements will have failed. Paul Ryan's House seat will fall to the Democrats in the spring of 2013 while Chris Christie will lose the New Jersey governor's race in the fall of 2013. Iran will be bombed, one or two American pilots will be shot down, and will be kept as hostages by the Ayatollah regime. The Republicans will lose 75 House seats in the 2014 elections and three or four Senate seats so that Dirty Harry Reid will resume his negative perch on the Senate throne.
Mitt Romney will do to Americans conservatism what David Cameron did for the British version. Not only will he discredit conservatism, Romney will splinter conservatism.
Zeppo| 10.4.12 @ 12:19PM
Unfortunately, that's the better of the two options.
JFGalt| 10.4.12 @ 12:48PM
And you see OBAMA! wrecking the country for another 4 years as a better alternative? I'm not a huge fan of Romney but I have to admit that the alternative cannot be stomached. The problems in this country run very deep and its not just the political parties - the bureacracy needs to be reigned in particularly TSA and DHS. They are turning this country into a police state in the supposed name of security while turning us into prisoners - what's the point? In this respect Congress is asleep at the switch and they need to stand up to the security establishment and say enough is enough too. Say wasn't that one of OBAMA!'s promises too that he renegged on?
ncatty| 10.4.12 @ 1:07PM
Derek is combining Republican with conservative. Romney beat conservatives to get the nomination. He is not a conservative, and if all that you say happens, will not splinter conservatives.
darcy| 10.4.12 @ 3:19PM
I think "conflating" is the term you were looking for.
It may be that all the talk about watering the tree of liberty will have its effect. I pray that it does because we are truly at a perilous time in the history of our nation. The liberal wing of the Republican Party had better take notice or they will have no one to blame but themselves for the backlash that a country spurned will wreak upon them. So many millions of lives sacrificed for our Founding principles cannot -- and will not -- go unrequited.
Bob K| 10.4.12 @ 1:44PM
A Romney victory is devoutly to be wished!
We are in a recession now.
Judicial appointments are not social policies and if he flip flops there they will have to be more conservative than those he made in Massachusetts were.
http://www.whyromney.com/#judicial
His policies on gay rights have always been consistent.
Budgets are controlled by congress as you well know.
All the rest is either speculation on your part or wishful thinking. You decide, I'm not making any allusions here.
We have not had a true conservative in the White House since Reagan and we won't have one this time either but conservatism won't splinter nor will it be discredited. It will survive and continue to influence the Republican party.
JD| 10.4.12 @ 2:48PM
Derek's post illustrates our conundrum.
On one hand, we have the wisdom of Ayn Rand, who realized that to attempt to win on the terms of collectivists only leads to greater ruin.
Based on her reasoning, a Romney win is bad. The Left still has too much influence, and has made too much of a mess already, so Romney's successes will be modest at best. Democrats will take credit for the good, blame the bad on "Republican control", and leave 2016 looking like 2008. They'll have a whole new list of bad things to blame on Republicans, and conservatives by extension. Romney's win will be a bump in a downhill road.
Rand's position suggests that to win, we must withdraw and let the Left has its way until total collapse, so that there can be no doubt whose fault it was and we can rebuild from the ashes.
On the other hand, we have the wisdom of 2008-2012, which suggests that even if we on the Right have no power at all, the lying Left can still blame us for all that goes wrong, and there seems to be no limit to their ability to do this. This wisdom suggests that he propaganda war cannot be won by withdrawal, so there's no point in speeding the descent into collectivism by handing elections to the likes of Obama.
JD| 10.4.12 @ 12:21PM
Far more hypocritical than Obama's complaints about style were his repeated complaints about Romney not sharing enough details about his plans. This from "we have to pass the bill to see what's in it?"
In one case Obama challenged Romney to tell us EXACTLY how he would alter Dodd-Frank. What a joke! Dodd-Frank legislation didn't create a single regulation. It just created commissions to spend the next few years writing regulations. They're not even done! How can Romney tell us how he'll change something if we don't even know what it is yet? How can Obama criticize him for not providing details when OBAMA'S details still aren't fleshed out, FOUR YEARS LATER!
Suddenly Obama suggests that Romney must prove that he won't upset any of the wonderful aspects of the status quo before he can change anything. This is the opposite of the standard to which Obama held himself.
Poly Ester| 10.4.12 @ 12:30PM
Don't hold back Derek. Tell us how you really feel. If Romney just approaches being president like he did the Olympics it will improve things tremenduously. He will run the country like a company with US citizens being the stockholders. Hopefully, we will see a return on our investment.
JFGalt| 10.4.12 @ 12:42PM
One of the stupidest things I've read on some of the leiberal sites is how much Romney supposedly lied throughout the evening but they can't seem to back it up with anything but rhetoric. They know their guy lost and bad but they don't get it. It is that 47% that you are simply not going to convince even if they found him having sex with his dog in the Oval Office. They would dismiss it and blame the Republican party. OBAMA!'s policies are junk as has been his record. He had no defense for them in front of someone that was actually going to challenge him on it unlike the Lamestream Media. He was probably wishing that he was debating Rachel Maddow.
JD| 10.4.12 @ 1:34PM
If you believe Obama's lies, then the truth seems like lies to you. It's that simple. I was unable to watch the debate myself because Obama said too many despicable things. I had to turn it off. But to those who believe the lies, Romney's truth must have been similarly difficult.
JFGalt| 10.4.12 @ 12:54PM
REMEMBER - The Prince of Fools still has enough fools supporting him that this contest must be fully pressed until the winner is certified. The fraud will be rampant. The New Black Panthers have been given Carte Blanche (so to speak) do as they please. The Democratic lawyers are ready to file all manner of protests where none exists. These are the true believers of the god OBAMA! and they won't give up easily. It took them a long time to get one of their kind to the highest office in the land but the Communist Party did it. Don't let this one victory make you think its a done deal. The fight is just beginning. Don't be surprised if the Tail starts Wagging the Dog soon. Be ready.
Stan Redmond| 10.4.12 @ 1:10PM
Romney's new roll will be to educate as many people as possible. I know there's a lot of work but I think a lot of people will find new found bravery standing up to the liberal thug machine that's out there.
Stan Redmond| 10.4.12 @ 1:08PM
I think the "likability" issue is a complete fabrication.
What people craved to see was someone on "our side" FINALLY stand up to obvious liberal media buffoons like Lehrer and this petulant president and basically tell them "shut up and sit down you while the adults take charge!"
Romney delivered and people are excited. Paul Ryan delivered with his straw man arsonist speeck and people are excited. I don't know if Romney's performance swayed the illegal voters, dead voters, pet voters, or the three time voters so we still have a lot of work to do. Romney's next challenge will be to educate the population on the foreign policy situation. Most people don't have a clue what Benghazi is and how close to the precipice the world is to a hot world war.
Slacker| 10.4.12 @ 1:29PM
I predict Obama’s handlers fine-tune his meds for the next debate. He looked like he had too much Xanax last night.
soldiermom11| 10.4.12 @ 1:33PM
Romney was liked because he was respected. He knew his facts, was quick on his feet, and it showed. Obama, on the other hand seemed to be waiting for the press to come in and save him or for Valerie to slide him some flash cards on what to say. This is how he will handle our foreign policy and the US will once again be respected.
Occam's Tool| 10.4.12 @ 3:58PM
I just like seeing Obama lose. I want to see him lose some MORE.
Derek Leaberry| 10.4.12 @ 4:45PM
I like to see Obama lose. I not only don't like the man, I find him a scoundrel of the first order. I don't like anyone who likes the man. But if you want to see Obama lose MORE, let him have another term. A failed Obama presidency can Hooverize the Democratic Party for fifty years. That would be just swell.
Occam's Tool| 10.5.12 @ 12:31AM
Yeah, but I don't want my fellow Americans to suffer more.
Oldefarte| 10.4.12 @ 4:50PM
Whats that about the Emperor having no clothes? Well, he's without his JOCK-STRAP after last night, or should I say his TELEPROMPTER broke??????
JP| 10.4.12 @ 4:59PM
The Left will push Obama to go "nasty". But, in an open forum, where there will be no teleprompter, and again defending the indefensible (Lybia, The Arab Spring, spiking the ball after Bin Laden), the President will seal his doom. As Ross said, he got 25% of the vote in 2012 because he was the "cool adult" (just ask Peggy Noonan).
For once in his life, Obama will have to answer for his actions.
JD| 10.4.12 @ 5:17PM
The Left has gathered itself. Today's story is that they accuse Romney of "lying". To liars, the truth does indeed look strange!