The American Spectator

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.