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I Agree With Andy McCarthy: No Special Counsel
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The Spectacle Blog
To be sure, the fact that the last Pew poll showed women leaning toward President Obama over Governor Romney by 18% — a lead which was obviously impossible — shows that the poll is to be taken with several hundred grains of salt.
Nevertheless, the across the board enormous gains for Romney on issues as well as in personal favorability in the new Pew poll taken October 4-7 — with Romney topping Obama in favorability for the first time ever in this poll (or any poll that I’ve ever seen) — is remarkable. Every important measure in this poll showed an enormous move toward Rommey.
It shows the fundamental weakness of Barack Obama and how the public was just waiting for a reasonable indication that Mitt Romney is a plausible, acceptable alternative. Romney’s goal now must be to reinforce that view.
The lesson from this understanding of the poll results (if you agree with my interpretation) is that Romney was right during the debate to remain fundamentally positive about himself more than negative about the president, because voters already understand the negatives about the president. He needs to appear presidential, smart, wise, well-informed, and capable. And he needs to maintain an appearance (which I believe to be a reality) of caring about the economic well-being of all Americans (without making any obvious effort to appear likeable for its own sake) at least all those Americans who want to work (and are capable of working) in order to make a better life for themselves and their families.
I continue to believe that Barack Obama will over-react to last week’s debate debacle by coming out extremely aggressive against Romney — further hurting Obama’s personal likeability, which was his most enduring and electable trait given his failure in almost every other aspect of his presidency.
Read it and weep, David Axelrod:
http://www.people-press.org/2012/10/08/romneys-strong-debate-performance-erases-obamas-lead/
The VP debate on Thursday will give a hint as to how Obama will behave: If Obama’s team is planning for the president to try to rip Romney’s throat out, they will have given Joe Biden the same marching orders. I expect Paul Ryan to make Joe Biden look like the mental midget that he is, but then when you’re up against such a gaffe machine it is all but impossible to lower expectations. So if Ryan does not wipe the floor with Biden, the media will call it a loss for Ryan — and the public might too. Biden is an experienced debater even if being far from the sharpest knife in the drawer. Paul Ryan would make a huge mistake to underestimate Plugs Biden; fortunately, I’m confident that no such mistake will be made.
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More Blog Posts by Ross Kaminsky
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/10/08/devastating-poll-for-obama
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doramin| 10.8.12 @ 7:41PM
I haven't heard Romney's VMI speech on foreign policy and defense of this morning but I hear it's a good one. I can't wait to see Obama try and tout his foreign policy expertise in front of Romney in the next debate.
I also agree that Obama will be unable to contain his rage and will go Chicago Thug all over Romeny. I agree with those who say Obama and his Rasputins were much more shook up by Tucker Carlson's revelation of the unedited clip of Obama's race-baiting 2007 speech than they let on. That has a lot to do with his performance at the first debate. Obama implicitly sold himself as the man to grant white America racial absolution. Furthermore, his "nice guy" image is all that he has left. We'll see how long that lasts.
As for the anticipated Ryan/Biden cage match, I keep hearkening back to the 2002 senatorial debate between candidates Norm Coleman and Walter Mondale. Can't recall the substantive details but I do remember the way ol' Fritz came off as a peevish old fossil whose ideas and attitudes had not changed since the Carter years and how Norm deftly challenged him on every point all while maintaining elaborate courtesy (addressing him as 'Mr. Vice President') at every turn.
Extrapolating from his convention performance, my guess is that Biden will be so busy smiling and invoking motherhood and apple pie while projecting positivity and a glorious future that Paul Ryan be left trying to debate with a wind-up, talking Lady Liberty doll.
JD| 10.8.12 @ 7:51PM
You make a good point, Ross. Staying positive at this juncture would bait Obama into the trap of going negative.
To-date, Slippery Obama has always avoided saying anything negative and largely avoided anything that can decisively be called dishonest, by having all his attacks lobbed by surrogates. But at this juncture, can he afford to avoid attacking in the debates?
bluecollarbytes| 10.8.12 @ 9:02PM
Obama must have some ideas about how he's succeeded. Perhaps he'll recite his domestic and international triumphs at the next debate thereby 'shutting Romney up', whereby Romney can take a 'power-nap'...drifting in and out of consciousness, wishing he was anywhere else.
PJ| 10.8.12 @ 10:39PM
Obama has no international triumphs. Through his policies he has encouraged antagonistic behavior from many countries bordering on the edge of anarchy. It's absolutely incredible that he has won the Nobel Peace Prize furthering the irrelevancy of such an award.
The only domestic triumph is that Obama has successfully used the presidential office to divide the American people, not unite them.
spike59| 10.9.12 @ 5:33AM
ObaMao will HAVE to go negative, and strongly so; he has nothing remotely positive to say for his performance in office
Nancy in NC| 10.9.12 @ 8:22AM
How about Obama's standing with the military? It appears they strongly would prefer a different commander in chief. Maybe one that would increase their chances of surviving.
Ian Cognito | 10.9.12 @ 1:53PM
The debate for the majority was to validate Romney. I do not believe the audience will be as large - most cannot afford to miss working that 2nd job, or to ignore planning for a second Obama term, or simple bear to listen to Obama's lying. Yes, I believe the majority know exactly who Obama is. They needed to vet Romney - to be certain what Obama has said about him was untrue. That concern is gone - due to Romney's performance. The Ryan debate will draw a large audience - but not as large. After the VP debate viewership will plummet. Anybody But Obama - ABO - is how the majority think. They needed to bed any concerns and prove Obama telling more lies. Those majority's concerns are sated. Most of the majority will not dedicate the time to another Obama appearance. It does not matter what Obama does going further. America knows who and what he is - they live it daily.
soljerblue| 10.9.12 @ 5:58PM
The Brit paper, Daily Mail (online edition) has a story today that Obama left the state last Wednesday night in Denver actually believing he kicked Romney's butt. Took some tough-love from Axelrod, et.al. to convince him otherwise. I would not be surprised to see Obama overreact, come on with the lies, zingers, sound bites, etc., and go too far in the other direction. If Romney can keep the ABC moderator babe from trying to shut him down, and continue as he did last week, it should be a tough nite for the Termite-in-Chief.
soljerblue| 10.9.12 @ 5:59PM
I mean 'stage', not 'state'. Sorry for the misspelling
Abu Nudnik| 10.9.12 @ 9:07PM
People still believe Obama to be more moderate, believe it or not, Ross, according to the poll I looked at.
How can this be explained? Well, I did a Google search for "Communist Party USA endorses Barack Obama" and went through 11 pages in which there was not one mention of it by CBS, NBC, CNN, PBS, CBC, BBC, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The LA Times or any other mainstream media outlet except Fox Nation where I found it on the 8th page. All mentions to it were either from right or left wing bloggers.
I checked out a Wiki Answers answer to the question "Is it true that Barack Obama was endorsed by the Communist Party?" The answer was: "No. There is no Communist Party in the Unites States..." or even in Russia the "expert" stated.
And yet, at CPUSA.org one can indeed find the Marxist party that elected Obama both in 2008 and in 2012.
The CPUSA never endorsed a presidential candidate from the two mainstream parties before. Until Obama.
This would have been news for any other candidate. It's hard to figure why it isn't.
Abu Nudnik| 10.9.12 @ 9:09PM
Sorry... that should be the Marxist party that *endorsed* rather than *elected* Obama...