More to the performance than meets the eye

Submitted by Murray Orbuch (United States), Oct 23, 2012 at 10:40

It seems to me that rather than agreeing with Obama, Romney strategically didn't go places where the President's handlers had prepared him for in the days prior to the debate, namely Libya. The shifting narrative made that debacle an easy target but the Presdent's canned responses would have allowed him to shine, with snark delivered to greater effect.

Instead, frustrated by a quarry that refused to take the bait, the President allowed the pent up anger to flow elsewhere in the condescension ("we have ships that carry airplanes and submarines that go under water") and digressions ("while I was planning on what to do with Iran, you were earning profits from China").

He was left looking petty and aggressive, more like the over-eager challenger than a confident incumbent. All Obama did effectively was provide sound bites for his "amen chorus" of Jon Stewart, Bill Maher and MSNBC. The masses are focused on the economy and I suspect he adjudged there to be no point expending capital and risking a misstep on foreign policy.

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