Tuesday, October 23, 2012

The Clinch: The last presidential debate

Clearly, Obama won the third debate. The question is whether it was a Pyrrhic victory. On points, I don't think there is any question that Obama won and won fairly easily--largely because he was more aggressive. The question is whether it matters.

Several observations: 

  • Whatever happened to Libya? The glaring thing about the debate was Romney's decision not to mention Libya. And it was very obviously his decision. It was clearly intentional. It floors me that Romney did not use this, since it couldn't have failed to score. As the debate went on, I kept thinking, I wonder, since Romney got the coin toss, if that meant he was speaking last. That would be the perfect time to launch the criticism, since Obama could not respond. What a brilliant tactic! So when Obama gave his closing remarks and it want back to Romney, I thought, okay here goes. He's going to nail him. But ... nothing. I think this was a huge missed opportunity. 
  • The gravitas game. The Romney's clear strategy coming into the debate was to look Commander-in-Chiefish. I do think he succeeded here. He looked an awful lot like the guy who already was. I think Charles Krauthammer was right: Obama looked small; Romney looked large. Chris Wallace made the remark that if he had been parachuted in from another planet into the audience of this debate, he would have thought that it was Romney who was president, not Obama. This was an atmospheric consideration that does not get detected by debate judges, but it matters nonetheless. 
  • A kinder and gentler toughness. Then there was Romney's peace offensive. If you put this together with the fact that Romney toned down the aggressiveness all around, I think this bolsters David Gergen's contention that Romney was trying to appeal to women voters. All of the Romney's agreements with Obama and his mentions of peace don't really get my blood pumping, but maybe Gergen's right and it will do that for women. If it does, it will have been the first time anyone looked more like a good commander-in-chief by sounding dovish.
  • They still use bayonets, don't they? I winced when Obama said, in response to Romney's charge that the number of ships has gone down since 1917, that we don't use horses and bayonets any more either. I say this comes back to haunt him. It won't help him in the shipyards of North Carolina--or in the Navy at large. If I were the Romney campaign, I would immediately get out an ad, showing a series of Marines (who still use bayonets), saying, "Mr. President, I still use a bayonet."
  • And that's why I want to talk about ... the economy. Romney repeatedly turned this issue back to his chief issue. I think this helped him.
  • The staredown. I know these things aren't supposed to matter, but, thanks to this new split-screen view where we see both candidates facial expressions at every moment (will someone please pass a law banning this?), I think Romney won the grimace battle. Romney has a strange kind of smile that I don't find particularly attractive, but people are apparently used to it. Tonight, Obama unveiled The Glare. It was this intense, head-stuck-forward, jaw-jutting grimace that he was clearly trained to use by his handlers in this debate. I thought it was kind of creepy. I can just see John Stewart making fun of this. I don't think it looked good.
I'm also wondering if this was some kind of clinch. Romney figures he's ahead on points and all he has to do in this round is come out roughly even. We'll see.

9 comments:

Lee said...

This comment...


> Clearly, Obama won the third debate.


...are not congruent with the following remarks:


> The Romney's clear strategy coming into the debate was to look Commander-in-Chiefish. I do think he succeeded here. I think Charles Krauthammer was right: Obama looked small; Romney looked large.

> I winced when Obama said, in response to Romney's charge that the number of ships has gone down since 1917, that we don't use horses and bayonets any more either. I say this comes back to haunt him. It won't help him in the shipyards of North Carolina--or in the Navy at large.

> Romney repeatedly turned this issue back to his chief issue. I think this helped him.

> Tonight, Obama unveiled The Glare. It was this intense, head-stuck-forward, jaw-jutting grimace that he was clearly trained to use by his handlers in this debate. I thought it was kind of creepy. I can just see John Stewart making fun of this. I don't think it looked good.


This wasn't a debate at Oxford. It was an attempt to woo support in a general election. The scorecard will be revealed on Nov 6 or shortly thereafter.




Unknown said...

Was it a clinch or use of the rope-a-dope? No knockouts here; probably a split decision in two weeks.

Anonymous said...

If Romney's refusal to counter the haymakers Obama was throwing at him was to somehow appeal to women voters, then he must be playing for Rodney King can't we all just get along women voters. The bad news for Romney is that crowd usually votes D. I can't wait for this lousy choice to be over, and I say this as one who will vote to fire President Obama.

Anonymous said...

Compare this to what Martin said the President said:

“But I think Governor Romney maybe hasn’t spent enough time looking at how our military works. You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military’s changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines.”

Martin Cothran said...

Anonymous,

You're right about that. I stand corrected.

Art said...

At least now we know that Syria provides much-needed access for Iran to the sea.

I knew there was a reason Republicans are so determined to bomb them Persians back to the Stone Age. But I always suspected it was because of what the Persians did to Alexander. This makes things much clearer.

Anonymous said...

Art, look closely at that body of water which borders otherwise landlocked Iran...very easily blockaded. Straits are funny that way. It's also so nice to see that Iraq and Iran are such bosom buddies now that Hussein is gone.

Art said...

Art, look closely at that body of water which borders otherwise landlocked Iran...very easily blockaded. Straits are funny that way.

So I'm wondering why ships sailing from Chah Bahar would ever have to sail through the Straits of Hormuz to reach the Indian Ocean. The I remember that we're on Martin's blog. Silly things like facts and reasoning don't really matter here.

But I'm starting to gain insight into Romney's distrust of the Soviet Union. After all, the Soviet Union would give Iran access to the Baltic Sea, the Arctic Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean. In no time, we would see the massive Iranian fleet embarking from Vladivostok to lay waste to the west coast of the USA. More reason why we need a standing Pacific Fleet of a thousand warships.

Worse yet, Iran could use their access to the Arctic to invade Alaska, thereby endangering Sarah Palin's home. We just cannot have this sort of threat hanging over our heads.

Anonymous said...

Art is not impressed by straits. See harbors.