Poorly moderated debate - is Lehrer not capable of enforcing time limits?; poorly worded questions - Lehrer seemed to be stumbling over his own wording. The republican clearly dominated and did not respect the moderator's limits. Obama was unfocused and wishy-washy. It was as if he was saying the other candidate's diatribe and lies did not deserve a response. But he did not refute anything of substance.
As usual, the questions quickly became irrelevant because the debate was all talking points - what the candidates want to say about the topics they wanted to address - OVER AND OVER. Romney was clearly better with this tactic. It was painful to watch. I hope the fact checkers are busy. And I hope the moderator has a gavel - or better, a freakin' LOUD buzzer that no one can talk over - next time.
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4 comments:
Agreed.
I wish Obama had been stronger, but Romney came off as an arrogant bully.
Seriously, I am so tired of that smirk of his.
My judgment: Borrring. Who knows if 5 trillion is the right number or not - who cares? Obama seemed like an accountant sorting through a pile of bank statements, head down a lot of the time reading his notes.
There was not much fire or passion from our man - I suppose the smooth, sleek political operatives of this day and time advised him to hold off on any emotion. Romney managed to *sound* halfway enthusiastic about his program. But the whole thing was just preaching to the choir (or really, above their heads, because who the fuck really understands all the "arithmetic" anyway) - this didn't change anybody's mind.
Which is the whole fucking point of having a debate - to argue your case and persuade others to agree with you! Instead, we nearly got Dumb and Dumber. Very disappointing.
Obama can fire up a crowd when he wants to, but he seemed not to care very much last night whether he did or not.
Still haven't watched the debate (watching live here would have meant getting up in the middle of the night). But, all I read has me very disappointed. It's tragic that the more intelligent, enlightened, fair-minded, competent, and moral candidate doesn't easily "win" these debates. I hope we get from the president on the next two occasions what we hoped for on the first!
Lehrer was no worse than any other debate moderator. That is to say, all of them have sucked. I wish they had the power to turn off microphones, then the debaters would pay the moderator a little respect.
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