The Tale of Two Debates-Obama vs. Romney 1

Having not being able to view the Obama-Romney Debate live and in person, I subjected myself to hearing the recap from pundits, commentators and those experts who seem to have their finger on the pulse of the political events shaping our world.  According to them, I half expected to see Mitt Romney as an aggressive overseer, holding a whip and taming both Barack Obama and the moderator Jim Lehr.  The vision I had was Romney’s complete command from beginning to end and Obama just standing in a corner somewhere refusing to look in Romney’s direction in fear of being lashed for disobedience.  However after watching it in it’s entirety, the debate that I saw was completely different than the one I had heard about.  This made me begin to questioned if I had witnessed a completely different one.

The one that I saw, showed me how gracious Obama really is toward someone he disagrees with.  It showed me that he could deliver a devastating and direct hit to his opponent but not to the untrained eye.  Mr. Obama delivered several of these and often seemed to relish Mr. Romney digging himself in deeper and deeper to a place few could ever return from.  To say Mr. Romney was not prepared is to tell a lie.  He was quite prepared but not for the opposition that stood on that stage with him, he was prepared only to make a bigger and more profound plea for votes instead.

One of the most devastating deliveries Obama made was when he called out Mr. Romney on his tax plan and put it in such a way that it was clear as a bell.  He inquired through the moderator as to how Mr. Romney can say his plan would not harm the middle class and yet do all that he said it would do unless he was not able to use math correctly or common sense.  This evidently rubbed Romney the wrong way and from that point on, Mr. Romney then begin to add things to his plans that were not present before.  I guess you can do that when you refuse to give any specifics.  If you never say exactly how your plan would work and what actually is in it, you can always use the “etch-a-sketch” and reshape it as often as you want.

The word was Mr. Obama did not challenge Mr. Romney as much as others would have liked but in the debate I saw, he challenged him at every turn but with a nuisance that only few may have been able to see.  For me, I love the fact that my President can tell you where to go, draw you a map and even take you partially there all the while smiling.  How much better must you be to call someone stupid and have them agree.