Let’s not even check to see what Andrew Sullivan is doing. We have the feeling he’ll be watching the debate in airplane “kiss your ass goodbye” position and that’s helpful for no one. But what we can say is that according to all the pundits, everywhere, this debate could mean the difference between staying in your home come January or booking that one-way ticket to Costa Rica. Good God! Did Rush Limbaugh ever buy a home there?!
Over at the Huffington Post, Howard Fineman says:
If he fails, Obama will undercut 80 years’ worth of Democratic (but also, in the old days, bipartisan) devotion to the ameliorative and economically constructive role of the federal government. The Romney-Ryan ticket is a heat-seeking missile headed straight at the basic assumptions of the modern social state.
Okay, fine. We checked in on Sullivan — and yup — he’s still wandering around the Wal-Mart looking for a life-size cut out of Obama that he can talk to in his bedroom as he ponders the question “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY PRESIDENT?!”
But the Obama who showed up on October 3 was not the Obama any of us had seen in five years. Maybe a glimpse or two – I sat through a couple of snore-fests from the guy. But on the most important night of the campaign? I remain baffled. You cannot hide a real person behind a curtain for five years straight. So who was that guy last time around? And will the actual Obama show up tonight?
Haha! Talking Points Memo spoke with director Rob Reiner of The Princess Bride fame who said he needs to be more like Westley – less like Vizzini.
“He has to be more forceful. He has to basically call [Romney] on his obfuscations and his out-and-out lies,” Reiner said. “He has to call him on those things. And if the base sees that he’s forceful about that stuff I think you’ll see a little bit of a shift back.”
Nate Silver over at Fivethirtyeight.com did some very careful debate analysis over the last 36 years and found that Obama could end up winning the election, or he could end up losing the election based on debate stats. THANKS, NATE!
If there is reason to suspect a rebound for Mr. Obama, it is probably based more on election fundamentals than the debates themselves. Mr. Obama’s approval ratings are just strong enough, and the economy has shown just enough resiliency, that he might be a narrow favorite on each basis. One function that debates can serve is to bring elections more into line with the fundamentals.
No matter, Nate, Obama will win this thing…
And finally, Stephanie Cutter, Obama’s deputy campaign manager, would like you to know that it’s not about creating a bloodbath (it totally is) it’s about Obama laying out what needs to happen for the country (and ripping into the GOP candidate like the soft flesh of a ripe tomato right before lobbing it at Romney’s stupid lying face as he does a bit of debate contortionist soft-shoe up on that Hofstra stage.)
“He’s not looking to come in here and battle it out,” Cutter maintained, perhaps because predicting a bloodbath is impolite. “He’s looking to come in here and describe what he wants to do for this country, where he wants to take the country in the next four years. That’s the number one goal.”
“We’ll do our best to keep Mitt Romney honest,” Cutter said, “but, you know, that could take all night.”
In other words….PREPARE FOR WAR!
Despite what anyone says, we think Obama learned a lesson and is preparing to right the ship and point out what we’ve learned about Mitt Romney. He’s going down tonight!
