The First Debate

The first presidential debate held on Wednesday, October 3 was, quite simply, Romney's best debate performance ever. Although he is not naturally quick on his feet, and his efforts at spontaneity have the air of concocted impromptu, Romney demonstrated what every trial lawyer knows: the value of good preparation. Among other things, good prep imparts confidence. By comparison, the President seemed tentative, plodding, unfocused, listless, and epistemologically naked. Romney had been criticized by some for taking time off in August to prepare for the debates in Vermont, but it paid off. 

In fact, the Great Golfer's debate performance was so lackluster that even his liberal sycophants in the mainstream media were grousing. We now learn that Obama had spent a good deal of time in the weeks before the debate in the company of Il Pomperoso, Senator John F. Kerry, the President's "debate coach". Perhaps that is why Obama appeared so uncomfortable and displayed a hunted look. In any event, whatever Republicans are paying Kerry, it is not enough. Keep doing what you are doing, Senator "Liveshot". 

Of course the next day (yesterday) on the campaign trail, the President (following mouth-to-mouth resuscitation by his handlers) performed a volte-face and came out swinging, like a boxer emerging from his corner after a bad round. With an aggressive combination of counter-punches, a refocused Obama in an appearance in Nevada criticized Romney for his plans to eliminate PBS and Big Bird, and for his "irresponsible 5 trillion dollar tax cut". (Obama and the Democrats seem only to demonstrate fiscal concern on the income side, never on the spending side.) 

But these after-the-fact apercus and zingers were a day late and 5 trillion dollars short. Obama should have conceived and deployed them on his feet during the debate the night before. And the fact that he did not underscores another observation that is frequently made about the President: untethered from his teleprompter, beyond radio contact with  his speechwriters,  forced to fly “on the unpinioned wing", Obama is not an impressive orator. In fact, he is the opposite: he is slow on his feet; he is not "quick"; he appears to lack that root system of culture and contemplation, literature and the arts, anecdote and rich human experience upon which the Muse of great speakers (and great conversationalists) draws in order to inspire her subject, especially when the rhetorical going gets tough. My guess is that Our Leader, a man whose entire career seems founded on pretty words, paradoxically does not read books. And when even words fail a man whose only hard skill is the recitation of words, he fails indeed.