Obama and Romney should have been wearing boxing gloves

Posted By RichC on October 17, 2012

In one corner, wearing a dark suit is the undefeated President of the United States Barack Obama! [cheers and jeers] In the other corner also in a dark suit is the challenger, Salt Lake City Olympics rescuer, Governor Mitt Romney! [more cheers and jeers] Neither man wore gloves, but should have, as they at times looked to be dancing around a boxing ring. Thankfully no punches were thrown, but certainly both politicians bobbed and weaved … and took verbal jabs at every opportunity.

For the President performance, it was like night and day compared to the first debate … the one where only his shadow showed up. Unfortunately he probably out and out ~~lied~~ deceived (he is the President) on the subject of the Benghazi, Libya when he claim to have designated it an act of terror on day one in the Rose Garden – that would be right before he jetted off to Las Vegas and a campaign tour (can you tell this left a bad taste with me?) If that were true, I’m not sure why the administration would have instructed the Ambassador to the UN to go out 5 days later on every Sunday television news show and indicate it was all due to a YouTube video. I don’t recall Ambassador Rice even suggesting it was a coordinated terror attack – actually, I think she denied it. Mr. Romney on the other hand failed to land a decisive blow when he had Obama on the ropes, but the referee (moderator Candy Crowley) stepped in and rescued Mr. Obama before too much damage was done.

Romney for his shortcomings demonstrated his ability to “adapt” (a nice word for flip-flop or political change of mind) on issues from healthcare to assault weapon bans. I’m not sure what stuck considering he had a solid performance and was focused like a laser on the economy, taxes and jobs – did he say jobs? JOBS, JOBS, JOBS. Obviously it was Obama’s Achilles heel. Frankly I’m not sure that questions from the audience or moderator were necessary as both men had no problem keeping the debate going. I really can only remember a few of the nine questions: 1) helping college students with employment after graduations, 2) illegal immigrants or more appropriately “immigration policies” and 3) a fellow who voted in 2008 for Barack Obama and wanted “a reason” to give him four more years.

There may have been one “big bird” type awkward moment by Governor Romney – primarily picked up by liberals – as he referred to interviewing women for his cabinet when he was governor of Massachusetts: Romney said he had “binders full of women” to review for their qualifications. Twitter went crazy … and suspect left leaning news organizations and stand up comedians will expand on this later. I’m not sure how moderate women took this “hiring of women” point, as it was obvious liberal women saw it as red meat.

As for social media, I followed the debate on TV and Twitter which again was amazing. The flow of tweets was insightful and entertaining; definitely an entirely new animal when in comes to following political debates. For my part, I added to the fray (archived below).

My Tweets during the #debate

1h CBS News ‏@CBSNews

RT @CharlieKayeCBS: In the @CBSNews Instant Poll, 65% say Romney won on the issue of the economy. 34% say Obama won on the economy.

My Desultory Blog

Obama and Romney should have been wearing boxing gloves

My Tweets during the #debate

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Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

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