Romney runs debate

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Created on Thursday, 01 November 2012 15:20

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Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney responds to cheering supporters at an airport rally in Kissimmee, Florida, Saturday, October 27, 2012. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/MCT)(Courtesy to MCT Campus)

Opinion

By Clay Congdon

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney surpassed his goal as the challenger of the incumbent by proving that he is in fact presidential.

In the first presidential debate, President Obama showed a “lackluster” performance. In fact, not only did the right side have this opinion on the President, even the left side agreed with the embarrassing performance of the President. It was plain out shocking on how out-energized the Governor was compared to the President.

The Governor was prepared and knew what to say and when to say it. On the other hand, President Obama kept looking down at his notes and repeatedly kept mumbling and stumbling.

From this outcome, the Republicans were very pleased with the performance of Romney. Also, it indeed re-energized the Governor’s campaign, and made the National polls a lot closer.

In the second debate, the President came prepared with his notes. The fact that the President actually appeared to be “awake” was critical in my book compared to the previous debate, when the President was completely out-energized.

Although the President came prepared, that did not mean it justified a win. Because the President came prepared, it was a very interesting debate. Especially since the debate format was a town hall. That means the questions for the candidates came from American voters. This created a much more interesting atmosphere in the room.

In fact, half way through the debate, I thought boxing gloves were going to be thrown on the floor because of how suspenseful the debate was getting. However, I do think the commenter, Candy Crowley, made an inappropriate assist to the President by injecting herself into the debate as a fact checker and not remaining as a moderator when Obama made a claim not heard publicly before. This is what transpired at a heated moment in the debate. A voter in the audience questioned why the security in Benghazi was so lapsed given there were several breaches of security in the summer of 2012 before the Embassy attack.

The President failed to answer the pointed question and instead spoke in generalities about the Embassy personnel and their sacrifices. In his long answer, he claimed he had used the term ‘act of terror’ when referring to the September 2012 attack while speaking to the press in the Rose Garden the day after the death of the Ambassador and three other American citizens.

Mitt Romney-- “I want to make sure we get that for the record, because it took the president 14 days before he called the attack in Benghazi an act of terror.”

President Obama--- “Get the transcript.”

Candy Crowley-- “he did in fact, sir. So let me -- let me call it an act of terrorism.”

Candy Crowley incorrectly fact checked Governor Romney in the middle of the debate to inquire he was incorrect. The transcripts of that event in the Rose Garden show the President clearly saying it was a spontaneous attack caused by a video that was insensitive to the Prophet Mohammed and Islam.

By injecting herself into the debate as fact checker, Crowley not only made herself look foolish for being incorrect when millions of people were watching her, but most importantly it killed the momentum that Governor Romney had in the argument about the President unable to use the terms ‘terrorists’ and ‘acts of terror’ when referring to fanatical Islam. This is why I believe Crowley played a crucial role in this debate. Crowley considerably made the difference from the Governor taking command like the previous debate.

In the third debate, the Governor and the President discussed about foreign policies. The only way for the President to come out on top for the total outcome (3 debates), was to come out aggressive in the third debate but still look Presidential. However, that did not happen. President Obama appeared angry and annoyed while Governor Romney was speaking.

Just like in the second debate: the left said the President won, the right said the Governor won. Because of the unanimous win by Governor Romney in the first debate, President Obama had to do the same (in the 2nd or 3rd debate) to at least tie for the total score. But, the second and third debates were too even to conclude a winner. The President did not know at the time, but from the lackluster performance in the first debate, it caused him to lose the total outcome of the debates.

The Governor should be more than pleased by his overall performance. Many Americans were worried about the Governor’s character. Americans were not sure if Governor Romney was capable of outshining the President, but since the debates, Governor Romney’s favorability is above fifty percent while President Obama’ favorability for the first time is now below fifty percent. Not only did the Governor win the debates, he showed America he is Presidential which is very hard to do against an incumbent.

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Editor: Hannah Vehrs

Posted by: Nick Stout