And I don't mean that as a slam because I'm not talking about content (everybody agrees that the content of Romney's 47% speech was very bad for his campaign). I'm talking about tone and demeanor here.
The one thing that struck me about Romney in his secretly-filmed speech to the millionaires -- once I set aside the awful things he said -- was how confidently and forcefully he spoke in that video, particularly when you compared it to other appearances Romney made where he seemed awkward and unsure of himself. In fact, my first reaction to the secretly-made film was that it wasn't really him speaking and someone had just put it out there as a prank. It didn't sound like Mitt Romney.
He seemed like a different person in that 47% speech, someone I hadn't seen before -- someone who truly believed in what he was saying. And I saw that in Romney again tonight.
UPDATE: I think this is a wrong-headed move by the Romney Camp:
After the first presidential debate at the University of Denver in Colorado on Wednesday night, one of Mitt Romney’s top advisers acknowledged that, as a result Romney’s plan to repeal Obamacare, people with pre-existing medical conditions would likely be unable to purchase insurance.This is a mistake. Look, Romney said a ton of moderate-sounding things at tonight's debate that didn't exactly jibe with what he's been saying during his campaign. But the last thing his people should do is walk back these statements.
The admission directly contradicts the GOP candidate’s claim during the debate that “pre-existing conditions are covered under my plan” — a contention Romney has repeated on the trail and that his campaign has repeatedly walked back.
Romney has finally gained some momentum with this performance (after what can be politely described as a dismal last few weeks). Why ruin the moment by fact-checking your own candidate? Mitt apparently made a decision to move toward the middle during this debate, and it is an interesting, potentially game-changing strategy. It certainly caught Obama and his people off guard.
Romney's campaign should simply embrace these policy changes and not worry so much about what the more radicalized elements within the GOP think about them. Sure, he'll be called a flip-flopper, but everyone already knows he's one of those, so no big story there.
The radical right wing isn't going to abandon Romney just because he decided, at this late date, to move to the middle after running as a "severe conservative" for the past year. They hate Obama way too much to do something like that.
2 comments:
Admittedly, I only watched highlights, as I know who I am voting for, but I did think Romney did a good job of appearing moderate and even compassionate. Historically, he has actually been a moderate: for god's sake, he invented Obamacare! But I hope that people don't drink the "I'm a moderate kool-aid." G.W. said the same thing and how'd that work out for us moderates? Obama shouldn't despair though. Kerry crushed G.W. in the first debate and it turned out to be meaningless
Well, he did make a clear move away from radical GOP ideology and embraced more moderate positions. The examples of this from the debate are many. The most glaring example is that he seemed to completely give up on the idea of an across the board 20% tax cut, which before last night was the central feature to his tax plan. Plus, he now thinks regulation of business is "essential" (the Tea-Baggers must be biting their lips on that one). He also embraced RomneyCare in a big way (see previous parenthetical about the Tea-Baggers).
Perhaps his campaign felt he had to do this in order to rebound from his "47 percent" debacle; but whatever his reason, I thought it was a pretty intriguing move politically. Like you said, it probably won't make a difference in the grand scheme of things, but it certainly was bold.
My main reaction to Obama's performance was that he missed a shitload of opportunities to hammer Romney. I lost count of how many times Romney brought something up that I knew Obama could hit out of the park, but he refused to go there for the most part. I'm sure this was part of the plan to make Obama appear more like a president than an angry black man, but it sure was frustrating to watch. Definitely an off night for Barack.
Romney's opening remark about the woman whose husband lost her job presented a huge opening for Obama. Romney told this woman that he could help her, but that the country needed to go in a different direction. Obama's response should have been -- like he did in previous debates -- to look into the camera, address this woman specifically, tell her that he felt her pain. He then should have asked this woman if Gov. Romney told her that his "different direction" was actually the same old direction tried under Bush/Cheney, the direction that nearly destroyed our economy. He could then ask this woman if Romney gave her any details of how he would implement this Bush/Cheney redo, because he sure as hell isn't telling anyone else how he'd do it.
It was a perfect moment for Obama to immediately set the tone of the debate right from the offset, but he didn't go there for some reason. Very odd.
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