I spent the early part of the evening sitting in a bar watching the first half of the Yankees/Tigers game, but I DVR'd the debate and just finished watching it. What struck me most was Romney's decision to yield some of his time to Obama. He did it twice. Romney first ceded time to Obama on the energy question, and Obama took it and crushed Mitt with it.
Later on in the debate, Romney tried to do the same thing on the Libya question, asking Obama to confirm that he did in fact go out into the Rose Garden a day after the Libya attack and called it an act of terror. Romney was certain the President had not done this and thought he had nailed Obama, and no doubt fully expected Obama to take the bait.
But this time, No-Drama Obama refused to take Romney up on his offer to explain, saying instead: "Please proceed, Governor." This is because Obama knew Romney was right in the middle of committing a huge gaffe, so he just gave him more rope to finish the job. Romney was clearly surprised by Obama's "proceed Governor" response, and his stammering attempt to recover was politely interrupted by moderator Candy Crowley, who put Romney out of his misery by stating that Obama did in fact call the incident a terrorist attack one day later.
It was an astounding moment that will go down in history along with the "you're no Jack Kennedy" moment and "there is no Soviet Domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be" statement at the Ford/Carter debate. In other words, it was a soon-to-be legendary gaffe on Romney's part, something I honestly did not expect to see from him in any of these debates.
I was also impressed by the way Obama pivoted effortlessly on some of the questions. His pivot from guns to education later in the debate was a bit clunky, but his pivot from Lilly Ledbetter to Planned Parenthood was flawless, as was his pivot from $1.70 gas prices to Bush/Cheney/Romney policies. I also liked how Obama came to the defense of Bush, stating that W was nowhere near as radical as Mitt Romney currently is.
What also struck me was all the sniveling Romney did with regard to the debate rules and how he perceived that they were being violated. This tactic worked for Romney in the first debate, but it fell flat in this last one. I'm not sure why it failed this time around. Perhaps it was the debate format or perhaps it was the fact that Obama actually showed up with some rhetorical ammunition this time.
Or maybe it had more to do with what my friend Dan told me prior to the debate while we were watching the game. He said the first debate was part of a rope-a-dope strategy and that Obama would start landing blows tonight, and that is what happened. A clearly-flustered Romney tried to fight back with lines that worked in the first debate, but this time those lines sounded stale whereas Obama's points sounded fresh because he didn't say them in the last debate because he was rope-a-doping.
Anyway, solid night for Obama and an off night for Mitt. And by the way, I'm glad Crowley stuck to her guns and acted like a moderator instead of merely an announcer. She did an excellent job.
UPDATE: Steve Benen nails it:
Objective observers can agree that President Obama's debate performance two weeks ago fell far short, but the setback featured one saving grace: there was no moment. Obama was off his game, but there wasn't a major, high-profile, embarrassing setback that could be replayed over and again.
By this measure, Mitt Romney's defeat last night was even worse, because he teed up all kinds of moments. He embarrassed himself on Benghazi; he was laughed at over the size of his pension; and of course he offered the political world the gift of "binders full of women."
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