Washington Post reporter Dana Milbank gets in a lick at President Obama’s lackluster performance last night and hooks it to the President not having regular back and forth Press Conferences. mostly…
Good point….
Milbank points to Obama being ‘above’ it all……
While that might be part of the cause…
But I seriously DO NOT think that’s the only reason
I’ve pointed out a few others…..
One.…Barack Obama does NOT like to get into knock down , drag out political fights….He likes to work for consensus…
Two.…Barack Obama isn’t to hot on debates…He KNOWS he’s not really good at them…
Three...Mitt Romney had ALL sorts of debates at the beginning of the year …..And THOSE guys where rougher that Obama was last night…Hence the continual smirk….
Four.…President Obama IS THE President…Very few people get in his face….Which IS respectful…but dangerous sometimes…
That’s a lot…..
But the bottom line is the President needs to do MUCH better the next two times….
In the hours after the Republican challenger Mitt Romney embarrassed the incumbent in their first meeting, Obama loyalists expressed puzzlement that the incumbent had done badly. But Obama has only himself to blame, because he set himself up for Wednesday’s emperor-has-no-clothes moment. For the past four years, he has worked assiduously to avoid being questioned, maintaining a regal detachment from the media and other sources of dissent and skeptical inquiry.
Obama has set a modern record for refusal to be quizzed by the media, taking questions from reporters far less often than Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and even George W. Bush. Though his opponent in 2008 promised to take questions from lawmakers like the British prime minister does, Obama has shied from mixing it up with members of Congress, too. And, especially since Rahm Emanuel’s departure, Obama is surrounded by a large number of yes men who aren’t likely to get in his face.
This insularity led directly to the Denver debacle: Obama was out of practice and unprepared to be challenged. The White House had supposed that Obama’s forays into social media — town hall meetings with YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and the like — would replace traditional presidential communication. By relying on such venues, Obama’s argument skills atrophied, and he was ill-equipped to engage in old-fashioned give and take.
Luckily for Obama, the debates are, as one adviser put it Thursday, “a three-game series.” Romney’s after-debate glow will likely fade as he attempts to explain his dubious assertions that he would not reduce taxes paid by the wealthy and that his tax cuts wouldn’t increase the deficit. But even if Obama ultimately prevails, he should remember Denver as a warning: He does himself no favors by hiding from tough questioning.
photo….newswatch.nationalgeographic.com
Share on Facebook
So, by this account, he should be far more prepared for the Town Hall format.
I remember when Ronald Reagan got lost on the Pacific Coast Highway in the wrap-up of his first debate with Mondale (we all thought he was losing it, little did we know at the time, and he can roaring back in the next debate.
Willard told all the lies in his arsenal of lies at the last debate — payback time now.