The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

MITT ROMNEY WINS FIRST DEBATE

Posted on | October 3, 2012 | 78 Comments

UPDATE 10:32 p.m. ET: Damn. Mitt won it straight-up. I’ve turned my TV to MSNBC to watch their reaction.

Rachel Maddow: “I personally do not know who won this debate.” This means . . . yeah, Mitt won. He beat the hell out of Obama.

Ed Schultz: “[Obama] created a problem for himself tonight on Social Security. He agreed with Mitt Romney. . . . I thought he was off his game.”

UPDATE 10:25 p.m. ET: Jim Lehrer babbling like an idiot about time running out. He wants Obama to get re-elected so ObamaCare will cover treatment for his senility.

UPDATE 10:22 p.m. ET: “Mr. President, you’re entitled to your own house and your own plane, but not your own facts.” Zing!

UPDATE 10:06 p.m. ET: They’ve been going back and forth about ObamaCare for 10 minutes. If you believe what Obama says — as opposed to the actual facts — then you’ll probably think he won this part of the debate. But if you believe what Obama says, you’re probably too stupid to read this anyway.

UPDATE 9:55 p.m. ET: More Twitter:

Instapundit is blogging a bit of the debate, and also links to the classic Vodkapundit drunkblogging.

UPDATE 9:45 p.m. ET: Been watching and Tweeting, so let me stick some of the Tweets in here:

Mitt just hit Obama on the Medicare issue. Obama hit back. Score it a draw, I think.

UPDATE 9:31 p.m. ET: Now they’re talking debts and deficits, and Obama’s worst broken promise: He claimed he’d cut the deficit in half and, instead, has doubled it.

UPDATE 9:20 p.m. ET: Obama and Romney are going back and forth on taxes. This is getting so good, I’m going to stop the frequent updates for a few minutes and just watch a while.

UPDATE 9:16 p.m. ET: Damn it, Obama keeps claiming to have given a “tax cut” to the middle class, but there was no rate reduction. Instead, he’s put in a series of tax credits, which are not the same as tax cuts.

UPDATE 9:13 p.m. ET: Romney gets a chance to hit back at Obama. Does pretty good, but gets a bit too “into the weeds” for my tastes.

UPDATE 9:11 p.m. ET: Obama comes back talking a lot of details, claiming Romney’s plan will “cost” money and have to be “paid for.” The government-centric point of view.

UPDATE 9:09 p.m. ET: Mitt opens with humorous anniversary congratulations, then goes into his 5-Point Plan for economic recovery. Having followed Mitt on the trail, I’ve heard this a zillion times, but for many of the 50 million people watching, it’s new.

UPDATE 9:07 p.m. ET: Obama opens with anniversary shout-out to Michelle. Then gets all into class warfare, blaming Bush, etc. He sucks.

EXPECT FURTHER UPDATES . . .

* * * PREVIOUSLY (8 p.m. ET) * * *

This verdict may shock some readers, seeing as how I’m publishing it a full hour before the debate actually begins.

Everybody’s playing the “expectations game” (notice Nate Silver trying to raise the ante for Romney) which, like a lot of what goes on in politics, is transparent bulls–t. Once you realize they’re trying to manipulate your perceptions, you should not be deceived, e.g.:

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos is doing his part for team Obama to make sure that Mitt Romney’s performance at Wednesday evening’s debate is a disappointment, one that will surely lead to his losing the election in November.
On Tuesday morning’s Good Morning America, the former Clinton Administration staffer sternly warned that if Romney doesn’t exceed expectations in the debates, he’s finished.
Why? Because Romney is under “huge, huge” pressure, Stephanopoulos says. And “he’s behind right now,” so if he doesn’t overperform, he’ll be considered a failure.

Give that everyone else is at it, therefore, I’m getting out ahead of this psychological gamesmanship with the pre-emptive declaration of Romney’s unquestional triumph.

And so this is your official “Debate Thread.”

Bite me, Nate. And bite me, George.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

UPDATE II: Linked by the Lonely Conservative — thanks!

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Category: Barack Obama, Debates, Election 2012, Mitt Romney

Comments

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  • werewife

    Feels really, really good to be right, doesn’t it, Mr. McCain? Nice work with the ol’ crystal balls!

  • Dandapani

    Quote of the week: “Who won? Well, Amanda Marcotte now wants to have Romney’s baby. Sure, she’d abort it, but still.”

  • leftbrainfemale

    Problem is, Obama’s got nuthin’. He had nuthin’ four years ago, but he was an unknown, black, and the anti-McCain preachin’ hope and change and that was enough. There was no substance. That hasn’t changed, in fact, it’s gotten worse because he had made everything worse. If he had been even a moderately good leader he’d have no trouble getting another term based on street cred. But his policies have all failed, and all he can do now is rail against Romney – who has more common sense in his little finger. The comment about the $90 billion could have been used to hire 2 million new teachers? He knows what he’s talking about. That works out to $45K per teacher. That would pay for those 100K new math and science teachers Obama kept talking about – for 20 years!

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  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    Yeah, Evi, but so’s Solylent Green.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    I think he was on something.

    Be it the Metoprolol a lot of speakers take or whatever. He was blinking a lot, he had his eyes sockets wide open, and then there were the facial ticks.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    I think that’s the key. Probably O will be more aggressive in the next one. As long as Willard doesn’t get rattled [like he did in some of the Primary debates], he should come off well.

    However [ain't there always one]: the MSM/Obama Campaign already has it’s ‘Comeback Scenario’ bullet-pointed.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    Who do you hate Einstein, Adj?!?

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    My word to you would be: beware of the of the gushings on the Right.

    We’re up against a ruthless political machine – they don’t like to lose. As Sarah Palin said:
    “Now we have to be aware in the next couple debates also if Mitt Romney continues to gain and gain and gain just by being truthful and experienced and intelligent, that doing a good job as a presidential candidate, these guys in the Obama camp, they’re not going go down without swinging. They’re going pull something,” former Governor Sarah Palin warned after tonight’s debate.

    “And the American public, with the media’s help, these lapdogs in the media, kind of going along with what Obama and his people want to do to
    shake some things up if Mitt Romney continues to do so well. The American public just needs to be aware that they’ve got to do their own home work, don’t rely on the shelter of the media, and just be aware something could be pulled here to turn things around if Mitt Romney continues to gain so much ground,” the 2008 Republican Vice Presidential nominee said to Sean Hannity on FOX.

    Video here…
    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/10/03/palin_warns_obama_camp_will_not_go_down_without_swinging_will_pull_something.html

  • http://thecampofthesaints.org Bob Belvedere

    Damn you! Now that stupid song will be in my head all friggin’ day.

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  • Garym

    With the heat Lehrer is getting, the next moderator is going to have pressure applied to be more aggressive with Romney.

  • richard40

    When everybody at Fox said romney won, the issue was still in doubt. But when everybody at both CNN and MSNBC said romney won, its pretty obvious romney won.

  • richard40

    Ironic that while the press CW is that Lehrer went easy on romney, at the end of the debate it showed that Obama had more total speaking time than romney. So the real truth is Lehrer tried to run over romney, but romney wouldn’t let him.

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  • http://twitter.com/richard_mcenroe richard mcenroe

    Putting together a “comeback scenario” for Obama is like predicting Tony Romo to not choke or Mark Sanchez to pull out a big 4th-quarter save. I wouldn’t bet the refi on it.

  • Garym

    That riff on Romo was not necessary. : )

  • Garym

    The press will always play CYA, even by throwing thier own under the bus.

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  • Anamika

    I rather prefer “Hypatia.”

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  • http://twitter.com/BeccaJLower Becca Lower

    Some people don’t know the song, and are lucky indeed.

  • AnonymousDrivel

    Holy crap was I wrong RE: this debate’s predetermined outcome! I must say, this is the best crow I’ve eaten in years.

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  • erwin

    Mitt Romney 2012 yeah baby we need a stronger nation!

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