I understand why the President displayed passivity. The reality is if you listen to his entire prose it was quite effective and mostly truthful. If you listened to his prose it was middle class centric. If you listened to his prose you would feel that the country is not yet recovered but moving in the right direction. If you listened to President’s prose you understood that he brought the country back from the abyss.
The problem is that Romney was at the other side of his prose. Sadly Romney has no record as President. Romney also knew that most Americans are not fact checkers and that after absorbing the debate most people simply go on their way.
The President also knows that and seemed to have taken a gamble. His gamble was that attacking Mitt Romney on his verifiable lies and change of positions would be interpreted as un-presidential or the emergence of the Angry Black Man. You see, the President is between a rock and a hard place.
The media is mostly interpreting Mitt Romney’s rude behavior towards the moderator as well as his interruption of the President as being aggressive, assertive, and in command. President Obama did not take the chance of the media interpreting his behavior especially since the past is prologue.
Many of my Liberal friends are irate. Why did he not bring up Mitt Romney’s 47% condescension of the middle class? Why did he not speak of the nature of Mitt Romney’s claim to job creation, vulture capitalism? Why did he not illustrate Mitt Romney’s emergency room flip/flop versus his own Massachusetts healthcare plan? I could go on and on.
Was the president not ready? Did the president take Mitt Romney for granted? Did the President think Mitt Romney was such a bumbling inarticulate flip flopper that somehow America would see it during the debate?
I do not think any of that is true. The President is very intelligent, articulate, and in command of the entire subject. I think he understood that Romney as the underdog would get soft media coverage on his lies and misinformation. If he brought up the 47% or Bain Capital the media as they have on other occasions would have characterized that as un-presidential and subjects that should have been left to the campaign ads. Had the President displayed any anger, resolve, or assertiveness, that display would have been characterized as the emergence of the Angry Black Man.
Civility is a difficult. Civility can sometimes be interpreted as weakness. The President’s justifiable distrust of the carnal minds of many that can be triggered by what most thoughtful people know as “The Angry Black Man Syndrome” failed the president as he articulated much truth. To maintain civility from a rabid display of misinformation, the president chose to ignore it. Next time he must trust that in these difficult times Americans want a fighter and as such it is incumbent upon him to find a better balance than he did in this debate.
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Dan Pemberton says
Boy it just makes my day to see you Liberals come up with all the reasons that Obama lost the Debate last night it’s status quo ( Blame Bush, Blame the altitude, he was distracted, he could be perceived as an angry Black man etc.etc. ) I mean people should wake up, Obama’s record of failure is his problem, everything he promised the American People never happen. If you go into Obamas background you see he is an under achiever in every way, he has an agenda and it is not for a better America he just wants us to apologize to everyone. Granted I for one could never say Bush was not a large part of this mess we find ourselves in and Romney would have not been my first choice but we are there ! Four more years of the current administration we will not survive. We are facing extinction as a country, do you think if we abandon our allies in the middle east Islamic Jihadists will just say ” OK will leave you alone now “. Even Obama can’t believe that buddying up to them is not working. As sad as it is what keep them in line is fear and they need to fear us. Do you ever see any Muslims bringing food or soldiers into help in a natural or man made disaster ? Hell no , it’s always us we are the good guys, have we made Giant mistakes ? Of course we have. Greed and Evil people exist in every part of this world but wake up Obama is not the way out of this mess he will only increase it to the point of the worst disaster for the American People since the Great Depression…
Jack Van Gossen says
I think the “Angry Black Man Label” is only an issue with the ignorant, racist teabaggers who won’t vote for him anyway. I want to know that the man I voted for four years ago still has it in him to fight for this country, and I didn’t see that man on stage at the debate. To let himself get bested by an arrogant, lying, flip-flopping, stuffed suit like Romney was more damaging to his image than the “Angry Black Man Label.” Obama showed far more capability than that in his debates with Clinton and McCain, and never got stuck with the “Angry Black Man Label” so I’m not buying it this time.