Debate No.

1: Romney refuses to let go, deserves another audition

Ben Plummer 4/10/2012 Mitt Romney just won't let it go. He's been wanting to be President for an awfully long time, as we know. And for a while in this campaign, he looked like he didn't have the wherewithal to go a minute and a half without offending, well, everyone, let alone last 90 minutes under the spotlight with a shrewd but battle-hardened incumbent. Thus, going into yesterday's debate, he had very little to lose. After all, he has committed so many gaffes over the past month it's almost laughable. Well okay, it's very laughable. And during tough fought primary season, wherein the conservative side (re:dark side) of the GOP lined up every conceivable alternative to Romney in an attempt to find anyone who could even briefly appear vaguely electable (including Rick Santorum, a completely out of touch social-conservative whirlwind of terrible ideas, to Herman Cain, who displayed a dangerous lack of knowledge on just about everything), Romney chose to turn right to win their hearts. Or at least their support. This is a quite different approach to that which was taken last night, where his moderateness from days of yore returned. Mainly because it suited him. Using his ability to politically shape-shift, he gave Obama a real beating in the opening debate. He argued that he was passionate about things like tax relief, support for the elderly, and "more teachers", all the while touting his successes in Massachusetts despite Deval Patrick (Dem.) having been in charge since '07, but again without providing much specific policy nitty gritty. This was vital in pinning a sheepish (at best) Obama to his policies. He relentlessly pounced on any opportunity to present himself as the antithesis of the President, and drew contrasts from everything, most notably and not unpredictably on the economy, though again, no details (if memory serves I believe he was at one point arguing that independent studies on his tax plan being impossible can't be conclusive because he hasn't revealed it yet. Astounding!). Quite how this will be inferred by independent voters is to be seen; I suspect that there has been a few too many stance flip-flops for him to be trusted for the majority. However, he had to inject some life into his campaign, retool his image slightly, and make himself a contender again, all of which he did. He was well prepared and on message. However well Romney performed, his victory (and a victory it was, by most if not all accounts), the President made it inexplicably easy for him. In an era where things are immortalised on the Internet, there isn't much scope for error or misjudgement, so it is understandable for him to reason that, while ahead in the polls

and four years out of practice, it would make little sense to try any audacious or undue attacks. And he came through the debate unscathed in terms of his personal image, which is a win, just about. It would also be incredibly harsh to think that Barack Obama is anything other than a wise and savvy politician. It would be an enormous surprise if he was staying in his shell for any reason other than to weather the attacks until it matters; going for the jugular last night would have been strategically impatient. He has Romney on the ropes with video evidence on most topics, why waste them at the first opportunity? Put it this way: Is there any way in hell you can see Obama not using the phrase "47 percent" in the remaining 180 minutes of the debate? Not a chance. He took the opportunity of the occasion to remind people of Romney's penchant for equivocality when it comes to fist pounding about whatever topic is most convenient, but his casual approach to defending his record made it (to Romney's credit) look like he had no record to defend. This is how the Republicans had envisaged the race shaping up for months, and is easily - in their view - the shortest route to regaining the Oval office. Whichever way you look at it, the challenger applied some much needed pressure to the incumbent, and it will take more than platitudes about his opponent's vagueness to shake it off. So yes, Romney performed and performed well when he needed to. And he did need to. As I've mentioned before, his failure to carry Ohio AND Florida come Nov. 6th would mean that he has to win every other swing state to make the grade - a very, very difficult thing to do. This is not to say his performance was bereft of error. He often came across as too eager to answer; a good problem to have in the first instance, but his answers were delivered with pangs of desperation - he knew his lines, and he knew he had to communicate them, often overpowering an insufferable Jim Lehrer so that he could finish his attacks. Like an actor desperate for a part, he knew if he didn't get this audition just right, it would have been curtains. Now we'll see if he can go without a script until next time.