More thoughts from VDH:
The problem for Obama is not that his performance was disastrous, but rather than it was his normal workmanlike coasting. But this time, and for the first time, he was pitted against a skilled debater who had both the better argument and the better intellectual artillery to deliver it. Disengaged cool could not cut it. “My/I/me/mine” first-person overload was of no value. “Make no mistake about it/Let me be perfectly clear” was of no use. “Bush did it” is passé. And the faux-patois of a Reverend Wright-like sermon had no place here. Obama was just Obama without the props.
And more of the theme of how his enablers have done him no favors:
The final irony? The real culprit for Obama’s disastrous night is not entirely Barack Obama, but rather the media training-wheels who assured Obama for years that he was riding on his own; when they went off last night, he immediately fell, and for some reason we are supposed to be surprised?
That’s the best metaphor I’ve seen yet.
Il Dufe should have had Bagdad Jim cheerleading a claque in the audience.
I’m sorry, but Mitt is not a skilled debater. It’s only in comparison to Obama that he might be described as such. Biden is actually one of the best debaters. He doesn’t let a little thing like facts get in his way. He knows how to sound presidential even when completely wrong.
I’m amazed that most of these politicians are such poor debaters. One problem is actually that the audiences are full of false information which means an orator lacks the short-hand phrases that would give a debate more punch. Instead they have to be able to communicate and explain ideas which takes time and is fraught with potential hazards.
Romney was able to do some of that.
Truth is, as ever, the first casualty.
The metaphor I liked best was that Obama is a student who always cut class and copied his homework. But the teacher tested him directly.