Thursday, October 4, 2012

Did Mitt Romney Really Win?


            The challenger seemed cool, calm, and collected while the incumbent seemed spent, tired, and bothered. With the blessings of the “moderator,” the incumbent allowed himself to be interrupted time and again by his opponent, often allowing him the last word even when it wasn’t his turn. This was not the Obama we were expecting, nor was it the Romney we were expecting. But my question: did Romney really win the debate, or did Obama just gamble and lose?
            Romney had an answer for everything thrown at him. Or at least it sounded that way. He gave the same tired answers he always gives. He denies Obama’s accusations about his tax cuts without giving numbers to back them up. He spoke about his Medicare program as being eons better, but without having figures to aid his argument. He talked about studies that no one’s ever heard of, just trying to disprove the reliability of surveys in general. He said things like “I could name more” when referring to hospitals where Obama’s plan has failed, but promptly refused to. At the end of the day, Romney didn’t win the debate. He simply fooled America into thinking he did.
            That’s not to say Obama didn’t help Romney’s case. The president seemed unprepared, as if he wasn’t speaking from prewritten prompts like his challenger, but rather as if he was speaking from the heart. He wasn’t the eloquent guy we picked four years ago. Last night we saw a guy didn’t want to lie and say he was the greatest president ever, but who just wanted a fair shot. And that’s not the guy we need.
            All’s fair in love, war, and politics. Obama should have come out swinging from the start and hammered Romney on his 47% comments, on his overseas bank accounts, on some of the things he really did at Bain Capital. But instead, we saw Obama try to take the moral high road. The trouble is, there is no moral high road in politics, especially if you’re running for president. Sure, neither candidate had any good zingers for the other, but Obama needs to press Romney hard and often until he spins out of control and self-destructs.
            Romney is an enigma in presidential history. Never before has someone said less and stood as good a chance at winning than Romney. The fact that he changes his opinion more often than John Kerry should take voters aback. But the most egregious offense committed by Romney is the one he is most heralded for. When he talks about balancing the budget, he says he’s going to go through every government program. He’s going to ask himself “Do we really need this?” If not, he’s going to cut it. This is a man who thinks balancing the national budget is as easy as cleaning up a spreadsheet.
            Romney is like a middle school eighth grader new to Facebook. He’s got a lot of friends, yet he feels starved for attention. So what does he do? He posts a status saying if he doesn’t think you’re necessary to his friend list, he’s going to delete you. That way he can balance his list.
            This is the major problem with Mitt Romney. He has literally stupefied half of America by saying one idiotic thing after another, with each one contradicting the other in order to please some base of the electorate. But in doing so he has somehow brought together a base of people who don’t care what he says, who don’t listen, and who have been fooled into thinking he has them in mind.
            Make no mistake about it. Last night we saw a new Romney, a man determined. But he’s not determined to help anybody, least of all the middle class he so righteously glorified last night. He just wants to win.