The biggest story of the week was the Obama-Romney debate, or the Crushing of Obama by Romney. The Republicans were overjoyed and the Democrats were devastated. How bad was it? Just watch the “O Bama, Where Art Thou?” segment by Jon Stewart.
Jon Stewart is the master but even he missed the real reason for Obama’s performance. The real Obama was there for all of us to see in the debate on Wednesday, October 3. The real Obama who took the Democratic party away from Bill Clinton’s pragmatic moderate approach. The real Obama who looks down on Bill Clinton as an “inconsequential” President. Unfortunately for him, this real Obama met Clinton’s approach head-on in last week’s debate. We all saw the result.
We urge you to watch President Clinton’s speech at the Democratic Convention last month. It was so masterful that a Republican CNN commentator said that speech could win the election for President Obama.
If you watch that Clinton speech and then watch the Obama-Romney debate, you will see how much Governor Romney learned from that Clinton speech. Mr. Romney was so effective in the debate because he pivoted to the center, he became the moderate Romney of his Massachusetts period. He moved against high-income Americans, arguing they “are doing just fine in this economy“. He promised that the rich will not see their share of taxes reduced under his plan.
Romney went against conservative dogma by stating “Regulation is essential“. Then he blamed the Democrats for letting big banks become even bigger under the Dodd-Frank bill. We almost expected him to attack President Obama for carrying on the failed policies of the Bush Administration, for keeping Tim Geithner as the Treasury Secretary, the same Geithner who presided over the New York Fed, the man who let the Big Banks ruin America’s economy.
No wonder President Obama was so tongue-tied in this debate. He had prepared for a Tea-Party Romney, a Rick Santorum like Romney. Instead, he faced a Clintonite Romney. Romney essentially triangulated the American divide, by pushing Obama to the far left, by moving against the far right and positioning himself as the moderate in the middle who would bridge the gap between the extremes.
This performance reminded us of the mid-1990s debate on Welfare Reform. President Clinton triangulated that issue so brilliantly that in the end you were left with the impression that the problems of excessive welfare were created by Newt Gingrich and the Republican party. Governor Romney attacked President Obama for taking away billions of Medicare dollars from current retirees, he even attacked President Obama for being anti-teachers. His line about Obama wasting $90 billion instead of hiring 2 million teachers was a punch in the gut.
President Obama was completely unprepared for an attack from the center-left and he did not know what to say. We also saw that President Obama is not quick on his feet, he cannot dodge, turn and pivot. He can only lecture. This was obvious to anyone who watched the debate.
It is is also obvious is that Governor Romney has tremendous respect for President Clinton. Listen to his words, watch his manner at the Clinton Global Initiative below. Watch also the applause from the audience as he praised President Clinton.
The unstated subliminal message from Mitt Romney was that he intends to govern from the center like Bill Clinton. The stated message from Barack Obama was that he won’t. That is why Mitt Romney won the debate and Barack Obama lost.
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