Little-Acorn
Well-Known Member
In the first debate, Romney got a big bump. Polls that had showed him 5 to 10 percent behind, suddenly started showing him even or a little ahead - even the polls that asked far more Democrats than Republicans.
But that bump didn't come from Obama's (admittedly poor) showing. Rather, they came from people finding, to their surprise, that Romney wasn't the cruel, indifferent, uncaring Ebenezer Scrooge the Democrats had spent millions portraying him as. The debate was the first look most people had gotten of the real Romney in the flesh - and he was a surprisingly nice guy, calm, engaged, reasonable, caring.
People had been seeing 4 years of Obama, and had frequently seen him making articulate, intelligent-sounding speeches. His performance in the first debate was surprisingly poor, but people had seem enough of him to know it was not the "real" Obama - he just had a bad day, they probably figured, he doesn't usually look like that.
But they had pretty much had enough of his intolerant, one-party, big-government rule. The only reason they were clinging to him was that, after his $Millions of ads, they didn't think there was a good replacement. But after the first debate, they began to change their minds, after seeing that Romney wasn' tthe fire-breathing dragon they had heard about in Obama's ads. And they started dropping Obama by the millions.
Fast forward to the second debate, which starts in just a few hours now. Even if Obama puts on a better show than last time (as he likely will), again people have seen it before, he won't show them anything new. So that probably won't change people's minds very much.
The big question is, will Romney put on as good a show at the 2nd debate, as he did at the 1st? If he does, people will be even more convinced that he is a good, viable replacement for Obama, and even more people will come over to him... despite anything Obama can do to try to keep them. They've seen Obama before, and his message hasn't changed.
Basically, the election is now Romney's to lose. If he does well, he will continue to pick up supporters, and will run away with the election no matter how hard Obama tries to catch him. If he does poorly (can still happen), people might start regarding him as a flash in the pan, and not a real candidate, and might go back to the devil they know (Obama) instead of the devil they don't (Romney).
This debate will decide the election (unless Romney screws up in the *3rd* debate). And it won't matter what Obama does - he's old news, with nothing new to offer. If Romney continues to look Presidential, as he did in spades in the 1st debate, he's got it locked.
But that bump didn't come from Obama's (admittedly poor) showing. Rather, they came from people finding, to their surprise, that Romney wasn't the cruel, indifferent, uncaring Ebenezer Scrooge the Democrats had spent millions portraying him as. The debate was the first look most people had gotten of the real Romney in the flesh - and he was a surprisingly nice guy, calm, engaged, reasonable, caring.
People had been seeing 4 years of Obama, and had frequently seen him making articulate, intelligent-sounding speeches. His performance in the first debate was surprisingly poor, but people had seem enough of him to know it was not the "real" Obama - he just had a bad day, they probably figured, he doesn't usually look like that.
But they had pretty much had enough of his intolerant, one-party, big-government rule. The only reason they were clinging to him was that, after his $Millions of ads, they didn't think there was a good replacement. But after the first debate, they began to change their minds, after seeing that Romney wasn' tthe fire-breathing dragon they had heard about in Obama's ads. And they started dropping Obama by the millions.
Fast forward to the second debate, which starts in just a few hours now. Even if Obama puts on a better show than last time (as he likely will), again people have seen it before, he won't show them anything new. So that probably won't change people's minds very much.
The big question is, will Romney put on as good a show at the 2nd debate, as he did at the 1st? If he does, people will be even more convinced that he is a good, viable replacement for Obama, and even more people will come over to him... despite anything Obama can do to try to keep them. They've seen Obama before, and his message hasn't changed.
Basically, the election is now Romney's to lose. If he does well, he will continue to pick up supporters, and will run away with the election no matter how hard Obama tries to catch him. If he does poorly (can still happen), people might start regarding him as a flash in the pan, and not a real candidate, and might go back to the devil they know (Obama) instead of the devil they don't (Romney).
This debate will decide the election (unless Romney screws up in the *3rd* debate). And it won't matter what Obama does - he's old news, with nothing new to offer. If Romney continues to look Presidential, as he did in spades in the 1st debate, he's got it locked.
