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Townhall…
Trading
Places
by Linda Chavez
Oct 05, 2012
Who
was that stiff, out-of-touch
guy onstage in Denver at this week's presidential debate? He looked a
lot like
Barack Obama -- but how could that be?
It
was as if the candidates swapped
bodies before they went out onstage. The president became the Mitt
Romney
caricature the Obama campaign has created through millions of dollars
of
advertising: an elitist who has no idea what the middle class is going
through.
And Mitt Romney became the great communicator who understands the
suffering and
anxiety of ordinary Americans and knows how to relieve it.
There
is no question that Mitt
Romney won the debate on points -- his answers were crisp and coherent,
while
Obama's were slow, rambling and too much in the policy weeds to
resonate with
most listeners. But the bigger problem for Obama was his manner. He
couldn't
look Romney in the eye, spent more time looking down than he did trying
to
connect with the audience and looked annoyed at having to answer
questions.
Obama
reminded many of President
George H. W. Bush when Bush looked at his watch during a town hall
debate in
1992. Unfair or not, observers at the time thought President Bush
looked like
he didn't want to be there and thought he had better things to do than
answer
questions for the electorate. Some people thought that was the moment
when
President Bush lost his re-election bid -- and Wednesday's debate could
be the
moment when Obama lost his.
The
media were stunned by Obama's
performance. But anyone who watched his debates with Hillary Clinton in
2008
should know that Obama is not quick on his feet. The difference between
2008
and today is that Obama is no longer the new, fresh face that people
thought
might actually change politics and bring Americans together. He's spent
much of
the last four years -- and all of his campaign dollars -- trying to
divide the
country and demonize his opponents. He came across as mean and angry
during the
debate, while Romney came across as caring and passionate.
Certainly
the substance of the
candidates' positions on issues was an important factor in the debate
as well.
Obama reiterated his core belief that government is the engine that
drives
America and can create jobs and take care of people.
Read
the rest of the article at Townhall
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