I am beginning to become scared that Romney/Ryan will win. Can smart people please post here and say reassuring things to convince me that he won't?

Netanyahu-loving ones.

He's got Bush's buddy, Bob Schieffer moderating that last debate.

As moderator, Schieffer will be responsible for formulating the debate questions and following up after the candidates respond. However, Schieffer has described in the past his "golfing friendship" with President George W. Bush "during the 1990s"

http://mediamatters.org/research/2004/10/12/schieffers-statements-raise-questions-about-obj/132062

kind of hoping Romney bursts into tears flames america the beautiful the dance of joy as a pas de deux with rafalca at the debate.

My own hope is that Romney suddenly goes Gangnam Style in the middle of the first debate. (Even though I didn't know what that meant until SNL.)

I watched the clips again this morning and, wow, what a difference in confidence, diction, and tone. So this is what speaking to your base does.

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, September 18, 2012 3:23 PM (2 hours ago)

totally, it's quite striking

also the identification of 'the 47%' with obama voters when LOADS of those people are republicans

I can totally see Romney as the sort who signs up months in advance to sing "The Star Spangled Banner" at baseball's opening day, spends all those weeks practicing, and still flubs the words.

I'm wondering what sort of verbal wilding (Romney)'s going to engage in when face to face with his opponent.

Romney's debate prep team will stuff him like a thanksgiving turkey, but instead of delicious savory goodies, he'll be stuffed full of canned responses to stock questions. This approach works well enough about 98% of the time. Where it gets interesting is when a candidate becomes confused about which canned answer fits the current question, gets a frozen look for about three seconds and then starts to wing it, like Rick Perry.

However, I suspect that Romney won't put his foot into the shit in any obvious way. He'll have pat answers to all the most embarassing questions he's likely to be asked. It mostly comes down to whether or not someone gets really creative in forming the questions and gets him off-script.

I'd just like it if the candidates each had to read aloud the Constitution. Romney's brain would fry in the first sentence when he got to "promote the general welfare".

is Obama considered a good debater? It was hard to tell with that grimacing, snickering somnambulist creeping around last time.

He was less on his game in the primaries, but he held up pretty well against McCain.

http://0.tqn.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/D/O/2/mctongue-pic.jpg

That's my point! Whatever he held with McCain it wasn't a debate.

Obama has a strong tendency to get professorial, which he needs to resist.

i remember him seemingly progressively sleepier through each of the last debates - like veering into a more solemn mode, looking downwards, &c. i figure he'll be okay at enumerating his triumphs & all, though, i don't think debates are actually like to be all that snappy or high-risk in this context.

it doesn't matter if he's a "good" debater or not, it's all about his opponent, who is a hideous boob.

Well, yeah, none of these are debates. You could put two staffers behind podiums who have iPads loaded with sound clips and they just play the appropriate one at the appropriate time for how much debating actually goes.

However, I do actually like watching these things, and am curious how much of a public event they'll be around here. For the last two cycles at least, people filled bars & theaters to watch and yell at the screen.

I may or may not have been yelling at the screen whilst typing on here with everybody whilst it happened.

kind of hoping Romney bursts into tears flames america the beautiful the dance of joy as a pas de deux with rafalca heaven, kissing the cotton clouds at the debate.

I'm curious though, almost everything that Romney's being doing recently seems like it should get Obama angry. Isn't there a portion of Obama's appeal that isn't compatible with him being "My esteemed opponent, who I believe has good in his heart.." about someone who's been blatantly lying and poor-baiting? Even more so if Charles Pierce is right and the Romney campaign is going to go straight evil over the next seven weeks.

My sense atm is that Romney won't go straight evil until after he sees the overnight polling after the first 'debate'. It isn't his preferred style. Rove would have been all Tyson-biting-Spinks'-ear-off by three days after the R convention, when he saw the numbers.

he can go straight evil in his ads, but i don't see him pulling off anything beyond petulant in a debate

Holyfield

xpost

correction accepted

Tyson bit off Holyfield's ear, fwiw.

lol too late

There are some ads, not approved by Romney of course, poised to Swiftboat Osama vs. Obama (although described as starting with headline OSAMA DEAD, followed by an added question mark, which may be going "a bit far,some commentators agree")(predicted subhed)

Net ads, mostly.

romney is clearly not unflappable in public and I'm wondering what sort of verbal wilding he's going to engage in when face to face with his opponent.

― vincent black shadow giallo (Edward III), Tuesday, September 18, 2012 11:46 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

ya curious to see what a desperate mitt dawg will do in the debates

i can't really imagine it getting any wilder than him reverting to his faux-laugh/fixed grin/intense stare, tbh, he more often speaks irrelevantly than he does incoherently

http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/content/2012/0117-mitt-romney-sc-debate/11470148-1-eng-US/0117-mitt-romney-SC-debate_full_600.jpg

http://i45.tinypic.com/2pywabn.jpg

I don't expect any major gaffes on either side in the debate. Most likely they'll be kind of boring.

I said way back in primary season that the GOP should pick Perry, that they were shying away from him because he was too much of a wild card, but he was the wild card with a 20% chance of winning whereas Romney has always been the guy with virtually 0% chance of winning.

feel like mitts gonna go on the offensive

when romneys attack, season premiere 10/12 9pm all the channels

rick perry is not a wild card, hes a goober

not ready 4 prime time, never gonna be

Dubya was a goober too!

the common line I heard about Rick Perry before he ran in the primary was that ppl in Texas said he made GWB look like Einstein

although tbf Perry is kind of a poor man's Dubya, which is, really, man how bad can it get

xp lol

its true bush was a goober, but he had waay more on the ball than perry

Just shows how sad the GOP field was, because Mitt has never truly been "ready for prime time" either, but they went with him because at least he resembles a cardboard cutout of a standard republican presidential candidate

Yeah, I think he won't freak, he'll turn on the locked society smile and break the switch off

Rick Perry did not have ivy league credentials and thus was not in the same league with Dubya, who was a full member of Skull n' Bones.

W too they really groomed him for a long time and he had the A team behind him everything was well planned and thought out

Thing I'm most curious about is vp debate. No idea how this one will play out, much like we didn't know how the last one would, only this seems way different weirdness than last time's

rick just kinda jumped in there like hay whats up *shoots finger guns*

VP debate is going to be totally tepid unless Ryan challenges Biden to a pushup contest or something (btw anyone following the recent Ryan 6-8% bodyfat lie hilariousness? He's great!)

ha yes at 6% body fat yr body starts to consume itself in a desperate bid to stay alive

i woulda thought the vp debate is gonna be the republicans' best bet?, like given that the appeal of ryan is like STRAIGHT TALKIN NO SPENDIN ATTITUDE he just has to appear to chastise biden on account of spending &c. biden can be all "now hold on a second, jackrabbit", though, so who knows how it ends up, i guess w/biden winning vice-presidential reelection as the grandparent we love to hate.

http://taxfoundation.org:81/sites/taxfoundation.org/files/UserFiles/Image/Fiscal%20Facts/20100524-229-nonpayers-mapM.jpg

Perry is merely the product of a base that has learned nothing and will double down on demonstrably wrong-headedness every chance they get. This is representative of the rump of the existing Republican Party and it is telling that Romney can slag off non-payers of tax when the bastions of his numbers are basically the top ten States in not paying income tax.