I recall being doubly flabbergasted watching my Facebook News Feed during the debate. The first flabbergasting item was the pitiful nature of the president’s performance in the first debate with Mitt Romney. Obama got pimp-slapped – told he does not understand business (which he doesn’t) and compared to a child who tells his parent the same tall tale over and over, in hopes it will be eventually believed. Obama showed no spark, seemed disinterested, and said nothing different from 4 years ago about what he wanted for the country. It was not pretty; even those who do not support the president found it painful to watch.
However, the second flabbergasting item, even more than the first, was how many black people could not quite get the idea that Obama was actually losing the debate while it was ongoing, and did not believe he had lost once the bloodletting ended. The expectation had clearly been that Obama, being the better orator, would more than hold his own against an opponent he had consistently described as a tax cheat, a felon, a murderer, and uncaring, sometimes with Gov Romney’s help.
Despite Romney’s negatives, both real and manufactured, Romney dominated Obama in the October 3rd presidential debate in Denver. A CNN post-debate poll had 67% of those watching declaring Romney the winner, with only 25% believing Obama won the debate.
That result is extraordinary, given that at least one poll said voters, by a nearly 2 to 1 margin expected Obama to prevail in all the debates. However, even more extraordinary is the level of black surprise at Obama’s debate showing, despite the many signs pointing to what did occur.
What signs?
Begin with these remarks in the days leading up to the debate:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv-FWP-40Vs[/youtube]
While it seemed the president was self-deprecating to keep expectations reasonable, how closely did his assessment before the debate, match each man’s performance during the debates?
Then there is the aversion this president has to difficult discussions. Obama walked out of tense debt ceiling talks last summer. He walked away from his promise to craft comprehensive reform during his first year in office, though his party held strong majorities in both house of Congress. He walked away from a potential budget agreement with House Speaker Boehner (each blames the other). He walked away the Simpson-Bowles recommendations, even though he put together the commission that made them.
Obama avoids the press. He avoids world leaders. He avoids political rivals. It is hard to recall many times that the president engaged in any defense of his views in any more hostile environment than the View:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFowtgmGa6g[/youtube]
Obama acquitted himself well against a daytime talk show host. However, there was also the Univision interview…. that did not go quite as well:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHCZQUWlcTA[/youtube]
The Univision interview also included this gem:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlkD4pN3G4o[/youtube]
Had Obama countered Romney as strongly as he did Elisabeth Hasselbeck, there might have been a different result in Denver. However, however, had that line about being unable to change Washington from the inside come up in Denver, then the election might have ended that night.
Barack Hussein Obama does not do well without a script, or a teleprompter, a fact not lost on his supporters in Wisconsin. It is his preference to speak unchallenged and uninterrupted, something that warms the hearts of blacks and liberals. However, that is something unknown to presidential politics.
It is a willingness to endure constant intellectual challenge, to stand in against verbal and ideological opposition that helps great leaders transform their ideas from pretty speeches to working ideas that benefit a country. It is also the thing that ensures that a leader’s ideas evolve with the challenges that he, and his country, faces. Unfortunately, this president has avoided those challenges. Consequently, what President Obama says today is not different from what candidate Obama said four years ago.
That Barack Obama struggles when challenged is well-known to all but his most die-hard supporters – the majority of black people. But our apparent love of his speaking style, and admiration for his historic election have blinded us to two, now obvious truths: 1) Barack Obama needs a script to sound or be good; and 2) he is out of ideas for improving the affairs of this country.
This is how a majority of black people seemed to think the first debate night go:
Unfortunately, the 90-minute ordeal looked more like this:
Obama supporters say Romney was rude and would not let Obama speak. But the truth is the president spoke for three more minutes than his challenger. Former Vice President Al Gore blamed altitude sickness. There are no words that can do justice to the MSNBC reaction to the debate.
Nevertheless, what happened on October 3rd was a long time coming. It should not have surprised anyone, but it shocked many liberals and progressives, and most blacks. We never saw it coming, many of us still either do not believe or will not accept that it occurred.
However, if we want to make sure that our views our respected by whoever wins next month, then black people need to step away from personalities, step up to the issues, and figure out who represents our interests and values before the next Obama-Romney debate, because the worst time to figure out that you’ve backed the wrong horse is win the race is over.
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