{"id":962,"date":"2012-09-10T18:34:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-10T18:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/2012\/09\/10\/debates-make-or-break-maybe"},"modified":"2012-09-10T18:34:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-10T18:34:00","slug":"debates-make-or-break-maybe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=962","title":{"rendered":"Debates: make or break, maybe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

I normally don\u2019t pay much attention to presidential debates \u2013 or joint appearances, given that they\u2019re not really debates as I understand the term.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s encounters may be different. The supposed closeness of the race between President Obama and Mitt Romney suggests the joint appearances could be decisive.<\/p>\n

I track the RealClearPolitics poll averages daily. I see that the race is tight \u2013 if you believe the averages. I think it\u2019s pretty close, but I sense that it\u2019s not as close as the RCP average suggests.<\/p>\n

The reputable polls \u2013 such as Pew, CNN and Gallup \u2013 all seem to show Obama opening up a lead of 4 to 6 points. He\u2019s getting very close to the magic number of 50 percent in many of these surveys. Some of the more right-wing partisan polls, Rasmussen in particular, pull the gap closer.<\/p>\n

What, then, will the debates reveal? They\u2019ll show us which candidate is sharper on his feet. They\u2019ll produce some sound bites, some of which might live forever: \u201cPoland isn\u2019t under Soviet domination,\u201d \u201c There you go again,\u201d \u201cAre you better off now than when you were four years ago?\u201d and, my favorite (from the 1988 VP debate), \u201cJack Kennedy was a friend of mine \u2026 senator, you\u2019re no Jack Kennedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I\u2019ve watched Romney and Obama trudge their way through this campaign so far, it\u2019s clear \u2013 to me at least \u2013 that the president is the more intellectually nimble of the two.<\/p>\n

But debate prep could be key. New York Times is reporting that Obama is a bit behind in his preparation, while Romney is ahead of schedule. And that leads to the potential of being \u201ctoo prepared,\u201d a la President Reagan in 1984, who stumbled badly in his first encounter with Walter Mondale.<\/p>\n

Ah, but the Gipper was ready in Round Two, when he was asked, based on his earlier performance, whether he was too old to be president. \u201cI will not make age an issue in this campaign. I will not exploit for political purposes my opponent\u2019s youth and inexperience,\u201d Reagan said. (Come to think of it, maybe that<\/strong><\/em> was my favorite political debate moment.)<\/p>\n

This upcoming series of joint appearances could be just as much as fun as any we\u2019ve seen in the Television Age. As for the veep debate, don\u2019t rule out Vice President Joe Biden making the sound bite hall of fame list, for better or worse.<\/p>\n

Looking forward to watching it.<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I normally don\u2019t pay much attention to presidential debates \u2013 or joint appearances, given that they\u2019re not really debates as I understand the term. This year\u2019s encounters may be different. The supposed closeness of the race between President Obama and Mitt Romney suggests the joint appearances could be decisive. I track the RealClearPolitics poll averages … Continue reading Debates: make or break, maybe<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}