In fact Obama pummeled him so much that halfway through last night’s debate I thought moderator Bob Schieffer would invoke the mercy rule…. But I can think of nothing more pathetic and hypocritical than Romney – who attacked Obama during their first debate like an Alaskan redneck pounding a baby seal – whining all night about Obama attacking him.
Actually, if you watched their first debate (as it seems everybody did), all you have to know is that Obama did to Romney last night what Romney did to Obama in their first debate. The difference, however, is that Obama got pummeled in their first debate – not because he was unable to counterpunch, but because he did not think Romney was worth the effort. By contrast, Romney got pummeled last night simply because he was unable to counterpunch.
Alas, it is hoping for too much for Obama to get the same bounce in the polls after this debate that Romney got after the first one.
To be fair, though, I’m sure Romney went into this final debate thinking that the lesson of the first two debates is that the American people (particularly women) are so stupid they’ll buy any version of himself he sells – even if that version is a clone of Obama himself. Only this explains why he cynically and haplessly agreed with everything Obama said. Never mind that this parroting rendered completely phony and hypocritical all of his criticisms about Obama’s foreign policy being weak and incompetent in every respect.
To paraphrase the New York Times, on every question, Romney looked like a contestant at a beauty pageant grappling to answer that final question. Yet Republican pundits and spinmeisters would have you believe that Romney won because all he had to do was show up and “do no harm” (i.e., look presidential, not like a warmonger). But when did talking about having a spine but demonstrating that you don’t, not to mention blithely disavowing solemn pledges made just weeks ago, become the way to look presidential…?
This, I suppose, is what is meant by putting lipstick on a pig (and Romney was sweating like one, giving him that dreaded Nixonian glow). Except that, for far too many Americans, Romney really did do all he needed to, which was to look like a female version of Sarah Palin. But his Republican make-up artists are as delusional as Romney is mercurial if they believe this will be enough to get him into the White House.
Go vote! (And the earlier, the better!)