Final Presidential Debate - Game Over?!

WAS IT GOOD ENOUGH TO ENSURE OBAMA"S RE-ELECTION????

  
The most significant event from this week was definitely the third and final presidential debate held in Florida. Obama came with more confidence and coherency on foreign policy than his  challenger and quickly won the upper hand. Over the last four years, as the incumbent he had been receiving new information and gaining the necessary experience. He looked smoother, undisturbed, and more focused on major points, while Romney focused on finding clear differences with Obama’s approaches, hammering him on both foreign and domestic policies.
Compared to what we have seen in the previous debates, this one was circular and quite boring to say the least. It shouldn't have even been called a debate, as Romney spent the majority of 90 minutes agreeing with Obama's policies! That would explain why immediate reaction polls and analysts alike agreed that Obama emerged victorious, with the average of the polls (CBS News, CNN and Google polls) weighing in a 16 point advantage in the President’s favor.      

Perhaps the most bizarre was the fact that Romney agreed with Obama on Bin Laden points, on Iran sanctions and on the status of forces in Iraq. Romney has the same attitude as Obama?! We can all now safely say that Romney now apparently agrees with the Obama administration's foreign policies!

Foreign and security policy is always easier for presidents, given their everyday dealings on the global front. Romney has been doing his own investigations and getting his own reports, however it clearly was not the same. Instead, Romney sounded like he was trying to remember his study notes! As we have seen every time Romney had a chance to talk about economy and education, he did it well an unrehearsed. It seems he feels more comfortable when he is tackling economy and education issues, than foreign policy.

The Libya topic was Romney’s great surprise and his missed opportunity! He was supposed to hammer Obama about the mistakes made in the attack on Benghazi on September, 11, 2012, but instead he talked about better education, gender equality, and missed the opportunity to establish that the Obama administration is not only useless, but also making the USA susceptible to terrorist attacks and endangering the lives of the American people.  

Even though Obama had a solid win at this debate, the polls do not show any major improvement to the Democrat campaign, as there has been little change this week. Perhaps because, the average voter is not as concerned with foreign policy as domestic ones. However, since “winning makes you a winner”, even the slightest edge is beneficial to each campaign.

To conclude, Romney's biggest rival was not the president, it was his own words. Obama did a brilliant job of bringing up past Romney statements – on Iraq, on Afghanistan, on Osama bin Laden – he made him look unprepared for the presidency. 

The only thing that we can do now is to wait for the final voting results and hope that it will just be the beginning of a brighter future and that soon it will be “morning in America, again”. May the best man win!

Presidential Debate - Round 2 - Obama strikes back!!!

The most important event from the past week was definitely the second presidential debate in New York. The presidential candidates were challenged to directly answer questions from the audience. Some of the questions were clearly answered, but others not so much. After the debate, the media was full of comments on winners and losers and they all agreed that Obama won the debate. This time we had an opportunity to see a more aggressive performance from Obama.

During the debate, we recorded different kind of faces, pointing of fingers, interruption of candidates, but that created the atmosphere of movement. The candidates were really fighting to convince the audience that they are the best choice for America in this moment. This time President Obama showed that he can clearly answer the provocations of his rival Governor Romney without being overly aggressive and arrogant. That was the thing he was criticized about after the previous debate. He was calm and ready to point out all the issues that Mitt Romney presented in the wrong way. His tactic was not to attack aggressively, but just finding facts and figures to support his agenda. On the other side, Governor Romney was more concerned to present Obama as the person who did not meet the expectations of his voters and somebody who should not be re-elected in these elections. Furthermore, he was using the phrases that could have a huge impact on the targeting groups of voters to encourage them to give him a vote; this was totally obvious in the closing statement he gave where he was using religion as the main wheel for his purpose.

These days, the candidates were making jokes about their campaigns and the issues that came up. One of the newest one is that Obama said that he had enough energy in the second debate because he felt “really rested after the nice long nap during the first debate!” Well, dear President we advise you to stay awake in the next few weeks, if you want to win the 2012 elections!

Vice Presidential Debate

After last week’s presidential debate all the media unanimously concluded: Romney’s

appearance was surprisingly good and strong showing and that if the democrats want to keep their ticket up and running they need to change their strategy and they need to change it fast.

The vice presidential debate was anticipated and announced like a political version of

Survival. Who will win the heart of the American society and who will be voted off from

the “island”?

Hours before the vice presidential debate countdown, spotlights were on both of the vice

presidential candidates. Everyone wondering if Ryan will manage to build on the momentum which was created by Mitt Romney or will Biden manage to compensate for Barack Obama’s passive performance?

The media placed the highest amount of pressure upon the Biden’s back. Democrats needed

to win this fight badly. Biden had to be assertive without being nasty and make the case

where they were, where they are now and where they are going.

Ryan on the other hand had the better platform but still needs to defend and justify Mitt

Romney’s flip-flopping about on abortion issues and his use of little less-than-factual data.

The Debate started and as time passed the only sound that could be heard, was the sound of

the Republican advantage flushing down the drain. Biden managed to show the spark that

Barack Obama lacked last week. He was highly critical, assertive, often smiling to show his

disbelief in what Ryan way saying and showed that if the Republicans want to fight, he will

give them a fight.

The Media is now divided as to whether Biden’s behavior was a bit too much or whether he

provided that passion which Obama did not bring in the last debate for which he was highly

criticized.

Hence, the real question is, when you are getting hit by a bully, should you be blamed for

hitting him back?

Presidential debate Denver 2012

Last night in Denver at the first presidential debate, the main topics for the 90-minutes interface were taxes, health care, and the role of government regards to the economy - just as we all expected.     However, no one predicted the overall outcome - Romney the better contender! Romney was fiery and aggressive as he plowed over his competition. Confident and assertive may have been Romney’s body language, but was it enough to turn around the swing states?  Perhaps the real credit should be given to President Obama for keeping his usual professorial, calm and respectful demeanour as Romney proceeded to avoid any kind of straightforward response to the questions being thrown at him. He adamantly states that he is going to cut taxes, but where? He is going to close the loopholes, but which ones? He is going to make America strong again, but how? Obama kept asking for answers and explanations, but like a true politician, Romney was tight-lipped and gave nothing away, except that lovely “PBS” admission - which he’ll probably feel the backlash from when the Democrats strike back! If that weren’t frustrating enough for the President, Romney’s sudden revisionist approach to his initial campaign, would make even  Mother Teresa scream, “Who’re you kidding, middle class concerns, since when!”. 

Obama had all the weapons he needed to destroy Romney, but we all watched in shocked amazement as Romney threw punch after punch at Obama economics, his tax plans and the amusing favorite of the night “Obama care”. The President spent almost the entire session on the defensive, never throwing a jab of his own at what we viewers believed were obvious givens. For instance, Romney kept boasting that his state of Massachusetts was the best in everything all because of his leadership. He was even brazen enough to blame Obama for the current situation in the country, specifically for the unemployment rate which stands at 8.1% and the growing debt deficit. Obama could have swooped in there – the door was wide open – to shine the spotlight on the fact that Romney’s state was in fact ranking in 47^th place in job creation!   So who exactly should America actually listen to when it comes to job creation! Furthermore, with Romney’s new stance on the importance of the middle class, where does the 47% of Americans that he insulted by basically referring to them as freeloaders, where do they fit? 

Romney didn’t come away completely unscathed as Obama did issue a few memorable comebacks such as when he quipped that Romney politics is equal to the politics of George W. Bush of 2001 which caused the biggest crisis since the ‘’Great Depression’’.

Conclusively, we can all agree, Romney may have won this round, but cliché as it may be to say, the battle has just begun. Perhaps Obama will bring his fighting spirit at the next one and then we can really call it a Presidential debate.