On Last Night

Mitt Romney basically took President Obama and swept the floor with him in last night's debate.  Mitt seemed confident, but not overly so, and exuded a technocratic competence on policy, which was supposedly Obama's strong suit.  Romney also displayed a sense of humor, which helped "humanize" him a little more (I hate that word but Romney did need to show the public more of who he is as a person, not the cardboard cut-out that he and his team thought Americans needed to see).  He also destroyed the caricature that the Obama campaign has been peddling the last few months:  that Romney is a evil rich guy hell bent on throwing grandma off the cliff and amending the Constitution to outlaw contraception.  The voter who just tuned in last night and got their first look at Romney will wonder why what the Obama campaign has said about Romney is so far off base.

President Obama seemed tired, dull, and uninterested.  Al Gore said that Obama was affected by the thin Denver air more than anything.  There was even a point when Obama told the moderator Jim Lehrer to move on to the next question (it came off as Obama searching for anything that would get him out of the hole he had dug in the debate thus far).  Maybe it's the effect of being in an echo chamber for the last four years or the effect of the MSM being soft on Obama during his presidency, but whatever it was, Obama was simply overwhelmed.

A little disappointing was the virtual absence -- other than Romney's vague faux 10th Amendment argument about how Romneycare is constitutional -- of the Constitution.  Romney could have brought up Obamacare and taught the public that the still unpopular law can be overturned and that the Supreme Court is not the final arbiter of the Constitution:  the people are.  I will give Romney credit for talking about the principles of the Declaration of Independence though.  This was a good first step towards educating Americans about their country.

Overall, it was a strong first debate for Romney.  I don't think Obama will be this bad again so Romney will have to continue to be at least around what he was last night in order for it to show up significantly in the polls (remember, in 2004 it was widely thought on both sides that John Kerry won against George W. Bush in the first debate).  Romney certainly needs to be ready for a better Obama the next time around. The worst thing that can happen now is either Romney or Ryan be overconfident.