Debate Post Mortem #879716537789786767

Wrote the following to a friend whose brother produces calbuzz.com, and who commented on last night’s debate. Check that out before you read this and it will all make perfect sense.

“Unfortunately, I think your brother is right. The real problem is the whole way these things are conducted and carried out, with no respect either for the public or for the rules. For the public because neither candidate can stand simply to answer a question without trying to tell us how to respond to that answer. For the rules because the time limit is something to be ignored if the one answering the question wants to wander into whatever far country seems to beckon. I am so tired of hearing "talking points" repeated over and over again. I do not know much about the people who "prepare" their candidates for these events, but if I were doing it I'd tell them just to answer the question as simply yet as fully as they can and let it be. Don't they trust us to judge for ourselves whether we like their answer? I'd vote for (almost) anyone would do that.

“All that having been said, I think Romney played the "bully" in this (Maxine says that's too strong a word) and pushed Jim Lehrer into the street the way a kid might attack an old man. That in itself said quite a bit to me about his respect for another person trying to do a job. I wonder if anyone in the media has commented on that.

“Obama has to get himself up for the remaining debates. Or is he simply too tired to give it his best? He has to be a candidate AND a president; Romney just has to be a candidate. There must be times when Barack says to Michelle, "Sometimes I wonder why the Hell I'm putting me and our family through all this for another four years of constant attack and criticism." (And maybe when the date was suggested he should have said, “No that’s our wedding anniversary.”) But then, after he wonders to Michelle and she wonders with him, he has to stand up and deliver. Otherwise he will give it all away. Makes me think of how LeBron played his last games for the Cavs.

“Shoot...I should have put all that on my blog; maybe I will.”

Well, I did.

BTW: If you care  to learn more about how I am voting, go back and read my September 8 post. (Last night’s debate didn’t begin to change my mind.) Interestingly, it is the least read of all my little-read posts, about which I tell folks mostly through Facebook, which says to me that my Facebook friends don’t care how I will vote and may mean pushing politics endlessly on Facebook may be counterproductive and risk friendships. Whew!