{"id":30622,"date":"2012-10-16T21:37:01","date_gmt":"2012-10-17T03:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/16\/debate-3-an-unbiased-judgment.html"},"modified":"2012-10-17T07:55:01","modified_gmt":"2012-10-17T13:55:01","slug":"debate-3-an-unbiased-judgment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/16\/debate-3-an-unbiased-judgment.html","title":{"rendered":"Debate 3 – An Unbiased Judgment"},"content":{"rendered":"

MWAH-HA-HA … of course it's biased. I confess it freely.<\/p>\n

Obama actually bothered to show up this time. \u00a0I don't know if in Debate 1 he was trying to be dispassionate and presidential, or was suffering from jet lag, or was fighting off the flu, or what, but he was disengaged and (nigh on) pathetic.<\/p>\n

This night, he was out there swinging — hitting Romney on his record, hitting him on what he'd said during the primaries vs what he's saying now, calling out at least some of the lies. \u00a0He wasn't flawless — he bobbled the narrative facts on the Benghazi attacks (even while he did a hell of a play on the emotional part of things), and sometimes he stumbled over himself trying to get to his talking points, and I'm not sure how hard he wants to push the "I'm a big believer in oil and coal" schtick — but he was definitely in the game.<\/p>\n

Romney didn't lie down and get steamrollered, by any means, but the turn-around on Obama's part seemed to catch him off-guard. \u00a0He got more and more anxious in hitting his "5 points" and repeating the same attacks, and his shoulders kept tensing up further and further (trust me, I know), and his expressions while not being the question answerer \u00a0varied between smarmy and dyspeptic.<\/p>\n

Obama managed to talk for longer (by a few minutes) on the overall timer, but it sure felt like Romney was the one interrupting and trying to get the last word in and rushing the ref. \u00a0Candy Crowley got pushed around some, but she didn't just cave to Romney's "I want to respond before we can move on" tactics, either.<\/p>\n

Net-net (and I confess my Democratic bias here), I think Obama won on points. \u00a0It wasn't a TKO, certainly, and some might call it a tie, but I think he hit Romney harder than he was hit in return, and at the very least he demonstrated that he could work effectively in the debate format. \u00a0After his poor showing in Denver he had to do just that, and I strongly suspect (to the extent that I trust, let alone can predict, polls) that any remaining Romney surge from Debate 1 will be stopped, and perhaps even rolled back some.<\/p>\n

Which leaves things far too close for anyone's comfort, frankly, but that's overall not a surprise.<\/p>\n

We watched CNN this evening (vs. CSPAN last time), largely because I wanted the split screen. \u00a0It was fine, during the debate, but the pre-debate nattering was vapid beyond all understanding (there was first a gaggle of female\u00a0correspondents going on at length<\/i> about how both wives were wearing, gasp, pink<\/i> … and the a gaggle of male correspondents going on at length<\/i> about the best debate tactics to use, as if).<\/p>\n

I thought Crowley did a decent job of moderating. \u00a0She still let both candidates get too many words in edgewise, but short of cutting off their mics (not a bad idea) she did what she could.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My faith in the electoral system and the power of reasoned rhetoric is by no means restored, but I am, a bit, glad I watched.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Google+:<\/strong> View post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MWAH-HA-HA … of course it's biased. I confess it freely. Obama actually bothered to show up this time. \u00a0I don't know if in Debate 1 he was trying to be dispassionate and presidential, or was suffering from jet lag, or was fighting off the flu, or what, but he was disengaged and (nigh on) pathetic. … Continue reading “Debate 3 – An Unbiased Judgment”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,99],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-elections-2012"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":131844,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/20\/fact-checking-the-last-clinton-trump-debate.html","url_meta":{"origin":30622,"position":0},"title":"Fact-Checking the Last Clinton-Trump Debate","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 20-Oct-16 8:26am","format":false,"excerpt":"Given Trump's bombastic style, it's little wonder that his aggressive assertions and broad generalizations came under more fire from fact-checkers than Clinton's. What's also interesting here is that none of the lists are the same; the number of checkable assertions was so high that editors are picking and choosing which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/reposting5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12785,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/26\/debate_notes.html","url_meta":{"origin":30622,"position":1},"title":"Debate notes","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 26-Sep-08 8:46pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Obama went in with the sense that his oratorical style and his foreign policy chops made him an underdog. While I don't think he scored any knock-outs against McCain, I...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131644,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/09\/26\/the-first-clinton-trump-debate-my-thoughts.html","url_meta":{"origin":30622,"position":2},"title":"The first Clinton-Trump Debate – my thoughts","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 26-Sep-16 9:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Clinton was sometimes over-careful about her language, and sometimes was a bit too explicit in pulling out her particular talking point and prepped zingers. She was on the defense multiple times on her political record (something Trump doesn't have to defend). On the other hand, she clearly enjoyed leaping on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/clinton5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/clinton5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/clinton5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":32039,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/03\/because-if-they-arent-hitting-each-other-with-sticks-the-terrorists-win.html","url_meta":{"origin":30622,"position":3},"title":"Because if they aren't hitting each other with sticks THE TERRORISTS WIN!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 3-Jan-13 3:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Because if they aren't hitting each other with sticks THE TERRORISTS WIN!Also, clearly yoga is un-American, un-Christian, and uncomfortable for fat white guys with toupees (like so many Fox analysts) to do.Reshared post from +Media Matters for AmericaQuestions Fox News asks: Are children participating in yoga leading to the \"wussification\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26771,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/29\/expecting-to-see-this-hitting-the-campaign-headlines-any-day-now.html","url_meta":{"origin":30622,"position":4},"title":"Expecting to see this hitting the campaign headlines any day now","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 29-Feb-12 8:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Far-fetched? This year? Not so much. #ddtbGoogle+: Reshared 1 times","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18960,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/19\/hitting-new-highs-or-lows-in-right-wing-apocalyptic-zaniness.html","url_meta":{"origin":30622,"position":5},"title":"Hitting new highs (or lows) in Right-wing Apocalyptic Zaniness","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 19-Oct-10 11:00am","format":false,"excerpt":"I can understand the anti-abortion sentiment backing Colorado Amendment 62, the \"Personhood\" amendment (more info here). I disagree with it, and I think the nature of the amendment itself is highly flawed, but I can understand how thoughtful people, considering fetuses to be fully vested human beings, would attempt to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2010"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2010","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2010"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30622\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}