Romney's Magical Debates

     The Romney team has been talking up the debates since the end of the RNC convention. Right away, we were told that Ryan would be out in public more as Romney began preparation for debates in well over a month at the time.

     We've continued to hear about the debates and how this is Romney's last, best chance, to finally introduce himself to the American people.

     There are all kinds of problems with this strategy. For one thing the convention was supposed to do this. Where is the history of debates deciding elections? It always seemed that too much was being put on them anyway.

     Romney also cast himself as the person who over-crams for an exam. He comes in having announced to the world that he's studied for 50 straight hours.

     This has enabled the President to be the person who only studied for about 5 hours. Just the other day the Obama team was pointing out that he hasn't had as much time to prepare as he would have liked-seeing that the demands of running the country never stop.

     So the Romney team has hopelessly raised the bar when ideally you want to manage expectations. It means Romney has to simply set the world on fire in the debates. This from a guy who can't even set the world on fire in his stump speeches. They've had to send Ryan with him to generate more excitement.

    In any case, is it really plausible that Romney will entirely decimate the President in the debates? He doesn't strike me as such a great debater-recall his $10,000 bet with Rick Perry.

    I doubt it. However, look at a case when there really was decimation: Kerry's beating up Bush in the first debate in 2004. Still, in the end, it wasn't enough.

    It seems now, finally, the Romney team wants to lower expectations, and also admit that the debates aren't likely to be game changers:

    "In a memo sent to surrogates today, Romney senior adviser Beth Myers sets the expectations for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney low - very low - compared to the "ample rhetorical gifts" of his opponent. The memo says President Obama has a "significant advantage" heading into the first debate."

    "President Obama is a uniquely gifted speaker, and is widely regarded as one of the most talented political communicators in modern history," Myers writes, calling Obama a "universally acclaimed public speaker."

    "Myers' memo is the latest in pre-debate jockeying by both campaigns to set their candidate's expectations low, while raising expectations for their opponent."

   "Since he won't - and can't - talk about his record, he'll talk about Mitt Romney. We fully expect a 90-minute attack ad aimed at tearing down his opponent."

    "Myers concludes that the election will not be decided by the debates."

     http://news.yahoo.com/romney-camp-downplays-debate-expectations-012331687--abc-news-politics.html

     I like that line about the President not being able to talk about his message. Considering that Romney has just again touted passing ObamaCare in Massachusetts and getting everyone insurance, it shouldn't be so hard. Why should the President have a hard time touting his record if his opponent doesn't?    

     Another problem is that with early voting, many are already casting their ballot before they even get to see the debates. Obama voters in the swing states are far more likely to vote early than Romney supporters.

     http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/polls-more-than-half-of-obama-supporters-in