Debate: De bait
Mitt Romney’s toughest debate
By: Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, Politico.com
October 21, 2012 07:27 PM EDT
Mitt Romney has a clear-eyed and self-aware view of his chances in the final debate Monday, according to top advisers: It will be almost impossible to win, since the debate is focused exclusively on foreign policy, a strength for President Barack Obama.
This view isn’t merely about expectations-setting. Romney’s top advisers authentically worry that the swing voters they need to woo care little about foreign affairs right now. And, even if they did, the differences between the two men on many of the highest-profile issues — ending the Afghan war and the bloodshed in Syria — are too slight to draw sharp distinctions.
Even if Romney does bring his A game, Obama joked last week about his debate strategy for winning the showdown in Florida: “Spoiler alert: We got bin Laden.” It’s not a joke that he said it, or that he uses that conquest to maximum political advantage in debates and speeches to show strength and achievement.
The Romney campaign sees this debate – to be moderated by Bob Schieffer on Monday night in Boca Raton, Fla. — as the last chance to move the needle in any significant way in the swing states that will decide the election. Aides head into it more confident about winning the race than they did before the first presidential debate, but believing Obama is slightly better positioned in the states that will dictate the outcome. The hope inside the campaign is that Romney will emerge in no worse position, advisers said.
(More here.)
By: Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, Politico.com
October 21, 2012 07:27 PM EDT
Mitt Romney has a clear-eyed and self-aware view of his chances in the final debate Monday, according to top advisers: It will be almost impossible to win, since the debate is focused exclusively on foreign policy, a strength for President Barack Obama.
This view isn’t merely about expectations-setting. Romney’s top advisers authentically worry that the swing voters they need to woo care little about foreign affairs right now. And, even if they did, the differences between the two men on many of the highest-profile issues — ending the Afghan war and the bloodshed in Syria — are too slight to draw sharp distinctions.
Even if Romney does bring his A game, Obama joked last week about his debate strategy for winning the showdown in Florida: “Spoiler alert: We got bin Laden.” It’s not a joke that he said it, or that he uses that conquest to maximum political advantage in debates and speeches to show strength and achievement.
The Romney campaign sees this debate – to be moderated by Bob Schieffer on Monday night in Boca Raton, Fla. — as the last chance to move the needle in any significant way in the swing states that will decide the election. Aides head into it more confident about winning the race than they did before the first presidential debate, but believing Obama is slightly better positioned in the states that will dictate the outcome. The hope inside the campaign is that Romney will emerge in no worse position, advisers said.
(More here.)
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