Romney's one-point plan: Helping the rich get richer
Obama turns it around
By Greg Sargent, WashPost
A very different President Obama showed up to tonight’s debate than the one who got trounced by Mitt Romney two weeks ago. Obama absolutely had to turn in a performance that would make his base happy — and he did that, by demonstrating a willingness to get in Mitt Romney’s face and in his space, and by not flinching from calling out Romney’s lies. Will Obama’s performance appeal to independents, swing, and undecided voters?
Yes, it will. The race will not be transformed in a fundamental way — it will still be a dead heat — but Obama accomplished something of a turnaround tonight. He took steps towards undoing the damaging dynamic Romney cemented during the last debate: One in which Romney had assumed the role of the energetic candidate of change, while relegating Obama to the role of listless, passive candidate of the unacceptable status quo — of the “new normal.”
I’d hoped to see Obama aggressively unmask Romney’s five point plan as a sham, as an economic bill of goods. Obama went some way towards doing that with a good line: “Governor Romney doesn’t have a five point plan. He has a one point plan.” That one point: Helping the rich get richer, so wealth trickles down to the rest of us. Obama repeatedly hit the theme that Romney would restore the same policies we’ve seen before. Romney struggled when a voter asked him how his policies are different from those of Bush. I thought Obama could have hit the ball harder at that moment, but he came up with an interesting argument, pointing out all the ways Romney is more extreme on social policy — the Blunt amendment and defunding Planned Parenthood — than Bush was. Obama’s framing of women’s health as an economic issue will surely resonate among the unmarried women he failed to connect with last time.
(More here.)
By Greg Sargent, WashPost
A very different President Obama showed up to tonight’s debate than the one who got trounced by Mitt Romney two weeks ago. Obama absolutely had to turn in a performance that would make his base happy — and he did that, by demonstrating a willingness to get in Mitt Romney’s face and in his space, and by not flinching from calling out Romney’s lies. Will Obama’s performance appeal to independents, swing, and undecided voters?
Yes, it will. The race will not be transformed in a fundamental way — it will still be a dead heat — but Obama accomplished something of a turnaround tonight. He took steps towards undoing the damaging dynamic Romney cemented during the last debate: One in which Romney had assumed the role of the energetic candidate of change, while relegating Obama to the role of listless, passive candidate of the unacceptable status quo — of the “new normal.”
I’d hoped to see Obama aggressively unmask Romney’s five point plan as a sham, as an economic bill of goods. Obama went some way towards doing that with a good line: “Governor Romney doesn’t have a five point plan. He has a one point plan.” That one point: Helping the rich get richer, so wealth trickles down to the rest of us. Obama repeatedly hit the theme that Romney would restore the same policies we’ve seen before. Romney struggled when a voter asked him how his policies are different from those of Bush. I thought Obama could have hit the ball harder at that moment, but he came up with an interesting argument, pointing out all the ways Romney is more extreme on social policy — the Blunt amendment and defunding Planned Parenthood — than Bush was. Obama’s framing of women’s health as an economic issue will surely resonate among the unmarried women he failed to connect with last time.
(More here.)
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