David Axelrod, senior adviser to the Obama campaign, was on the defense the morning after the first presidential debate in which most pundits seem to agree that Mitt Romney turned in a better performance than President Obama.
“He delivered his lines well,” Axelrod said of Romney before charging the Republican candidate with lying.
“The problem isn’t with his performance. The problem is with his underlying theories and some fundamental dishonesty that we saw last night,” Axelrod said on Morning Joe Thursday. "I give him an F for being honest with the American people."
Axelrod, a longtime adviser to the president, said the Obama re-election campaign would “continue to prosecute this case,” over the next 30 days before the election, but also called on the media to fact check some of Romney’s comments last night, particularly on his tax, education, and health care plans (some of which is already happening.)
“You guys have an obligation as well to check some of these allegations,” he said. “Everyone was very dazzled by the fact that Mitt Romney came in with some well-rehearsed lines, but now we have to sit back and say, 'What exactly is it that he said and was it true?'”
Asked by host Joe Scarborough why the president didn’t make that case if that’s what he believed, Axelrod tried to take the high road.
“I understand there was a hunger for us to attack Romney more personally than the president did last night,” he allowed. “The president was talking to the American people…treating the American people like adults.”
Axelrod said the president would “review” his performance and “if he wants to make some changes in the next debate he will do so.”
There are more debates to come, he argued.
Leave a Comment:
The time for Romney to be called out on his lies was last night when 40 million people were watching it happen live. Obama was too tentative. Perhaps he was just stunned by how easily Romney changed his story.
I do believe that at some point Obama needs to understand that the middle class wants to believe that SOMEone is fighting for them. He doesn't have to be beligerent or angry, but show some passion. He played not to lose, but he needs to play to win.
Two things need to happen inside the President's campaign:
The President's gloves need to come off and STAY off.
David Axelrod needs to leave. LONG OVERDUE...
thank god for people who see the truth and know the truth.
Willard was rude, dishonest and typically chameleon. Our President was sensible, adult and really tired.
I think it's time for the media to do their job and start pointing out one lie after another that Romney told. My hope is that President Obama's campaign will use the videos of before the debate and then contrast that with what Romney said at the debate. Two totally different things!
Mitt sure had nothing else to do but practice. At the same time, I think Obama underestimated him and was taken off guard. Mitt had some pretty blatant lies and this election is still about Medicare and taxes and the economy. Mitt loves "Big Bird" but he is going to let him fend for himself, just like he is going to do to the Middle Class and Medicare recipients. Anyone out there who has tried to get private insurance coverage knows how expensive it is and sometimes impossible to find if you have pre-existing conditions which covers almost all seniors. Medicare will tank under Romney because he will let it tank.
Bottom line is "If you want to go back to "W" days, Mitt is your man". OBAMA 2012!!!!
we live in a country now where the honest man dnt get heard and the man with the blatin lies won the debate...smdh
Those things happen. Germans are decent people but they were overwhelmed by one lying, cheating, evil man. He WON! Mao Tse Tung WON! The Chinese are peace loving people but Mao brought them vicious, unrelenting WAR! The forces of darkness have won again and on again in our world and it's not because Satan rules, it's because we are ignorant. We are backwards as a planet. Let's WAKE THE @!$%# UP, as Sam Jackson says in his ad for President Obama.
+1000, rgm. Willard lied his disgusting ass off, and people think that was "commanding."
All across the progressive spectrum? Funny, I didn't hear one black person named, not one woman. Not to mention semitic people and hispanics. Gays? Were Michael Moore, Chris Matthews and whomever else that was all across the progressive spectrum?
When a debate moderator allows someone to consistently lie during a debate and be blatantly misleading, you are either completely oblivious to facts, or you are complicit. It appeared to me that Jim Lehrer was bought and paid for by Romney, but either way, Lehrer's credibility as a journalist crashed and burned last night.
The next two debate monitors are women. I hope they are kick-ass and don't let Mutt get away with anything!
@Dave Koch, It was obvious that Jim Lehrer was "partial" to Mitt he allowed him to take control, alter the Debate format and gave Mitt more time to "speak" than the President. Lehrer didn't challenge Mitt when he threatened to take his job at PBS and that alone speaks volumes to me. Obama 2012!
Koleman -- You said that they "gave Mitt more time to "speak" than the President". According to CNN's clock, Obama had 4 more minutes than Romney had.
My advice to the President would be to challenge Mitt Romney in the next debate. We understand that he's the President, but he needs to loosen up and counteract Mitt on his "untruths.", and continue to state the facts. Obama 2012!
Kick Obama in the Ass as well as Biden and bring back the mojo you guys won with! Last night was pitiful. Maybe he needs some therapy...whatever, just do it. Go O 2012!!!
@Edith Hall, I second that notion! Obama 2012!
Two things need to happen inside the President's campaign:
1. The gloves need to come off and stay off.
2. Axelrod need to GO.. NOW!
Hi everyone, All I can say about last night was mitt showed his true colors. I'm glad it happened like it did. I think President Obama let him do his thing so the american people could see the real mitt. President Obama will come back the next two debates. Mitt did a good job in exposing himself. He has to be #1 in everything he does and that will destroy himself. President Obama will come back. I have faith in him. Jill
I was disappointed in some of the comments from Matthews & Schultz last night on MSNBC, as a student who debated it was always about substance. What I gathered is that the news people believe that Americans cannot discerne when they are being handed a whole lot of BS and when they are being lied to, or what will the effects of certain policies have on their lives.
I laughed through some of Romney's presentation, if what is he proposing is truly what he is going to do to Americans we are in trouble and need to be afraid. Hey news people beside your sillyness, Americans outside of the republican party got Romney.
Helathcare - put the country back to the place where profit driven businesses decide who deserves coverage when sick, since profits are more important than human life. We get it Mr. Romney, profit means everthing to you and damn the people.
Romney proved that he was an adept debater -which is about all he proved.
Unfortunately, you couldn't believe a word he said!
In my own humble opinion the American people are not fools. You cannot win with a lie or in the case of Governor Rommney, that is plural. Over the years I have seen that "what's in the darkness will come out in the light". With Governor Rommney he showed us and told us what we wanted to see and hear or did he? In my years of living I have found that when you try to dig somebody's grave you need to dig one for them and one for you. President Obama may have acted, looked, and spoke in a defeated manner to the public eye but I have learned to look beyond that. What I saw was a President did that not dig a grave for Rommney so he could fall in it. I see that President Obama was being dumb like a fox. You see Ben Laden thought the same thing and he's now buried at sea. In my humble opinion this next debate is going to be the real clincher because surely all of America is not blind enough to think that what Rommney has showed that he thinks of them has truly went from this 180 of what he really think of the 47% to the 360 of what he wants you to think he thinks. So be careful about the Okie doke, if Governor Rommney is elected, my gut instinct tells me that America will get exactly what the "Tea Party" has set up for them, two classes of people, "Rich and Poor". The Middle Class will be sleeping with the fishes.
You need to learn how to spell our next president's name. It's "Romney", with one "m".
The President can't treat the American people like adults. Most of the voting public don't know anything about the election. They ignore it until the end. And the President can't treat Romney like an adult. Romney is just like a greedy, power-hungry child, the neighborhood bully who wants everything for himself, including the Presidency and the White House.
It ain't about winning debates! It's about winning 270 electoral college votes in 5 weeks! RNC can thump their chest, pump their fists, high five and take a victory lap, but it won't mean a thing if Mitt does not have 270 electoral votes on the evening of November 6. Lot's can happen in 5 weeks, but when it is all said and done, the American people will have the last say! To Be Continued!
It ain't about winning debates! It's about winning 270 electoral college votes in 5 weeks! RNC can thump their chest, pump their fists, high five and take a victory lap, but it won't mean a thing if Mitt does not have 270 electoral votes on the evening of November 6. Lot's can happen in 5 weeks, but when it is all said and done, the American people will have the last say! To Be Continued!
I was also very disappointed by Pres. Obama's debate last night. I felt like he was taking pointers from the GOP, when they repeat the same line over and over.
Give us specific info. I am sure there is enough out there to prove his point, and to leave Romney speechless.
I am just hoping that Pres. Obama was leaving the door open for Romney to trip on his own lies on his way out the door. Let Romney say a whole bunch of stuff that sounds good, and then let him try to remember this information the next time he is asked. A flip-flopper cannot possible remember his lies every time the same way.
I am looking forward to a better debate next time, where Pres. Obama will let Romney have it with tack and dignity.
In this debate, I saw a president who was fully cognizant of the possibility that there are so many undecided voters who fear the color of his skin. This mostly unconscious fear, perpetuated primarily by the media in indirect ways prior to this president's term, is on a hair trigger that responds to aggressiveness. Considering how receptive some people have been to the completely false notion that Michelle Obama could be some kind of "angry black woman," I think the president's calm, non-threatening responses in the debate make for good strategy. I think that the Romney camp is trying quite purposefully to lure Obama into some kind of fight so that Romney can play the guardian of white America that so many irrationally fearful people secretly crave. The president is above it. Good for him.
Romney has been "weathervaning" all along, and the debate just magnified it. In the debate, Romney took on a predictable moderate stance to try to gather in some independents, but we all know that if he were to get in, he'd be beholden to Tea Partiers and the multi-millionaire funders. You could say he was disingenuous last night. He "etch-a-sketched" enough that anyone who is following the political scene at all can surely see that you can't trust what Romney says. Obama has told us the same things forever, and they are his core values. We can trust Obama to stand for what he really means. Obama says what he means and means what he says more than any other President I've seen in my 70 years.
You're all wet. Romney doesn't need to bow to the Tea Party to get their votes--who else are they going to vote for? And he doesn't need the multi-millionaires--he's got a quarter billion dollars of his own money. What Romney will keep the US from doing is continuing Obama's steady march toward socialism and economic destruction.
If I was Obama, this is the speech I would give....
Dear all,
To hell with you! When I was elected in 2008 I came in with a naive vision of making every one's life better, and fixing an economy that was heading into the toilet. This was mainly due to my predecessor's policies of irresponsible de-regulation, and two unfunded wars, one of which was a war of choice that everyone was fooled into supporting.
I was doing my best to help an auto industry that was headed into oblivion, as well as trying to stem health insurance costs that were driving senior citizens to choose between heating their homes, or buying medicine, and for families with members who were denied coverage due to a pre-existing condition.
It is being said that I can't go on blaming Bush anymore for these problems, and that after four years I own this economy. That would be absolutely true, except that every one conveniently forgets that only a year after I came into office in 2009, you went to the polls in 2010 and voted in a bunch of clowns, who's only purpose in life was to obstruct any progress that was being made at any cost, even if it meant driving the country back into recession. So you see I didn't really have four years to work on this.
And everyone forgets that as a result of our efforts, the auto industry is thriving and hiring again, senior citizens can afford better health coverage, families can insure members with complicated health issues.
As for foreign policy, my approach of global consensus to problems in the middle east and Asia are derided as apologist, and cowardly, but look at the failure of the attitude of unilateral action. We have, and are still spending billions of dollars on the Iraq conflict, and after thousands of US servicemen and women's death and disability all we get there is a government that tells us not so politely, not to let the door hit us in the ass on the way out.
So remember that now although we are engaged in current conflicts in the middle east, the newer approach means no US service men and women are being needlessly harmed.
But now, almost half the country is again looking to vote in the same people that were responsible for the problems that the country was facing when I took office.
So, if you are voting Republican because you hate the color of my skin, or because you believe the rumors that I am a Muslim, or because of any of the multitude other false attacks that are being leveled at me, just remember the following...
If you are a senior citizen who is going to be paying more for your medication, or having to choose between paying for medicine, or home heating, or food. Or a family denied health insurance due to an existing condition, or if you are a woman who can't get cancer preventive screenings, or co-paid contraception, all I have to to say to you is.....
REMEMBER WHO YOU VOTED FOR!!
I think what President Obama did is genius. He did what he always does with Republicans, he lets the Conservative monkeys have enough rope to hang themselves with. Romney told debate lie after lie after LIE, and now it's up to average Americans to help Obama/Biden call him on it… spoact.blogspot.com
CAN I GET A WITNESS?
A poor woman came up to Mitt with a baby in her arms and asked: "Can you help us Mitt Romney?" … Yes said Mitt (he handed her a brochure from the Mormon church. Beautiful Ann gave them a hug while watching the cameras)
Let's not forget Mitt lied through the entire debate,and it doesn't take anything away from President Obama because what he has done for the Country he has done, just because Mitt came out with his christianity lying about what he was going to do flip flopping on what he's said does'nt make any sense to me what about you!