The legendary Dan Rather joined NOW w/ Alex Wagner, and he didn’t pull any punches talking about the president’s performance in last night’s debate in Denver. The host of Dan Rather Reports called it “very curious” and “very puzzling.” But he wasn’t alone in his confusion. It seemed to echo, though to a lesser degree in terms of passion, the cries of MSNBC’s Chris Matthews in the immediate aftermath of the debate.
All of the expectation for an Obama victory was not without substantiation. Leading up to Wednesday night’s debate, a Washington Post – ABC News poll showed that among likely voters, 55% thought that the president would win the debates. Only 31% predicted that Mitt Romney would walk away with a win.
But when the challenger took the stage last night, expectations evaporated into inconsequential poll numbers of days past.
Dan Rather described that Obama’s missed opportunities for attack were the most puzzling for him:
“What puzzled me the most is that he had opening, after opening, after opening to dispute what the governor was saying compared to what he said before. He didn’t take any of those openings. I am really puzzled by his performance. He seemed aloof, he seemed he’d rather be in a dentist’s chair than be where he was and that translates to body language and facial expressions. I just can’t say what happened to him.”
Rather gave credit where it was due: it was clear that Governor Romney prepared for this debate and as many are saying today – his efforts paid off. Of course there is a larger question that looms over all of this: Does any of this matter and will it make a difference come November 6th? Contrary to the pre-debate consensus that debates don’t move the needle much, Dan Rather thinks that this time, it might. “I’m not saying Barack Obama is going to lose. But if he loses, we’ll look back on last night as the night when the tide turned.”
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Has any person on the planet besides me been sucker punched by someone you weren't expecting to get sucker punched from? What do you do? The human reaction is to freeze up and what is going through your mind is incredulity of what is happening.
Did any of you pundits see Romney walking away from his own policies, lying non-stop, contradicting himself on several occasions within the same debate? Well if you didn't see that coming, I doubt that anyone on Obama's campaign staff or Obama himself imagined that either.
Does MSNBC just want a horse race and that is why all the MSNBC pundits have thrown Obama under the bus? Advertising dollars mean more than integrity and truth?
Let me ask a question: Who do you think looked Presidential on that stage last night? And the follow up: "Who do you think acted more like a WWF wrestler for a match promo?
Obama looked like a President I would want to represent me to the rest of the world. Romney looked like a manic madman that had had too much coffee and been up for 2 days. That is not what I want to represent me to the world. Maybe you do and we can have a debate about that.
Hey Computer geek, you must have been watching the wrong channel... "Community Organizer Man" looked pissed off... I would be too if I were him. He's only been a part time president anyway. Must have missed practice just like his security briefings. However... I think I know what went wrong... THERE WAS NO TELEPROMPTER!
Oh gee a koolaid drinker who whines about teleprompters which Reagan used constantly to keep himself from saying stupid things like declaring war on Russia. Sorry but that was robme 5.0 last night, he is now a moderate democrat instead of a rabid conservative tea bagged republican. Really who is robme he keeps remaking himself every time he speaks.
Obama just showed his true self last night--now if he was 100% white or the tables were turned, they would have been roasted up and down--well maybe now you are seeing the true Obama. Hes the great manipulator and has really pulled one off on you and a lot of other people. Then this morning he claims Romney was lying. Come on--when is he going to take credit for his lousy leadership, his lousy debate, his lousy record--you name it. All he has to run on is blame--blame Bush, blame Romney for being a liar, etc. When he runs this country into the ground--or takes us to s socialist country--then who are you going to blame--Bush?? Romney??
RJK- Why is it you won't believe that Mitt Romney lied his way through the debate? His own party said he said things that weren't true. The person you want to be President is a liar. He will say anything that benefits him at that moment. Take a look at what he has been saying on the campaign trail and on interviews with Fox News and then look at the debate again. Now he did a complete 360 on the 47%. WOW
Don't believe the rumors, romney is so stiff & phony, I don't believe nothing he says, for he has said it all, so don't flip flop now, thinking he can cont to fool some of us voters, for you have others who don't know any better. How many people has mitt hired since he's been lying in the last 18months, what job do his son's have, does he look at any applications for hire in his firm or whatever, just how many jobs has mitt created, I know of none. he gives jobs only medium wages then cut them down to nothing, he is not fooling the american people for we know if he gets the W.H. no body will have jobs except his family.Mitt we know how u work we don't have amnesia you do.
The old Conservative Pundit Move…Speculation but by George I think I got it….
I think I know why President Obama froze up on the debate….I have seen that before, I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I had seen that look and reaction by Obama before, with very very very smart Democratic guests that you have on MSNBC, Michael Steele used to use this strategy, and Alex Castillanos tried to use it on Rachel Maddow on Meet the Press. They use a hard aggressive voice and just speak over the Democrats. They interrupt before the Democratic guests can get there thought out. They use to do it a lot more, until the Hosts finally stopped them and moderated the discussion, but it took awhile for the MSNBC host to do that.
Democrats seem to innately shy from confrontation, they want to be above that sort of thing. I have seen Ron Christie try it with Ari Melber but Ari Melber pushed back on Martin Bashir. The MSNBC staff has gotten adept at pushing back. But President Obama doesn’t seem to like to do that, because he is still working under the old rules of being polite when interrupted. That is what the Republicans used to count on as guests on MSNBC and CNN. The Democratic Pundits looked the same way President Obama looked in the debate...surprised by the rudeness, but unwilling to shut the “BULLY’ down. Jim Lehrer looked like President Obama, surprised by the rudeness….Jim Lehrer did get Romney to back down from his “let me finish” with his firm “Let’s not”….
He just has to be equally as aggressive and shut the Bully down...."Excuse I am speaking”, they always back down with that phrase, or the "I let you speak now it my turn" in a firm voice....nothing wrong with that!
I’ll just bet ya that’s what happened….just sayin!
I just remember because it used to be aggravating to the viewers, we could never hear the Democrats finish a thought....that has been awhile...for sure