Obama’s Rope A Dope On Romney

President Obama must have taken his debate strategy from Muhammad Ali’s 1974 fight against George Foreman in Africa. Ali leaned against the ropes in the early rounds and allowed Fore to used his entire arsenal before coming back to knock Foreman out. Obama laid against the ropes during the first debate and Romney unloaded the kitchen sink. The second debate feature a different President Obama and he pummeled Romney.

I would have been almost impossible for President Obama to be as bad as he was during the first debate without trying. With Vice President Joe Biden taking the undercard fight against Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan the week before, Obama took on Romney and connected with shot after shot. Romney exposed his entire flip-flop and deny debate fight plan during the first debate. Every time Romney tried to slip away from a previous position President Obama would nail him with the facts of his prior position compared to his stated current position.

 

Romney was staggered several times during the debate. Romney may have coined a new phrase during this debate with his description of a “binder of women” when referring to his efforts to find women to work in his administration when he was Governor of Massachusetts. Romney took a George Foreman like haymaker swing at President Obama with his comments that the President did not call the attack on the American Consulate in Libya a terrorist attack when he made his statement the next day in the rose garden. Romney thought he had connected, but the referee told him he only hit a glove as the transcript showed that the President did label it a terrorist attack the first time.

The final punch may have been the best as the debate ended. As the final round was coming to a close President Obama hit Romney with a reminder to the nation about Mitt Romney’s comments about 47% of the country see themselves as victims. Romney bounced back against the ropes and was dazed. Romney wanted to take an swing, but bell rang and this round was over. The only thing President Obama didn’t do was drop the microphone on the floor and walk away in triumph.

Mitt Romney – The Sham Wow Candidate!

There are several definitions of the word sham. Two definitions are:

· A trick that deludes

· An imitation or counterfeit claiming to be real

During the first Presidential debate Mitt Romney Romney instantly changed and denied so many prior positions that he became the first sham wow Presidential candidate. The sham was perpetrated on the American public and he thinks he got away with it.

Is it enough to be willing to change your positions to suit every particular audience if that seems to play the best for that moment in time? Has the concept of voting for someone because of their core beliefs lost it meaning? If Mitt Romney becomes President while constantly shifting positions in full view of the public it will mark the beginning of a brave new frontier in election politics.

A Romney win will usher in the age of situational position policies that most will consider unlikely to be the way the candidate would govern if elected to office. Consider Romney’s tactics during the primary season when he considered himself a severe conservative in order to defeat his opponents. Romney saw an opportunity to use the leverage of a 60 million plus viewing audience to break the hold the conservative elements of Republican voters had on him. After the debate Romney went back and forth on issues like abortion from saying he would not seek legislation to restrict abortion to stating he is proudly pro-life within a 24-hour time span.

If Romney becomes President by using a shifting sands strategy he will throw the world of American politics into an era of say anything, do anything to win where substance and facts matter much less than presentation. A world where facts don’t matter would be a frightening place to live.