What a fight! Fifteen rounds, no holds barred, in YO face octagon brawl. Wow. I haven't had this much fun since me and the missus went skinny dippin' in the clay pit back in 1978.
As everybody expected, Obama came out swinging and didn't stop punching until it was over. Romney held his own and had a few good roundhouses before the final bell rung.
Obama may have won this debate, but it wasn't the resounding victory he needed to change the dynamic of the swing that Romney has been experiencing since the first one. In order to do that, he needed a knockout, and he didn't get it.
Romney stuck to the plan which is the best plan to have against this administration. Slam Obama's record over the last four years. It's abysmal and even the Democrats know it. That's why Obama spent most of his time defending the last four years and demonizing Romney. Notice I didn't say Romney was slamming Obama...he was slamming the record, laying out where it got us, and what it will take to get us out of the mess we're in.
The governor missed a beautiful opportunity when Libya came up and the question was turned to who knew what when and why. Candy The Usurper Crowley, who had mainly stayed neutral until then, jumped to the president's defense about what he said in the Rose Garden on September 12. Immediately after the debate, she crawfished and admitted she was wrong and that Romney had indeed been correct. Still, Romney could have driven the point home by unleashing a litany of evidence to refute everything Obama said about it. However, the good news is that it opened up a door that will be talked about for days and the White House will have to continue to batten down the hatches and try to weather the upcoming storm.
Once, during the debate, I almost got up and shouted at Obama when he flatly denied cutting drilling permits and hooted that oil production was up during his term. I'm in that industry and I can tell you that his statement was an outright, bald faced lie. Offshore permits for drilling have been cut 62% from when Bush was in office and almost 33% for the onshore permits. How can you have more production with less discovery?
Still, Obama gets points for style, agressiveness, hammering his view of the issues and coming off as a man who is still in this fight to win. He garnered three more minutes of speaking time over Romney, and as the president he's entitled.
The CBS insta-poll after the debate had Romney winning 65% to 34%. Amazing how people see politics differently. Of course, CNN had Obama kicking butt.
They have one more to go and this one will focus on foreign policy. That will give the Benghazi issue more time to sizzle, and you can bet your bottom dollar that both men will be ready. I look for fireworks aplenty in the last one, and then it's a sprint to the finish line.
So, I score Obama the winner by decision; 139 to 137. But boy did he open a can of worms that will come back to bite him in the next one. I can't wait.