President Obama came out unprepared and overconfident, yet strangely subdued, and never recovered. Mitt Romney came out aggressively attacking the Obama record on the economy and never let up. Obama missed numerous opportunities to counter Romney’s statements and forcefully point out the challengers’ misuse of some important statistics and lack of realistic proposals.
The referee, Jim Lehrer, lost control of the game within seconds
after it started. He let Romney evade
questions at will, allowed Obama to ramble on well over time limits, asked
questions most of the audience couldn’t possibly understand, and finally sat
quietly while both men talked over each other. The 78-year-old host of "PBS
NewsHour" doesn’t need better preparation for future debates; he needs an
immediate retirement from moderator duties.
It was a good showing for Romney and a bad outing for Obama
with questionable calls throughout by Lehrer.
