The debate was America’s first glimpse of Romney the brilliant overachiever
No matter what a person feels about him politically, it’s undeniable that Romney has some impressive accomplishments. He simultaneously earned businesses and law degrees from Harvard; rose to the top at the highly competitive Bain & Co.; founded the offshoot Bain Capital, earning tremendous returns for himself and his investors; and he turned around the Olympics in Salt Lake City that had been plagued by debt and corruption.
Though there were flashes of it during the primary season, last night Americans got there first glimpse of this side of Romney. His debate performance was no accident — it was the result of his ability to process data and absorb information, combined with countless hours of hard work put into debate preparation. Those qualities, no doubt, are what made him a dynamic businessman.
Blowback
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And those qualities are deeply lacking in SCOAMF.
Bitter Clinger on October 5, 2012 at 11:07 AM
It was his first opportunity to really speak to the nation. During the primaries, the average voter didn’t watch.
70 MILLION Americans saw Romney crush Obama on Wednesday.
Washington Nearsider on October 5, 2012 at 11:08 AM
I guess this means President Romney won’t be spending all his time on David Letterman and the View.
The Rogue Tomato on October 5, 2012 at 11:10 AM
The debate was the first Romney appearance that wasn’t completely circumscribed, filtered, or completely blacked-out by the media.
de rigueur on October 5, 2012 at 11:10 AM
The debate was the first time that low-information voters got to see that Bush wasn’t running again.
Left Coast Right Mind on October 5, 2012 at 11:13 AM
Just as it was the left’s first glimpse of their hero and savior as an underachiever, fraud, and outright blathering fool.
UltimateBob on October 5, 2012 at 11:14 AM
I enjoyed the debate immensely.
Romney took BO on in the same manner that any CEO would when they had to fire an employee who somehow ended up in the wrong company, in the wrong position and with too much responsibility.
It was fantastic.
What Romney said was, “You’re fired”.
It happens everyday in the real world. Eastwood told voters that it was OK to fire incompetence, and Romney demonstrated in detail why we must vote this idiot out of office.
Cody1991 on October 5, 2012 at 11:17 AM
Or Sarah Palin.
UltimateBob on October 5, 2012 at 11:17 AM
The debate was America’s first glimpse of Romney the
brilliant overacheiverunrelenting marxist crusher, enjoying the weeping sobs of both Obama women.SailorMark on October 5, 2012 at 11:20 AM
Dubya was not exactly the world’s greatest debater but Barky’s performance was simply inept. 70 million people watched him stumble and fall badly.
If he wasn’t a commie out to
fundamentally transformdestroy America I’d feel sorry for him.CorporatePiggy on October 5, 2012 at 11:21 AM
Oh, and Obama’s lazy.
SailorMark on October 5, 2012 at 11:22 AM
One for Kunta Kinte / Libfreeandlie
Blacks for Romney
NSFW
CorporatePiggy on October 5, 2012 at 11:26 AM
Somebody should get credit for freshening up Romney, who for once did not wallow in cliches and seemed almost to forget he was a politician, let alone running for President. Somebody must have told Mitt to imagine he was just pitching ideas at a board meeting. In other words, it was not by “brilliantly overachieving” but by staying within himself that Romney won the debate.
Seth Halpern on October 5, 2012 at 11:27 AM
Nice observations, that I hope someone on his team picks up…..
SailorMark on October 5, 2012 at 11:33 AM
You’re absolutely right. He did what he does best. Sometimes I think it’s good that there are high expectations of him since he seems to want to meet those expectations. I can only hope he puts in two solid more performances during the next debates as he will need to convince America that the economy isn’t moving fast enough, especially of people keep boosting the 7.8% unemployment BS.
mrscullen on October 5, 2012 at 11:42 AM
@Sailor Mark: Thanks. Ryan v. Biden should reinforce the impression left by Romney, btw.
Seth Halpern on October 5, 2012 at 11:42 AM
The Leftists’ stunned reaction is purely the result of believing their own BS completely circumscribed, filtered, or completely blacked-out by the media repackaging treatment of Romney.
It was hours before they could get their spin-machines fired-up.. and feed the fresh talking points into TOTUS.
/.
CaveatEmpty on October 5, 2012 at 11:49 AM
If you are brilliant can you be an overachiever too ? What America saw this week was what happens when the CEO returns to work to find the mail room clerk has his feet up on his desk .
Obysmals entire term has been a bad Jerry Lewis movie .
DeweyWins on October 5, 2012 at 11:53 AM
This debate format turned out to be the best possible for Romney and the worst possible for Obama. Obama is at his best in front of big adoring crowds and with a Teleprompter to give him his canned appaluse lines. Romney is actually bad at the big rally speeches. He is much better in a smaller room and ina format where he can display his prodigous ability to process and recall information and data.
Romney did treat this like a Board of Directors presentation, but even more importantly, he spoke directly to Obama like he was a CEO dressing down an underperforming senior executive. A CEO doing that has to come armed with objective facts and figures, not be snarky or emotional, and must lay out with precision how the executive failed to deliver the results that he reasonably expected. America has never really seen anyone do that, and it was startling. Obama for sure was unprepared for it.
rockmom on October 5, 2012 at 12:01 PM
I agree with the assessment of Romney, but disagree with your assessment of Obama.
Yes, Obama was unprepared. He always is when it comes to unscripted affairs. How many times has Obama screwed up when he’s not reading other people’s words fed to him on a teleprompter. Obama’s true calling is in reading for audiobooks. Thinking and speaking on his feet? He’s an idiot.
As a threshold matter, Obama doesn’t have a deep command of any issues. He just knows talking points. Obama’s supporters can yak all they want warning that he’ll be prepared next time. Prepared for what? He’s been living these issue for the past four years, and he doesn’t know sh*t. And one reason he doesn’t know the nuts and bolts of his important legislative legacy is that he’s had no hand in any of it other than to make talking-points speeches about them and to sign them. Obama is going to get creamed in a townhall forum (remember “punished with a baby” and “above my paygrade” and his idiocy at the Blair House conference and too many press conferences where he has no script?).
Sure, Romney is likely to get a gotcha question or two. But I think he’s good enough to spin away from those things. And a nice thing about Romney is that he won’t be reading his press clippings between now and the next debate.
I can’t wait for the Ryan-Biden debate, and I can’t wait for the next Romney-Obama debate, because Romney and Ryan are going to leave no doubt who should have the WH keys.
BuckeyeSam on October 5, 2012 at 12:38 PM
LOL – like his DAD had nothing to do with that! LMFAO!!
Romney was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and his Dad could afford to send him to the best schools and network his son into the riches he earned.
Being a member of the Mormon Church didn’t hurt either.
I’ve got nothing against that but – let’s not look ridiculous for claiming that he did anything but keep his nose clean and find optimum ways to cash in on the Rol-O-Dex that dear old daddy gave him.
HondaV65 on October 5, 2012 at 1:15 PM
If Romney is an “overachiever” . . . I guess my designation should be “stupid doofus”.
And MBA and law degree simultaneously . . . that is overachievement?? Give me a break!
Voter from WA State on October 5, 2012 at 2:03 PM
And the money he inherited from his father was given to charity . . . 100%, Maybe Obama could have done the same if his father had truly been a father.
Voter from WA State on October 5, 2012 at 2:04 PM
Close. What he actually said was: my beloved countrymen, here are the 750 reasons why you should fire the current president and hire me. And he said it with a well-informed, calm, friendly and forceful voice.
Basilsbest on October 5, 2012 at 2:05 PM