Churchill Not Gandhi: Barack Obama and His Fan Base

"This is a cause I am willing to die for. But there is no cause I am willing to kill for."
                                 --Gandhi

"We will fight them on the beaches. We will fight them in the fields...But we will never surrender."
                                 --Winston Churchill

"Why should I vote for this? It might improve the economy and get Obama re elected. Why should I vote for anything which might get him re elected?"
                                 --Mitch McConnell

"Why is the economy not recovering? What got us into this mess? Government regulation. I am for regulation of the markets. You need regulations for a free market."
                                  --Mitt Romney


One thing about the long process of running for President in this country, it does eventually allow a picture to emerge.  The picture of a docile Obama, a sort of American Gandhi emerged in the debate, and it really was no surprise.

For all his enormous virtues, the capacity to confront his adversaries and do battle, the capacity to use his bully pulpit, is not one of them. He should have been putting Republicans to shame over this Medicare Coupon Care and so many other issues and he has simply failed to do battle. 

He needs to learn how to use imagery and analogy to his benefit. Medicare into Coupon Care is destroying the village to save it, the rotten fish made into the catch of the day, whatever you like, but something which will make the morning news clips.

The next few weeks will show if he can lead troops or simply exchange quips at the Law Review debate.

Romney and Obama Onstage: Stranger Than Fiction

Hendrick Hertzberg, as usual, had the most concise and useful summary of how the debate went down, and how it changed the campaign. He pointed out that Romney portrayed himself as the champion of Wall Street regulation, the savior of Medicare, the friend of the middle class and Hertzberg says, "If Obama's debate performance had been half a strong as Romney's or Romney's half as weak as Obama's the result might have been a complete collapse not just of the Republican campaign but of the whole Republican project: the House , the Senate the state legislatures, the fund-raising--everything."

Intriguingly, it is women who were most dismayed by Mr. Obama's weak kneed performance. The poll that caught my eye was women with no college education showed the greatest shift away from Mr. Obama post debate. Maureen Dowd was apoplectic as was Ann Bernays.

Is it that women like the Bad Boy who will stand up to the bully, and they cannot abide the man who may wilt under fire. Why is this? 

Is it some elemental thing--I need a man who will not collapse, but who I can count on to protect me?  That would be to postulate women look for protection, which is not at all politically correct. I'm just thinking out loud here. 

Maud, where am I going wrong?

Mitt Romney: The Ultimate Frat Boy

"Of course," he told a reporter in New Hampshire. "Even Jimmy Carter would have given that order."

What I really like about Mitt Romney is how he will never concede a point. In that way, he is like any competitor, and I suppose, there is something admirable in that, if you're talking about Ms. Sharapova. But in a human being who is seeking to become the leader of 300 million people, you might want someone who can see the truth and concede when the other side has done or said something which is in the national interest, rather than, like Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republican leadership, oppose anything the Democrats do, whether or not that is in the interest of the nation.

So, when President Obama ordered the SEALS to go forward, you would hope a grown man would have reacted:  "I congratulate President Obama on a courageous decision. He risked a debacle like the lost helicopters in the sandstorm which doomed Jimmy Carter's re-election, and he bet big and won big in getting Osama Bin Laden. The country and the world is better for it. That does not mean, of course, he should be re-elected. Killing Osama Bin Laden does not pay the rent, prevent foreclosure or put bread on the table of middle class Americans."

But, no, Romney is not a big man. He reacted the way the frat boys of my youth reacted when you scored:  "Oh, that was nothing. I could have done that. I could have hit that home run. I could have caught that touchdown pass."

But, you didn't, did you?

Memo To The President #2: Greeting Romney at his Bull Pulpit

Okay, here's the next exercise for the debate: Let's keep Mr. Romney's vulnerabilities out in front of us and keep working those into every question, no matter what the question is about.

1. Mr. Romney believes 47% of the nation are a bunch of leeches, dependent on sucking blood out of the government and the rest of the hard working people. Fact is, 90% of the people get some important money from the federal government: Medicare, Social Security, Pell grants. Are they all leeches?
2. Mr. Romney deposited enough money from his annual income in offshore accounts to reduce his income tax to 13%: There's actually two problems here
         a/ Hiding money offshore
         b/ Paying a lower % of his income than Middle America

3. Mr. Romney claims to have been a successful governor, but when he left Massachusetts, his state was lagging behind in all of the important categories: List those.

4. Mr. Romney wants to kill Obama care/Romney care but it's his own program he's running away from. He found he didn't like Romney care when he became captive to the T Party Radical Right, which is to say the current Republican party.

5. Mr. Romney claimed the only thing we needed to do to grow and recover the economy was to get the government off the back of the people, that is, to sweep away "regulations" but in the last debate he suddenly became a born again apostle of "the right kind of regulations." Precisely what are the "wrong regulations" Mr. Romney would sweep away?

6. Mr. Romney likes everything about Obama care which is popular:  Forbidding pre existing conditions and limits on coverage for people whose illnesses exceed a certain expense. He would keep all the good things about Obama care people like but he'd eliminate the stuff he doesn't like. Two questions: What exactly does he not like? Why do we need to elect him to change the things which Obama care does wrong. Why not just keep Obama and correct the flaws in Obama care?

7. Mr. Romney does not like Dodd Frank, because it made some too big to fail banks even bigger. Why not just change the law to correct this problem? Why elect Mr. Romney to do this?

8. Mr. Romney says Medicare is terminally ill and wants to replace it with Coupon care. Or does he? He would not answer Mr. Lehrer's question about whether or not he was in favor of converting Medicare to vouchers. Is he going to change Medicare to a voucher program?

9. Mr. Romney said if a listener was over 60, he could stop listening, because he wouldn't change Medicare for anyone over 60. Does he think voters over 60 do not care about their children and grandchildren?  Whenever someone tells you we are going to change  a program or a rule, but don't worry it won't affect you--you know he has a guilty conscience about what he is proposing.

10. Mr. Romney said the decision to send in the Seals to kill Osma Bin Laden was an easy one, that he could and would have done the same thing.  That is like saying, "Oh, I could have hit 60 home runs in a season. Anyone could have done that."  Has Mr. Romney ever made a decision that risky or dangerous?

11. Mr. Romney continues to insist all we have to do to get people back to work is to cut taxes: How is this any different from the trickle down pixie dust of the Bush years? It didn't work then and it won't work now. To get people back to work, you have to do things, not just cut taxes.

12. Mr. Romney says I passed Obama care without reaching across the aisle, without getting any Republicans on board, the way he got Democrats on board to pass Romney care. The truth is, he had to get Republicans on board to pass Romney care; it was the Democrats who delivered it. And how does any Republican say, with a straight face,  that I have not been willing to be bipartisan, when it is the leaders of the Republican Party who have said the first and only task that matters is defeating Obama, not the economy, not the welfare and safety of the American people, but the only thing that matters is to defeat President Obama. Have you ever heard the expression, "It takes two to tango?"  Bipartisanship, means you have a willing partner on each side. But Mr. Romney's party has been the party of No, the party of gridlock. I agree with one thing Mr. Romney says:  electing me would lead to gridlock, unless you elect enough Democrats to push aside these Republicannots, these obstructionists, who put party politics ahead of the good of the nation.

Keep those in mind. 
If they ask you about why the sky is blue, bring the answer back to one of these.

Obama's Game Plan for Debate #2: Mad Dog's Imaginary Debate: Romney and the Bull Pulpit

Memo to President Obama:  Here's Mad Dog's first work out session for you. First:  appearances, which is what these debates are all about. Yes, wear the navy blue suit, but put in a flashy tie--come out there looking like an American flag.

Next:  when you stand next to the neighborhood bully, laugh at him, with your brows knitted. Practice that look. Brows down, teeth flashing.

Okay, ready now? Let's try the first question.

Moderator:  Mr. Romney, your income tax returns show you deposited money in offshore accounts and avoided paying taxes to the US Treasury by that maneuver. You say you are for the middle class. How can you reconcile using those offshore accounts to reduce your tax bill to  13%, which is less than the middle class taxpayer pays while  claiming a common cause with the middle class?

Romney: I’m glad you asked that question, because this has been used as a sort of slander, this question of offshore accounts. In fact, that benefits  the middle class and all those workers who got jobs because I was successful. I don’t apologize for being successful. I am grateful to this country for allowing me to take risks and become a winner. And what did I do with that money I did not pay in taxes to the government? I went out and created successful businesses and created jobs. I was and am a job creator. You see, I said to myself, I’d rather keep that money as capital than give it to the government and let some government bureaucrat spend it on some loser company like Solendra. I have always been in the business of creating winners and picking winners. I do that better than any government, like most successful businessmen.  So I don’t apologize for sheltering taxes from the government man, I rejoice in it. I used that money better for my fellow countrymen than if I had, like some sheep led to slaughter, just handed it over and hoped the government would trickle it down.

Moderator:  Mr Obama?

Obama:  I’ve heard of taking a lemon and making lemonade, but this is taking a rotten fish and calling it the catch of the day. Parking money in offshore accounts to avoid paying income tax to your own country may be perfectly legal but that doesn’t make it smell any better, and this reeks to high heaven.  You ask Clyde Barrow how he could justify robbing banks and he would have told  you he could find better uses for that money than the bank or the government, and in fact, he never took a cent from a depositor waiting in line. But this is all just transparent rationalization. It’s saying the government is a bad thing, and you don’t want to contribute to the one thing which connects all of us,  because you think you are so much better than everyone else.  My grandfather, who fought in Patton’s Third Army, used to smile when he’d write out his check to the IRS on April 15^th, and I’d ask him why he was smiling and he’d say, “Because paying income tax hurts. And there’s no patriotic act, that’s truly patriotic that doesn’t hurt a little. I consider paying my share my annual act of patriotism.”  Well, I’m not sure I can sell that to many taxpayers, but I can say that when you are paying 20% or more on your income and you hear someone say he’s doing more for his country by not paying his income tax, you’d better give that the sniff test. And in fact, don't forget, Mr. Romney's private businesses cost as many people their jobs as they ever created new ones, unless you want to count all the jobs Bain shipped overseas. But helping your country more by not paying your fair share of income tax? Plu-ease. That's not just vulture capitalism, that's anarchy. Our whole way of life depends on people paying their fair share to the common good.

Mr. Obama Won the Debate: Read The Transcript

The first televised television debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy was won by Kennedy, if you watched on TV and by Nixon if you listened on radio.

Why? Nixon had a good resonant baritone and Kennedy was better looking.

Style over substance. Does anyone actually think when they react to these debates?

Reading the transcript of the debate I’d say President Obama thumped Romney big time, but watching it, I had the opposite impression.

Romney did something I supposed Mr. Obama was not expecting—he kept adopting many of the President’s own arguments, and trying to say he believed in these things all along—Sure, you need government regulations, sure you need to build our economy from the middle class up, as if these were his ideas all along.

 And Romney, as Republicans always do, had better one liners—so now it’s “tricke down governement”  and “some people say the government shouldn’t pick winners and losers, but the government seems to pick only losers.”

And Romney took head on the attacks on his tax breaks for millionaires by flat out lying, “I will not reduce the share paid by high income individuals—I know you and your running mate keep saying that, and I know it’s a popular thing to say with a lot of people, but it’s not the case.”

But, of course, it is the case.

And Romney suddenly becomes the champion of the middle class. “Middle income people are being crushed. And so the question is how to get them going again, and I’ve described it. It’s energy and trade, the right kind of training programs, balancing our budget and helping small business. Those are the cornerstones of my plan”

So now Mr. Romney is singing the Democratic line and calling it Dixie and the Republican anthem. And who is not in favor of small business and the middle class if not the Republicans?

President Obama did respond forcefully, but he allowed his numbers to get in the way of the simple, big ideas. Ronald Reagan would never have done that, at least not without summarizing them with some catchy punch line Rush Limbaugh and all the nattering right wingers could repeat.

Mr. Obama:  “Governor Romney’s proposal that he has been promoting for 18 months calls for a $5 trillion tax cut on top of $2 trillion of additional spending for our military. And he is saying that he is going to pay for it by closing loopholes and deductions. The problem is that he’s been asked over a hundred times how you would close those deductions and loopholes and he hasn’t been able to identify them.  When you add up all the loophole and deductions that upper income individuals can—are currently taking advantage of—if you take those all away—you don’t come close to paying for $5 trillion in tax cuts and $2 trillion in additional military spending. And that’s why independent studies looking at this said the only way to meet Governor Romney’s pledge of not reducing the deficit—or—or not adding to the deficit is by burdening middle class families.”

So what’s wrong with this? 

Let Mad Dog rephrase, at the risk of Monday morning quarterbacking.

“Governor Romney’s proposal that he has been promoting for 18 months calls for a $5 trillion tax cut on top of $2 trillion of additional spending for our military. Well, that’s just pie in the sky, promise them everything and hope they are too dumb to add up the numbers. He’s going to pay for all this by “closing loopholes” [Finger quotation marks] Oh, wouldn’t we all love to close loopholes. Loopholes is the refuge of the clueless man. There aren’t 5 trillion dollars of loopholes. Wish there were, we’d all have blown those away years ago. The fact is, the loopholes which do exist are only for the rich and Mr. Romney depends too much on billionaires to have the courage to tackle them.  Mr. Romney has become, right in front of your eyes tonight, Mr. and Mrs. America, the champion of the middle class. He is a born again friend of the middle class. After all his intransigence against cutting taxes for millionaires, even when it is the only way to reduce his dreaded deficit. Oh, the deficit is the coming apocalypse, until it threatens his off shore tax havens or the finances of the Koch brothers.  Well, Mr. and Mrs. Middle Class America with friends like Mr. Romney, you need no adversaries.

And whenever you hear that line, 'Well, if you’re over 60 you can stop listening because this plan is not going to affect you. You’re grandfathered in,' you know what’s coming next is really nasty. And this from the man who claims to be worried about your grandchildren.”

That’s the way Mad Dog would coach President Obama,

Now, if Mad Dog could just get him on the phone.

Mr. Obama After Round One

 If Michael Lewis's portrait of Barack Obama tells us anything true, it is that the man is a competitor, but he is cautious and waits for his shot. 

The difference between a debate and a wrestling match, a hockey game, a basketball game, is that in those sports there is a score being kept, but with a debate, it's all perception, and perceptions can change and can be spun.

The New York Times tells us Mr. Obama performed anemically and Mr. Romney was robust. That certainly was the superficial impression I had. I thought the debate would probably read better than it looked and sounded, and it did. Obama scored debater's points but his voice and postures struck me as hang dog.

It is frustrating to watch. For years, I watched a son wrestle with the same sort of frustration. He was under muscled and seemed to spend every match trying not to get pinned and to avoid mistakes. Lacking power, he concentrated on the crisp execution of moves, with some success, some failures.  When he finally bulked up, late in his career, he had all the habits and skills of an athlete who had to win on skill, but now he  combined skill with enough power to make him a formidable opponent.  

That was a process which took years; Mr. Obama does not have years until the next debate.

Michael Lewis describes Mr. Obama playing basketball against  opponents  much more physically powerful than he is: Obama floats  around the periphery, waiting for his shot, and, when he works himself open, he drains the shot. He has a great three point shot, but he doesn't press or drive or try to power past people. Not his strength.

The problem is, Mr. Romney is going to crowd him and not give him the three point shot. Mr. Obama has to change his style, if he is not going to be blown off the floor.