Since No President Has Ever Done This Badly In A Debate, We Have No Idea What It Will Do To Race

Posted by: Hugh Hewitt
at 10:44 PM on 10.3.12

The Battle of Agincourt

A historic defeat for a sitting president. Never has a POTUS been this badly whupped in a debate. It is that simple.

It wasn't just that Obama was so bad, but that Romney was so good. Conservatives see a candidate they did not know they had, and independents see a candidate who could turn the country around. No way to predict what this will do to campaign over a week.

Take aways: trickle down government, "you pick losers," and Solyndra and other green energy expenditures of 90 billion could have been 2 million teachers.

Throwing in the towel: Michael Moore, Andrew Sullivan, David Gregory, Ed Schultz.

Sports analogy: POTUS was the '54 Cleveland Indians --winningest team ever, and lost the Series in four games.

Caution to Team Romney and salve to the left: Mondale beat Reagan in the first debate in '04 (though not nearly as badly as Romney beat Obama tonight.)

Analogy? Agincourt?

On asking Lileks for an analogy, he noted that "Romney-Obama" will now serve as shorthand for a debate pummeling.

UPDATE: Don't believe me. Believe Andrew Sullivan:

10.31 pm. Look: you know how much I love the guy, and you know how much of a high information viewer I am, and I can see the logic of some of Obama's meandering, weak, professorial arguments. But this was a disaster for the president for the key people he needs to reach, and his effete, wonkish lectures may have jolted a lot of independents into giving Romney a second look.

Obama looked tired, even bored; he kept looking down; he had no crisp statements of passion or argument; he wasn't there. He was entirely defensive, which may have been the strategy. But it was the wrong strategy. At the wrong moment.

The person with authority on that stage was Romney - offered it by one of the lamest moderators ever, and seized with relish. This was Romney the salesman. And my gut tells me he sold a few voters on a change tonight. It's beyond depressing. But it's true.