Three-quarters of the way through last night’s presidential debate, I figured the debate was over — and that Mitt Romney was headed for the White House.
I feel a little better about the event this morning; most of the media analysis I’ve read this morning is calling President Obama a clear winner in the debate. But I’m still worried. Yes, Obama did far better than he did in the first debate. And yes, Romney again spent the night telling one lie after another. And yes, he continued to deal in generalities.
But he’s so darned good at it. He sounds so convincing. The fact that his performance in the first debate completely upended the race — eliminating overall Obama’s lead, shrinking Obama’s strong control of the swing states, and making the majority of voters in the latest polls think that Romney’s the more likable — all that makes me worry about the intelligence of voters. If they didn’t see through the lies and the platitudes the first time, why would they now?
Barring some dramatic outside occurrence, I assume after next week’s debate, the race will still be a virtual tie. That, I’m afraid, means that the outcome of this important election will be determined by paid advertising’s effect on sadly malleable voters.
This article appears in Best of Rochester 2012.
LOL. If voters were intelligent, almost nobody would ever have heard of Obama.
Pres. Obama’s campaign is on the ropes, and the only possible reason Ms. Towler can fathom is that voters are stupid. Kudos to her for so forthrightly expressing the elitism that’s at the real heart and soul of the left.
The question of voter stupidity was asked by H.L. Mencken in 1920 and finally answered by the “election ” of George “Dubya” Bush in 2000:
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”