Romney Campaign not expecting to win debates.

[LiberalJunkie]

Romney memo seeks to lower debate expectations

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Full memo here: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/27/first-on-cnn-romney-memo-seeks-to-lower-debate-expectations/?hpt=hp_t1

[BlueSwan]

Whatever. For my money Obama is much better at giving speeches than he is at debating.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

There's lowering expectations (which every campaign does before every debate) and just looking pathetic...

[Mehmentum]

Um, so how is Mitt hoping/planning to win? 

[Marokai Backbeat]

There's lowering expectations (which every campaign does before every debate) and just looking pathetic...

Yeah, this isn't "lower expectations." This is "brace for impact."

[Knives]

There's lowering expectations (which every campaign does before every debate) and just looking pathetic...

I think they just started watching West Wing season 7.

[Politico]

Yeah, we're screwed. This was not supposed to leak, but it did. Everybody knows that Romney cannot handle 90 minutes in a debate forum with Obama. Romney will be blabbering by the end of it. It will be like putting a rabid animal out of its misery.

The election is over. Please "forward" this message.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

For once Politico's gag is right - Romney needs a win desperately, so he needs to make sure anything above coherent sentences is considered as such... but the issue is why it's such an obviously clumsy way to go about it.

[Earthling]

They are fooling nobody off course.

Anyone who believes this sh**t is dumb enough to vote for Romney anyway.

[NVGonzalez]

To be fair this is basically just another expectations game. Both campaigns are doing it to either increase an impact on a debate win or just decrease damage if one sucks. In this case I think Romney is trying to decrease that damage.

[ChrisFromNJ]

This gamesmanship of expectations is perhaps the most wretched part of the modern political campaign. We move further and further away from reality and end up with manufactured horse-race nonsense.

[ajb]

This is a slightly awkward moment for the Romney campaign. On the one hand, they need to engage in the traditional pre-debate lowering of expectations, so that they can claim victory after the first debate.
On the other hand, they're also trying to insist that it's not too late to turn the campaign around, and that the debates will be when they begin to do that (just like, previously, it was the convention, or the Ryan nomination, and Romney clinching his own nomination).
The two messages sit awkwardly together, but their hope is clearly that Romney will do well enough in the first debate that they can declare victory, at which point the two messages are reconciled.
The trouble is, that much as the media love to hype the impact of debates beforehand, their single favorite post-debate cliche is "there was no knockout punch here." That, and "a tie goes to the guy who's ahead."
The bar, in other words, is actually very high now for Romney. Doing slightly better than Obama, or landing a few punches, won't be nearly enough.

[Likely Voter]

One other problem for the Romney campaign is that they have been explaining away Romney's light road schedule partly with his debate prep, since even before the RNC. So he will have two months of solid practice and yet he is the worst debater in all time?

[Averroës Nix]

Expect a decline in teleprompter jokes in the conservative mediasphere through the pre-debate expectations-lowering phase:

[Joe Biden is your president. Deal with it.]

Yeah, we're screwed. This was not supposed to leak, but it did. Everybody knows that Romney cannot handle 90 minutes in a debate forum with Obama. Romney will be blabbering like Obamaphone Girl by the end of it. It will be like putting a rabid animal out of its misery.

The election is over. Please "forward" this message.

Politico...are you feeling ok?

[Lief 🗽]

Expect a decline in teleprompter jokes in the conservative mediasphere through the pre-debate expectations-lowering phase:

Wow. Great find.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

This is an usual lowering expectations. Move on.

[ajb]

Michelle Cottle on how the Romney campaign has blown the debate expectations game.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/28/the-debate-expectations-game.html

[Stranger in a strange land]

Whatever. For my money Obama is much better at giving speeches than he is at debating.

Obama is an inconsistent debater. His performances in the 2008 primary against Hillary were lackluster, and were a big part of the reason why he wasn't able to seal the deal until the very end. His performance against McCain in the 1st debate was much better, and he also did well in the other two.

[Earthling]

Whatever. For my money Obama is much better at giving speeches than he is at debating.

Obama is an inconsistent debater. His performances in the 2008 primary against Hillary were lackluster, and were a big part of the reason why he wasn't able to seal the deal until the very end. His performance against McCain in the 1st debate was much better, and he also did well in the other two.

Much like Romney this time. Both are not really big debaters.
And that is way it will be tied at the end. A few punches on every side, some nice statements, but nothing big enough. Neither Obama nor Romney will be able to deliver the K.O.-punch.

And so, the race will not change.

[King]

Bless them for thinking this will work.

The funny part is that Obama probably won't even mention Romney by name much less attack him.  Biden is going to be the one sent in rabid against Paul Ryan.

[yourelection]

For me this also seems like the usual playing-it-down tactic used to lower expectations and make it easier for a candidate to claim victory in a debate even if it is a break even tie.

The way it was "leaked" to the press and the wording seem a little strange to me, but I still think it is unlikely that this was really leaked.

On the other hand, just not blundering in the debate is too little for Romney at the moment. He needs to pull off a noticeable victory to swing things around.

Well we'll soon see what happens...

[Phony Moderate]

Reminds me of Leo McGarry.

[Badger]

Yeah, we're screwed. This was not supposed to leak, but it did. Everybody knows that Romney cannot handle 90 minutes in a debate forum with Obama. Romney will be blabbering like Obamaphone Girl by the end of it. It will be like putting a rabid animal out of its misery.

The election is over. Please "forward" this message.

Politico...are you feeling ok?

No, this is Politico's attempt at lowering expectations, just like that ham-handed memo.