Can Obama recover?

[Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God]

Is the OP the same idiot who keeps suggesting Andrew Cuomo as the next Senate majority leader?

Yes.  Ignore him.

[Antonio the Sixth]

What's up with all the unenthusiastic Obama suppoters?  I thought you were all behind his back, you guys have more confidence than this.

Contrary to Romney supporters, most of us aren't inane wishful thinkers.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Seriously, the over-reaction is just mind-boggling... Obama was off, yes, but it's not like Obama called Romney 'white devil'...

[Politico]

What's up with all the unenthusiastic Obama suppoters?  I thought you were all behind his back, you guys have more confidence than this.

Nobody wants four more years of the last two years, and now they can no longer even cling to the myth that Romney is a walking monster who constantly inserts his foot in his mouth. Heck, they can't even cling to the myth that Obama is a modern day Cicero.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Obama received the butt-kicking not that he deserved, but the one that he needed.

[opebo]

What's up with all the unenthusiastic Obama suppoters?  I thought you were all behind his back, you guys have more confidence than this.

Contrary to Romney supporters, most of us aren't inane wishful thinkers.

They have every reason to be optimistic even during low-polling, and we have every reason to be pessimistic despite positive polling - their candidate is a white, ours is a black.  Never underestimate the racism of the American electorate.

[Silent Hunter]

I think he can and will. There were no decisive zingers or gaffes on either side.

[RedPrometheus]

Obama received the butt-kicking not that he deserved, but the one that he needed.

I agree. I'm still optimistic but Democrats need to concentrate more on winning. I'd the impressions that the election win was perhaps taken a bit as granted.

[Hash]

Oh, great. Just at the time when I was starting to stop worrying about the race and start feeling genuinely optimistic, turns out Romney somehow "won" the debate. My brain says he can't gain more than 2-3 points out of these and most realistically will gain 1-2, but my guts feel bad.

Antonio's Single Rule of Elections: Always expect the worse from voters.

Similar to Hashemite's (Single?) Rule of Elections: voters are morons.

[Zanas]

Well to complete the trilogy, Zanas' not only rule of elections : Always expect a right-wing victory until the very last moment.

You cannot afford to break that rule if you're left-wing and a bit sentimental...

[pbrower2a]

We know Obama has a hard ceiling at 48 or 49, but events like this threaten to weaken his floor.  The bottom could fall out with this type of loss.  The Tie will go to Romney because the economy is so bad.  Romney is acceptable and competent and Obama isn't going to be able to hide that reality anymore.  GAME CHANGER!

This.

Obama is in a world of trouble, as I predicted. He failed to show that Romney is the risky monster all of his ads and surrogates have been claiming for weeks. The president has a growing credibility gap as a result (unless he can manage to sell people in the next debate on this caricature they painted of Romney). America is probably just going to tune out anything else Obama and Co. say about Romney, and just listen to Romney while he continues to shine.

Romney bullied and lied; he left plenty of material for the Obama campaign to use against him. His idea of economic wisdom is to give everything that the special interests want to the special interests and $crew the rest of us. He may have won a debate, but so can liars and ideologues so long as they take over the debate.

As usual he contradicted himself even to the extent of using the oxymoron 'clean coal'. I have always thought of coal as a dirty form of energy, something to be used at most sparingly.  His style of government would be just like his style of business -- My Way or the Highway.

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This is not a boxing match.

[J. J.]

Look at the CNN numbers. 67-25 is not like any recent incumbent loss in the 1st debate, except for 1992. It's unusually lopsided. Yes, Obama can recover, but this debate was worse than Bush-Kerry or Reagan-Mondale.

I disagree with you on Reagan-Mondale; that was far worse for the incumbent.

This was close to 1992.

The CNN poll had a skewed sample.  CBS's was better in terms of sample size.  It showed a 46% to 22% split, so I don't think it is quite as bad as it looks on CNN.

CNN had the dial gauge and there was one thing that was very important on that.  Every time Obama mentioned Romney, Obama's numbers dropped.  An aggressive Obama may be a big mistake.

[milhouse24]

I actually think Obama is a bad debater.  He's good at a stump speech.  He might be good in the Town Hall, where he can talk directly to people and answer their questions.  But for some reason, he's not good at "making policy details sound interesting" and that is one of the problems that has made his 4 year presidency so mediocre, is that Obama can't effectively communicate his "policies" in a convincing manner.  Sometimes he bores people or just confuses people. 

I'm doubtful that Obama can recover.  He was riding a media wave the past month, but since January, he has been tied with Romney in some polls.  I really think Obama had a hard ceiling at 49% and that Romney will win in a close race. 

[Oakvale]

[rockhound]

The next debate will decide it all.  If Romney wins or stays even, the race is his to lose.  If Obama continues his lies, but this time does it more credibly, he can stop the slide.

[Oakvale]

The next debate will decide it all.  If Romney wins or stays even, the race is his to lose.  If Obama continues his lies, but this time does it more credibly, he can stop the slide.

What slide?

[knyphausen]

Before Obama can recover, he has to fall and we haven't seen that evidenced in the polls yet.

[renegadedemocrat]

No scandal broke out, no crimes were committed, therefore there's not much "recovering." Mitt won the debate, but Obama played it safe, didn't say anything stupid, and lost in a non disastrous matter. This won't change the course of the election, and if Romney were going to jump ahead, it would have been done either with his VP pick or RNC. He failed to do both. A vast majority of Americans are decided and won't change their minds. I don't think this debate is as harmful as many think.

[opebo]

I actually think Obama is a bad debater.  He's good at a stump speech.  He might be good in the Town Hall, where he can talk directly to people and answer their questions. 

No, the thing is he can be good when on the stage alone or with supportive whites, because then he's just a black guy saying something, and he can be judged simply on what he says.  When he's in a debate, he's in direct opposition to a white man - and both he and the white man can be seen, and his blackness is evident to white voters, and the white man's relative whiteness.  This is all it takes, it doesn't matter what they say, as long as the white man isn't raving or something (though on the South raving might actually play even better).