1. When Obama took on the Republicans at their conference in Baltimore, it was the whole room against him. He gained points for toughness because it appeared that he held his own against an overwhelming number of opponents. In this setting, Obama was one of the entire panel, thus lowering himself to the position of simply being one of the combatants.
2. Obama's poor speaking ability is amplified when those on his side also talk with a lack of coherence. Again, when he was by himself, people cut him some slack on this because he was against the whole room. Whoever decided to bring some of those 'old veterans' to this discussion should have their credentials revoked.
3. By making it a SIX HOUR event, the opportunity to get bogged down was a foregone conclusion. Make it a one hour event and things move along pretty snappy. By committing to a "thorough airing", Obama guaranteed that somewhere along the way, someone would say something ridiculously stupid. He just didn't expect it to be him.
4. Serious misjudgement about the actual points of discussion. Sob stories are a great way to humanize a discussion; however, they, in and of themselves, cannot be the entire discussion. Mix in a few facts, even if they're wrong.....
Massive failure on so many fronts. Poor decision making, petty attitude, no leadership, lack of foresight and unpreparedness.
Good analysis and great points.
It’s mindboggling that out of the six hours, Obama hogged three hours for himself.
Excellent points, TexasNative2000!
Obama was also unprepared for a very prepared and co-ordinated GOP. He stuttered and stammered and had to resort to rather rude behavior. He should not have tried to make it quite so informal either. Calling the senators and House members by their first names was not a good form.
Obama also hogged too much of the time. As it turned out, Obama had more time than the Republicans were given altogether nd the democrats had twice the time of the Republicans.
LOL @ the sob stories. The denture story will remain a classic, but the others were run of the mill and totally out of place.
I think the GOP did a grand job and apparently that’s the consensus. It’s up to the democrats now, just like it’s been from the start.