See my two previous posts.
0bama actually is going to win this hand. We should have called his bluff and let him give his little speech.
He is now going to have a hayday swatting down the republican front runner AFTER THE DEBATES.
The front runner is going to be lucky to get a 30 second sound bite post 0bama’s speech.
There’s no possible way he can swat down the front runner or even those at the back of the pack.
He has no ideas of his own and can’t even articulately express those fed to him by his handlers. I think the press will try to cover his verbal and mental lapses (since his speeches are becoming more embarrassingly ignorant every day) and make his response look better than it is, but in reality, he’s left playing catch up.
If, instead, Obama resorts to a petulant snipe-fest in which he tries to score debating points against his potential 2012 rivals - he will turn off a huge share of his audience and confirm for many what they already think of him - that he is shallow, partisan and non-Presidential.
Now, it is certainly not out of the question that he will make such a huge mistake (given his equally huge ego), but I would be shocked if his political advisors (David Plouffe, Valerie Jarrett) allowed it. Instead, look for a nominally even-handed "let's-all-work-together-for-the-greater-good" kind of speech, peppered with occasional hints that the GOP needs to agree to meet him halfway.