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Momentum Shift in the Final Stretch
CNS ^ | October 25, 2012 | Ben Shapiro

Posted on 10/25/2012 9:12:49 AM PDT by robowombat

Momentum Shift in the Final Stretch

By Ben Shapiro October 25, 2012

President Obama was on the ropes in the polls after the first presidential debate. After the second presidential debate, he hit the mat in the polls. And after the third presidential debate, he looks to be down for the count.

The question, of course, is why.

Looking at the debates alone doesn't tell the full story. Romney surely won the first debate — in fact, he cleaned President Obama's clock — but in the second debate, he fought President Obama to a draw. And in the third and final debate, which centered on foreign policy, Romney pulled his punches.

So just what happened to change this race from an Obama blowout in late September to a substantial Romney lead in late October?

The American public got serious. And President Obama got unserious.

In any presidential race, the candidate who is perceived as steadier will generally win. Jimmy Carter blew the perception that he was a steady hand with his "malaise" speech and his wild attacks on opponent Ronald Reagan. Bill Clinton, despite his personal foibles, made Americans feel steadier than the flailing Bob Dole. George W. Bush looked like a steadier and more trustworthy leader than the king of flip-floppers, John Kerry. And in 2008, Barack Obama seemed to be more even-keel than the wildly gyrating John McCain.

In today's race, there is one candidate who seems steady, whose presence calms voters. And there is another candidate who seems petty and vindictive, who wanders from odd slogan to odd slogan, who attacks his opponent relentlessly. The former is Mitt Romney. The latter is Barack Obama.

That's what has been on exhibit for the last month. Mitt Romney continues to press home his case on Barack Obama's failed economic plans. He continues to make his case for a larger vision of American power in the world, especially by boosting our economic competitiveness.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama minimizes issues. The candidate who promised us that he would heal the planet in 2008 now can't see beyond his teleprompter.

If Mitt Romney wants to talk about cutting spending, Barack Obama wants to talk about how Big Bird will get hurt. If Mitt Romney wants to talk about our failures of security in Libya, Barack Obama wants to talk about how the deaths of Americans are "not optimal" and "bumps in the road." If Mitt Romney wants to talk about our military readiness, Barack Obama wants to talk about whether we ought to cut bayonets.

Obama is now channeling Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Blvd": "I am big. It's the campaign that got small." But in truth, Obama isn't big. He never was. He was the "Wizard of Oz," hiding behind the curtain provided to him by the media. All of his promises meant nothing. What does it mean to heal the world? What does it mean for the waters to recede? What does it mean to provide hope and change?

It means nothing. And when Obama put his big ideas into action, all the American people saw was petty infighting, gargantuan new webs of bureaucracy, and a president left blaming his predecessor for all his problems.

Obama's presidency reflected his poverty of ideas. Now his campaign does, too.

A small campaign means an unstable campaign. When you're forced to jump topic to topic, debating inconsequential ideas with gusto, your campaign seems to swing unpredictably back and forth. When you're discussing Romnesia one day and binders the next, you're losing.

A big campaign, by contrast, has big themes. Obama has no themes because he has no record and no second-term agenda. Romney has themes: economic growth through tax cuts and less burdensome regulation, a foreign policy based on a stronger military. Because he has themes, he seems steady.

And that's why he will win. None of this is going to change in the next two weeks. Obama's record will not suddenly allow him to become an ardent advocate of his own job performance. And he won't come up with any bold new plans — he has nothing left in the tank. The ball is in Mitt Romney's court. And the American people know it.


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2012polls; mittmentum
I hope Shapiro is correct. Romney seems unlikely to make the sort of foolish statement Mourdock did the other day, which i fear guarantees the donkies the Indiana senate seat. Republicans seem to have a propensity for being too honest about heartfelt beliefs such as M's that are just poison to some large parts of the electorate.
1 posted on 10/25/2012 9:12:50 AM PDT by robowombat
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To: robowombat
The American public got serious. And President Obama got unserious.

All of which is HUGH!

2 posted on 10/25/2012 9:21:07 AM PDT by Gamecock
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To: robowombat
Obama is now channeling Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Blvd": "I am big. It's the campaign that got small."

Couldn't resist the visual....LOL!!!


3 posted on 10/25/2012 9:21:47 AM PDT by thingumbob (I'm a bitter clinger...I dare you to take my gun)
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To: robowombat

And now that Obummer in his desperation called Romney a bulls****er, that will lose even more of the female vote...IMNSHO.


4 posted on 10/25/2012 9:22:30 AM PDT by copaliscrossing (Progressives are Socialists)
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To: robowombat

About those debates. Seems that Obama was wearing a wire in the second and third debates. Just who was Romney really debating?


5 posted on 10/25/2012 9:23:15 AM PDT by allendale
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To: robowombat

People in Indiana have heard over and over the context of Mourdock’s remarks played on all the local radio/TV and it won’t change the vote here. FR used to be so full of informed people, what happened?


6 posted on 10/25/2012 9:24:07 AM PDT by Naplm
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To: Naplm

Unfortunately context or not women go crazy over this sort of thing. Husbands aren’t likely to inquire to closely on this matter and if they do they will get an earful. A man saying a woman shouldn’t be able to abort a rape pregnancy produces pure unadulterated rage in a majority of females. It shouldn’t perhaps but it just does.


7 posted on 10/25/2012 9:27:24 AM PDT by robowombat
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To: robowombat

You’ve been brainwashed. Stop living in fear of the MSM. Mourdock is not losing IN.


8 posted on 10/25/2012 9:38:10 AM PDT by snarkytart
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To: robowombat

I don’t see what you discribe playing out in Missouri/Akin.

I would really like to see more support for conservative candidates, instead of the piling on the media narrative. Like McCain, he wants an apology to keep his support. Really? No one that ousted Lugar for Mourdock in the primary gives a flying shit what McCain ask for in trade for his support. McCain types are the problem.


9 posted on 10/25/2012 9:39:36 AM PDT by Naplm
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To: snarkytart
I hope Mourdock does win. Unfortunately many, perhaps a majority, of women think with their hormone driven emotions , not logic. Most men who have been married or in a serious relationship know this instinctively due to the irrational nonsense and crazy anger they have been exposed to by their wives or women friends over a disagreement over something, that to a man is simple and clear cut.
10 posted on 10/25/2012 9:57:32 AM PDT by robowombat
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To: robowombat

I understand what you are saying, honestly I do. He should have gauged his response a bit different. Reality being what it is and the full context of the remark being out there now, stop the hand wringing and support and defend these candidates
with whatever you can muster. Mourdock is a true tea party conservative and deserves our defense.


11 posted on 10/25/2012 10:05:04 AM PDT by Naplm
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To: copaliscrossing
The truth of the matter is ?
Obama can call Romney anything he wants.... it's one thing to call someone a bull crapper, it's totally another thing when that person ( Obama ) is a bull crapper himself and the people know it.
12 posted on 10/25/2012 10:14:54 AM PDT by American Constitutionalist
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To: thingumbob

Creepy...


13 posted on 10/25/2012 10:15:26 AM PDT by American Constitutionalist
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To: robowombat
Romney responds to theOne's blaming his predecessor for all his problems
14 posted on 10/25/2012 10:17:37 AM PDT by Sgt_Schultze (A half-truth is a complete lie)
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To: robowombat
You can hear it in the candidates voices. Romney's calm and optimistic. Obama's losing his voice and making petty attacks.

That hints Obama knows he's on the verge of losing the election.

15 posted on 10/25/2012 10:34:37 AM PDT by newzjunkey (Osama's dead... and so is our ambassador - Coulter.)
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To: newzjunkey

Correct-Obama knows he has lost the election.


16 posted on 10/25/2012 11:11:43 AM PDT by fortheDeclaration (Pr 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation:but sin is a reproach to any people)
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To: robowombat

41 MILLION Plus Tea Partiers are preparing to vote.. NOT for Obama..

None of whom has ever been polled..

They will vote for Romney and virtually anybody with an “R” by their name..


17 posted on 10/25/2012 11:45:33 AM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole..)
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To: Naplm
I have personally contributed to Akin’s bid after the GOP led by that weasel Prybus tried to excommunicate him. However, the real terror his remarks invoked among the party hackdom (Ann Coulter in a remarkable meltdown blamed him months before Nov 6 for costing the GOP the Senate.) does touch on an inconvenient truth, to borrow a phrase. It is toxic to be really candid about all of ones social views if one is a committed traditional Christian and a Republican running for office. Both Mourdock and Akin are what most of the Potomac Circus performers never were, men of real honor and principle. Unfortunately in the morally and ethically skewed society today one does have to hide some part of ones light under a bushel in order to let it shine brightly upon being elected.
18 posted on 10/25/2012 12:19:02 PM PDT by robowombat
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To: American Constitutionalist
The truth of the matter is ?
Obama can call Romney anything he wants.... it's one thing to call someone a bull crapper, it's totally another thing when that person ( Obama ) is a bull crapper himself and the people know it.


That will play well with his base but not the general reasonable undecided voter. I wonder what the cretins in the DUmp are saying about that comment? I'm too far away from a shower to go over to the DUmp and look. Perhaps later.
19 posted on 10/25/2012 3:25:23 PM PDT by copaliscrossing (Progressives are Socialists)
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To: robowombat
This is what I predicted would happen. Three GOP senate candidates for reasons unknown got into the rape-abortion thicket and all lost. There are topics that anyone with a grain of sense will not touch and have a smooth non-answer ready if someone tries to entrap them. Mourdock should have won and didn't largely through the female vote. Romney won in Indiana.
20 posted on 11/07/2012 6:59:35 AM PST by robowombat
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