Posted on 10/04/2012 6:00:25 PM PDT by Hotlanta Mike
The man who went to school with both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney and predicted the president would "smoke" the Republican nominee says he is dumbfounded by Obama's poor showing in the first debate.
"I'm surprised. I was shocked, actually," Sidney Barthwell, a district court magistrate in Michigan who attended Cranbrook with Romney and Harvard Law School with Obama, told The Daily. "That was not the Barack Obama I’ve seen through the years. I’m thinking the man might have had the flu or something."
Barthwell, who has remained friendly with both candidates over the years and is staying neutral in the presidential race, said earlier this year that he expected Obama to dominate in the face-offs.
“When they debate, Barack will smoke Romney,” Barthwell, 64, told The Daily in May. “Mitt Romney is smart,” he said at the time. “Having said all that, I still think he’s going to get smoked. The best he can do is hopefully come out not looking like a fool. Mitt will find out the hard way as soon as they have their first debate: You don’t debate Obama.”
Barthwell, the only black graduate of Mitt Romney's 1965 class at Cranbrook Schools, the prestigious boarding school in suburban Detroit, said Romney's former classmates have been pulling for the president.
"There’s been a lot of emails going back and forth between people in my class. The vast majority of them are very supportive of Barack and not Mitt Romney," he said. "It’s surprising to me because Cranbrook was a very conservative type of place."
Thursday, Barthwell said he barely recognized the president who appeared on stage at the first presidential debate this week in Denver. The Michigan man said his former law school classmate seemed out of it. "You never see Barack looking down all the time," he said of the president's performance Wednesday night, widely panned as lackluster, at best. "He was actually stumbling over his words. That was not the real Barack Obama in my opinion."
Barthwell also said the president was unusually reserved, even in the face of full-on attacks from Romney - a possible sign, he suggested, of Obama's acute awareness of the politics of race. "It’s possible he doesn't want to appear to be the angry-black man type," Barthwell said.
And the magistrate said it's likely that Romney -- who he described back in May as "not an athlete," "not a student leader" and "not a scholar" -- was simply better prepared for the debate. "Mitt Romney is a smart guy," he said. "He must have prepared for this debate and it was obvious."
mara.gay@thedaily.com
:: Mitt will find out the hard way as soon as they have their first debate: You don’t debate Obama. ::
Yo! Sid!
Here’s where you failed...the common understanding of “debating” Obama means, you get called a racist.
Homey Mitt don’t play that.
It was easy for obammy in 2008 when he could speak extemporaneously on how he would save everything and GW was the devil. Now he has a 3.5 yr undefendable record to defend. Ain’t so easy.
At no time has Obama proven to be a good debater.
No, he has been a Master Debater this week.....
Doesn't matter, as long as they can spin it as Obama was just "off his game". The debate was about the economy, and Obama can't win that on his record. They've successfully made the news about how Obama blew the debate because he just had a bad night, not because he just flat couldn't defend what he's done for the last four years.
I think it's entirely possible that the debate about the economy was intentionally up first, so Obama would "flub" it, and be able to come back strong on debates about other subjects where his record is easier to obfucate. I don't believe for one minute this isn't being coordinated between the press and Obama's campaign.
(No pun intended)
He’s a black guy. He knows the rules. If a black guy is running, you vote for him nothing else matters. He’s just playing dumb to make Romney look worse.
***That was not the real Barack Obama in my opinion.” ***
Was he kidnapped and replaced with a FUTUREWORLD replica?
He’s saying he went to high school with Mitt and law school with Obama.
“I’m thinking the man might have had the flu or something”
I’m thinking a big dose of talking points was the cure all for whatever was ailing the man.
Call me a little skeptical unless I'm missing something here.
Just curious,did Sam Snead play in a golf tournament in Detroit 65 years ago?
“So Obama couldn’t respond to Romney because he didn’t want to appear to be the angry black man type.”
Does anyone else notice there seems to be a pattern lately with the campaign and the MSM pushing the ‘angry black man’ concerns?
obama tape (paraphrased): The ‘black man’ feels pushed down - experiences a quiet riot within - when he’s reached his limit (obama losing?) then he loses it and riots for real.
Tweets: Published tweets from after the debate of (supposedly) black people saying if obama loses the election, they’re going to do ______ to whites (fill in the blank).
obama: Rich people are for non-violence. They don’t want people taking their stuff. (As if that’s somehow an odd thing).
Today I’ve read different accounts of people excusing obama’s debate loss as not wanting to appear as an ‘angry black man.’
Too much to be a coincidence IMO. Anyone else notice?
In my view, this meme is all part of the media's effort to paint anyone critical of Obama as a racist.
“In my view, this meme is all part of the media’s effort to paint anyone critical of Obama as a racist.”
Definitely so, but it seems to go further than that to me - in a thuggish, thinly veiled threat type of way.
Who dressed that guy, Stevie Wonder?
Holy smokes, after 5 years we finally found a guy that remembers him from college....
The guy is 64 and Obama is 51 so how is that possible?
I'm thinking this is one of those "We went to different schools together" moments......
A black man prefers the black candidate?
I’m shocked, shocked.
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